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When it comes to real estate in Beenleigh and Eagleby, there’s one name you need to know: Benjamin Waite. As a trusted expert with deep local knowledge, proven results, and a passion for helping clients succeed, Benjamin is the go-to agent for sellers, buyers, and investors in the region. Worth the Waite is more than just a podcast—it’s your insider guide to Beenleigh's property markey, offering valuable insights and strategies designed to position you for success in the property market.
From understanding local trends to maximising your property’s value, each episode equips you with the tools and knowledge you need to make confident Real Estate decisions. With a friendly yet professional approach, Benjamin shares real-world advice, stories, and tips, making complex real estate topics accessible and actionable. Whether you’re planning your next move or simply want to stay informed, tune in weekly and discover why working with Benjamin is always Worth the Waite!
Looking to stay ahead in the Beenleigh and Eagleby property market. Want to get local insights from someone who knows this community inside and out? Then you've come to the right place. I'm Benjamin Waite, and welcome to Worth the Waite Beenleigh and Eagle Bee's Local Property Podcast. Where we'll be diving into everything you need to know about real estate right here in our beautiful region.
Hello and welcome back to Worth The Waite, the podcast that gives Beenleigh and Eagleby locals the real insights they need to buy and sell smarter. I'm joined again by Benjamin Waite from LJ Hooker Beenleigh, and today we're breaking down. What buyers should really be looking for when inspecting a property.
Now, whether you're buying your first home, upsizing, or investing, we're gonna share a checklist that'll help you spot value and avoid costly surprises later. Ben, welcome to the podcast. Hello. Good morning. Good morning still. Yes, it is. Just, it is fantastic. Alright. Home inspections. Mm. So, you know, open homes, everyone turns up, they have a wander around.
Yes, they have a look. I wanna start by asking, do most people know what they're, they should be looking for?
Different people are looking for different things, right? They are. Um, every buyer has the homework phase, so a lot of people, and it sometimes can be frustrating to us because we obviously want to want to work with people who are ready to pull the trigger there and then Sure.
Uh, but, um, but I respect the fact that people have gotta do some homework and, and work out, you know, what they like and what they don't like. And there's only one way to do that. And that's to get out there and just look at a whole heap of stuff. It's like buying a car. You need to test drive it. You can't really test drive a home, so you gotta kinda walk through.
Um, different homes and see how they look and feel and the street looks and feels. So, uh, yes, you definitely need to, um, need to, you know, you can't really try before you buy, but have a look before you buy and you need to look at a few. Sure. I suppose where, what, what things you kind of wanna, wanna look at?
Um, I suppose the first thing is you need to know your budget.
Yep.
There's nothing worse than going and falling in love with a home and then realize that you can't afford it. Um, and that happens quite often. A lot of buyers will come through and Ben, I love this home. And then we talk about, start talking about price and they just don't have the capacity for the price.
So how, how do they avoid that when there isn't a price listed? You know, when, you know before they, they do turn up. There is no way of. Because that does happen, doesn't it? Yeah, a lot. A lot of times. A lot of times.
Well, actually, so realestate.com have done a lot of surveys and, um, 76% of buyers are frustrated with no price advertised.
Absolutely.
I'm a, I'm an agent and I know, and I still get frustrated. It's annoying. There's definitely, there's tactics and strategists as to why agents do it, of course. Um, sometimes I don't necessarily, or I don't adopt those strategies. Um. But, uh, but I, they, they exist. Um, I think probably before that even happens though, I think you need to understand your own financial circumstances and what a rough budget is.
Yeah. Because there's no point in going car shopping. Or laptop shopping. Or phone shopping if you dunno what you can afford.
No, that's right. There's no point walking into the Ferrari showroom when you can, uh, you can afford a, a
Corolla. That's right. Yeah. Um, so that is a recipe for frustration and it can already be quite a frustrating or emotional or a heightened, you know, experience.
So we, we don't want to unnecessarily maximize that, that emotion or, or frustration. Right. So speak to a broker or bank. Yep. Sort your finances out. You don't necessarily need to be pre-approved, but, and pre-approval essentially means that the bank has assessed all of your payslips and savings and all that kinda stuff.
And they've given you conditional approval, conditional upon evaluation. That's, there's, we've had another podcast around that. Yep. Yep. Um, so you don't necessarily need that level. If you're speaking to a broker and brokers are, I personally recommend a broker 'cause they can, you know, look at all banks products.
Yep. Not just one bank's product. Yep. But if you speak to a broker, they're experienced. If they give you a bit of a ballpark, um, then that's a, that's a reasonable starting point. Yep. So I, I'm happy with that. Um, if I was a buyer,
well, while we're on this, while, while we're on this topic, when should. A prospective buyer who's just turned up to the open home.
You are there looking a million bucks as you, as you, as all agents do when you, you're there at the, uh, at the inspection. Larry will get you everywhere. Adam. Thank you. When should, uh, they come and talk to you about, uh, about price before, after what, what, what do
you recommend? Um, I, I'm happy to chat anytime, uh, a lot of the time.
Sometimes I, well, quite often I'll speak to people and they're just. Spitballing ideas, and I'm more than happy to do that. Um, there, look, we are thinking about upsizing or downsizing or buying something. Um, what, what are some of the prices for some general suburbs? Um, and that might then kind of go, all right, well maybe it's worth.
Going down the route of speaking to a broker.
Sure.
It's a hassle. You gotta get your paperwork organized. I get that. It's a hassle. So, um, a good agent in a local area, and you kind of pick which area you kind of like, have a chat to them, get a rough idea of what prices are happening. Um, so at least then you can kind of, you, you can, you've got, you can go to the broker with a goal.
Yep. A rough goal. And the broker will be able to say yes or no. That's a pretty good, that's a pretty good fork in the road, right? Yeah. Perfect. Um, that would be, if that was me, that's what I'd be doing. Absolutely.
Alright, so a, a prospective buyer turns up, what are some red flags that might not be say, immediately obvious to a buyer?
At a quick, quick inspection that they should potentially be looking for. What could you miss if you're just in and out?
Yeah. So what's going through my head is, um, building in pests and, and not so a building in pest inspection or report will highlight and is designed to highlight all of the stuff that is not.
Um, visible to the naked eye. Right? Or to the trained eye. Right. That's the point of why we get it. That's to show the box. And we have
done a whole episode on that spot on which you should have a listen to. Yeah.
So if there's not one available, if there is one available, speak to the agent and download it.
And I think, um, and have a look at it. And I think you could even do that in preparation to your inspection. So if you wanna cross it off your list straight away, you can, um, just. Be mindful of those reports are deliberately there to show every single fault in a house. Yep. And there are genuine red flags and no deals, and there's a lot of them that it's just general wear and tear and quite normal for a house of, of that age.
So just be aware of that.
Sure.
I think when you're walking through a home, and again, untrained eye, and I'm not a trained eye by, by any means, I'm not a builder or anything like that, or inspector, but, um, but I've seen a lot of homes, so, and I have seen some, some commonalities between, you know. Problem, problematic properties.
I think there's four main areas that I would like to look at and have some understanding of as a buyer. Sure. Drainage is one. Okay. So if we can make sure optically that just water seems to flow away from the house.
Yep.
That's a pretty good rule of. You really don't want ponding at your slab or a ponding underneath the pool, underneath your house.
It might be on stilts. You don't want ponding underneath the house for obvious reasons. It's gonna trap moisture and moisture with, with long-term moisture with wood is never a good thing. No. Um, so drainage is always really good. Um, you're not always gonna have downpipes that are connected to legal points of discharge.
And I'm not, I'm not, you know, hugely worried about that as long as water is flowing away from the house. If you've got a, um, a property, and again, I'm not a builder, but if you've got a property that you know is kind of sitting there and your house is in, in the middle here, you're still gonna have water coming to the house.
If it can kind of flow around the house or through, um, and away, that's kind of what you want, give or take. Yep. Um, and you can, but that's
good advice that I think not many people would, would. Generally think of,
have a look at something like that and a plumber can help out with all that stuff. That's their, that's their game.
Yep. Um, I think another one is retaining walls. Is a big thing. They're not, they're not as scary as what maybe people, um, initially think they can be expensive. Anything under a meter doesn't need, um, is my experience. Doesn't need to have any engineering. Right. Um, a landscaper, um, can kind of do that. So they're not a huge issue.
But, um, um, a lot of, a lot of stuff with retaining walls will be. Um, drainage again. So if there's an adequate drainage to, you know, when the water's kind of hitting the retaining wall, is it kind of sitting there or is it gonna get float away? Yep. Um, or trees is a big one with retaining walls. So be mindful of the trees.
Yep. Um, or root systems. So retaining walls is a good one just to be aware of. Um, and then being timber as well. Um, timber's not gonna last as long as concrete or steel or stones. Um, the, the other ones, um, are going to be, um, probably. Not be able to, you know, not be seen as a naked eye. So moisture in walls is gonna be a big one.
You're not gonna know, you're not gonna, you're not gonna know.
But that's where the building and piece correct comes in. Yep. Sure.
Um, and again, then they're not always a bad thing. They're actually quite an easy fix. I'd probably guess, I reckon half, maybe even slightly more than half of all the properties I sell have got some sort of moisture in a wall problem.
Right.
And a plumber can fix it. And often, often it's only hundreds of dollars to fix it. Yep. So not as big a deal
as maybe you might think. Okay. What about walls, ceilings, and floors? Anything there that could give you a hint of, of bigger problems? Sorry.
The one I've mentioned, four things. You did hold that for just the la the very last thing is a pretty obvious one.
That's pests or termites. Yep. So, um, you can kind of have a look at mudding. Yep. Um, and go. Just Google termite mudding. It's pretty visible and you'll be able to work it out. Sure. Um.
Right. Okay. In there. So walls, yes. Ceilings, floors. Anything there that you could spot that might be a giveaway to a bigger problem?
Yeah,
so settlement cracks is a pretty typical one. Whenever I'm going through a house, uh, for the first time, I'm always looking in the corners. Yep. Corners of the room. Corners, um, the ceiling as well. So a lot of the time in the new buildings, they've got expansion joints in the ceiling to allow for the movement.
'cause houses move, soil moves. That's just normal. Yep. Um, so settlement cracks aren't a big issue and they're not a deal breaker by any means. It's very, very normal. But, um, if you've got, uh, like, you know, cracks in brick work, there's obviously a little bit of movement going on there. Um, settlement in, um, like again in the cornices and also if there's no expansion joint a, a lot of the time where you have the.
Um, typically the house will have the living area and the kitchen area is quite a big area on the slab. Yep. Um, and then you're gonna have kind of a, a pinch point, which is typically where the hallway is. Yep. And then the rooms start to come off the hallway, which is again, another big, you know, expansive area in the, in the slab.
So usually those two big areas will be shifting and that's where they put the expansion, join in, because that's gonna be the weak area. Sure. Of the house. And again, that's all structural engineer type stuff, way beyond my pay grade. But, um, but I find that that's always a pretty good, um, place to see. Um, any that's, anything that's kind of quite big.
And also maybe with paint, it'll, like, sometimes they might freshly paint it over, but if it starts to bubble or if it looks like it's rippling, okay, um, the paint, then that's, then there's some movement there. Again, it just, it's just an area to look a little bit further into. Yep. It might not necessarily be a No deal.
Yep. Just, it's just something to explore a little bit further. Sure.
Here's, here's one for you. What do you see people looking at adding inspections or even asking about. Regularly. That really has no impact on anything. Is there one, uh, well, you just think, why do they always look at this? Why do they always ask me this?
It actually has no effect on, yeah. Is there anything there? I, I'd probably
say easements are one. Yep. So like stormwater easements, like on your back boundary. Okay. Um, there's, I know there's a few cultures that are just, uh, just can't deal with the easement and I'm, I, I haven't, I haven't actually explored, you know, culturally why Yep.
I feel that the Chinese market are very big on, no, they just don't want an easement. Okay. Uh, it doesn't, it, it doesn't impact the value. So if it's, if it's running through the middle of the block. Yes. Yep. But vast majority of easements, and they're quite common because an easement is essentially an area within your title that is reserved for access by somebody else.
Sure. That's ultimately what an easement is. Yep. Typically it's gonna be a, um, it's gonna be council and it'll be a council asset, like stormwater or a sewer pipe. Yep. Most of the time they're gonna be on the rear boundary. Yep. Or in the road. So depending on, and sewer and stormwater typically will be gravity fed.
So depending on how the block's going. If the block is kind ofri, if you're driving from your road into your block down, then gravity's gonna take it to the back fence. So you're gonna have an easement along the back fence. You can't build within a meter and a half of a boundary anyway, or two meters depending on the offsets.
Mm-hmm. So it's, it's kind of a moot point. You can't build a boundary. So yes, you can't build an extra meter and a half. I think it is, depending on the council within it. Within a, um, uh, an easement as well. So you kinda lose a little bit of access, but I've never, we still sell anything with an easement. We still sell just as strongly as, as without an easement.
Um, again, those stormwater and, and stuff on the back, on the, on the rear boundary. So that's probably one that I don't see a big issue in.
Yep.
Uh, a lot of people kinda get worried about, um. That's probably the biggest one. There's a lot of other little, little nuances, but different people like different things.
Of course. Yeah, of course.
How many, uh, how many people wanna come back and have a second look and is there, is there a need for that? Do, do you pick up things a second time that you don't on a, on a first inspection?
Uh, so a lot of the, well, in the current market, you don't have time. No. If you, if you are Waiteing for a second inspection, it's sold.
Yep. Uh, and I, I get that, you know, it's a big purchase and it's a big decision and you want to make sure of it, but, um, you just don't have time. We've got six offers, 10 offers on the first weekend. Yep. Um, that won't always be the case, but it's been the case for about five, six years now. Mm-hmm. Um, so. Yeah, you just, you just don't have time.
So if you are, if you are slow to make a decision, you will miss out. And I've seen many, many people miss out just because they, and either analysis paralysis or they're just really, they're just really, you know, overthinking it. I do find that where, um, you've got. The, you know, one decision maker shopping and then they've gotta get the other decision maker through.
Yep. Again, that hurts you because you just don't have time. Well,
a, a tip there obviously then is if at all possible, well have both decision makers go when you, when you go, because otherwise you, you, you're a big chance of there's of missing out.
There's also a technology around that. Do a video. We do video walkthroughs deliberately.
We do them like quite raw. With the phone. Yep. So that, um, it's a genuine video Sure. And it's not too polished or not too edited. Mm-hmm. Um, so you've got your photos, the floor plan, the video. Um, yeah. You, you definitely wanna get both decision makers or all decision makers through, so you can make a, an educated decision.
Um, that would be a big, um, a big, um, a big thing that I would suggest. 'cause it's a busy market. Yeah. Yep.
Absolutely. Alright, final question. What would be your number one top tip then for somebody? Um, inspecting a property, I
would say that we're a, a good agent is going to set up and craft a property. To capitalize on first impression.
Yep. So, a, a fantastic, um, cognitive bias called the Halo Effect. Yep. Where we essentially, if you've nailed, um, a very strong first impression and the subsequent, um, you know, events in that experience are subpar. When you go back to recall that experience because you've had a first impression, you, you are framed in a positive mindset.
Yep. Yep. So you forget the negatives of that event. Right. Right. But if, and, and then the flip side happens, so I put, as, when I'm marketing property, I put a lot of emphasis in that first impression. Yep. In property, there's three first impressions. In my experience, it's the drive approaching the, the, the house.
Yep. A lot of that's neighborhood can't really control that street. Yep. Sure. Street appeal, that kinda stuff. The second is the approach to the front door. And I believe we've done a podcast on this. We have, um. Approach to the front door. So that's where the landscaping of the front door and that approach comes.
And then the third and final nail in the coffin will be upon entry to the home. Yep. So, um, that's great. And I use that, you know, to my advantage, um, when structuring or, or, you know, kind of structuring an experience. Um, but. On a buyer, it's strong. It's good to be aware of that because then you wanna make sure that you actually really take note of the rest of that experience.
Sure. Um, I, I, I find some really, um, you know, studious buyers will take notes. Yep. I can't argue with that. Yep. I reckon that's a great idea. Sure. Because then you can genuinely swap notes, um, at the end of the day. 'cause you, you would've seen maybe five or 10 houses on one one day. Yep. Um, so they're all kind of blend in.
There's also some really good, um, again, psychological, uh, biases around primacy and recency effect where you kind of, your brain remembers the first. Um, thing and the last thing and the other, the rest of the, of the middle just blend together.
Yep.
So you, you, you want to know how your brain works, so then you can kind of, obviously capitalize on that.
But I would say when you're walking through, um, try and remember the details a lot of the time. We'll also, I'm giving away our tricks here, but we also, um, we'll stage properties to distract you from the potential imperfections of a house. Sure. As well. So if you walk into an empty house, there's nothing else to see.
Yeah. Apart from the imperfections, you're gonna follow the line and you're gonna see the crack or whatever. Yeah. So, um, in a staged property, you just kinda look at the, the furniture. And the furniture is designed to take your attention. Yep. Um, not mis, not, not to be misleading at all. It's just, it's just, it presents the show.
It just presents the story a little bit better. Makes sense. Makes sense. So just take a little bit extra, um, you know, time when you're walking through the property to look past that.
Fantastic. Alright, so look, if you are heading out to property inspections around Be Lee or Eagleby, I hope today's episode has given you a, a sharper eye and maybe a smarter checklist to take with you Ben's knowledge of local properties and what buyers need to look for is second to none.
So if you'd like some support or even a second set of eyes on a property you're serious about, get in touch with him at LJ Hooker Beenleigh, or head to Benjamin Waite. Dot com au And of course, don't forget to follow the show for more real estate tips every, every fortnight, because when it comes to property, it's.
Always worth the the Waite. Perfect. Thanks Ben. We nailed that one. We did.
Thanks for tuning in to Worth the Waite. If you enjoyed the podcast, please be sure to share with a friend and don't forget to hit that subscribe so you won't miss an episode and all my local property tips, updates, and insights. Until next time, I'm here when you need.