u/OkRepresentative6065

EDIT:: it’s a minor leak behind shower

A house I was interested in has come back on the market. The agent called to say the previous buyers pulled out because they weren’t happy with the building & pest report. Apparently the owner is now rectifying some of the issues... electrical issues have been fixed, and plumbing issues are being looked at in 2 weeks.

The B&P report was done by the previous buyers, so I don’t have access to it. I am planning to submit an offer subject to B&P anyway, but I don’t really want to spend another $500–$800 just to find out there are major issues, lose a deposit and overpay.

What questions can I ask the agent to get a better idea of what was actually wrong? Has anyone had luck getting useful info without seeing the report?

Also if buyers pulled out over the B&P, is this something that gives me room to negotiate a lot lower or do agents usually downplay the issues? House is in NSW if that matters.

Ok, I feel like an idiot and I just need someone to break this down simply for me.

I thought property investing worked like this:

Save money → go to bank → get loan → buy house → live in it for a bit → rent it out → use equity → repeat → build long-term wealth.

But the more I read about negative gearing, CGT, tax changes, etc… the more confused I get.

What I want to do is buy an older house, fix it up, live in it for around 12–18 months, then rent it out and eventually use it as a stepping stone to build equity and keep moving forward. I didn't know you could even use negative gearing as a tax benefit thing (lol) and I literally just wanted the property to build a bit, I was happy to cover the amount that rent wont cover for the mortgage... I've already budgetted that for when I was planning to rent it out eventually but would that just make it useless? have I been looking at it all wrong?

I’m second guessing everything. Is this actually still a valid strategy for building wealth in Australia, or am I misunderstanding how it all works now?

I’m not trying to game the system or anything, just trying to set myself up long-term for future stability (and hopefully help my future family too).

Would really appreciate someone explaining it in simple terms, because my brain is currently fried... I feel so stupid right now. I have a preapproval in place with a guarantor and now I just feel like have i missed out?

Does anyone else get extreme FOBO (fear of better options) when house hunting? I’ve put an offer in - it was a house with very little interest and it had been on the market for about two weeks now I went and saw it twice. It’s got four bedrooms one bathroom, it needs some slight upgrades and I’m trying to think of more long-term for rent and holding the property and then selling it later.

The issue is every time I find a property that seems “good enough,” my brain immediately goes:
“What if something better comes up next week?”
“What if I overpay?”
“What if this isn’t the right suburb?”
“What if prices drop?”
“What if I settle and regret it?”

To make it worse, my family keeps telling me they think it’s a bad time to buy, that we’re probably heading into a recession, housing prices could drop more, and there’ll be more/better houses on the market if I just wait. But is that really the case ?

Now I feel completely stuck between:
wanting to finally get into the market
and being terrified I’ll buy right before something better comes along or prices fall

The hard part is I know there probably isn’t a “perfect” property in my budget, because everyone is getting bought out but everyone saying to wait has me feeling like if I wait just a bit longer there might be something better and now I just feel like it’s not going to be worth it.

Has anyone else dealt with this while buying their first home? How did you actually know when to commit to a property? Any advice for getting out of the constant comparison spiral? Do I even listen to family saying this? I feel like I listen to everyone telling me to wait and wait and wait and in the end probably prices have become crazy anyways but will there really be much more?

I’ve been saving for almost 5 years and have been actively trying to buy for the last 4 months. I’m on under 80k working in the NFP sector, and I’ve got a guarantor because I couldn’t borrow enough through the FHB schemes, i have a good deposit behind me. I finally have pre-approval in place… but every single time I go for a property, I get beaten by someone else.

I genuinely don’t know what I’m doing wrong. I don’t really have anyone I can ask for advice either - most people around me are already established and don’t seem to think it’s as hard as it is right now.

Has anyone else felt completely stuck trying to find a place lately? It feels like barely anything is being listed, and when something does pop up it’s either gone immediately or way out of budget.

I’m starting to feel really stressed and a bit defeated, like I’m missing something obvious.

I was originally set on buying a house, but now I’m considering a townhouse instead. Has anyone else made that switch and actually found good value?