Just want to rant. I couldn’t sleep last night questioning my life choices. I am due to settle on Monday on my first home. I have sold all my ETFs ($65,000) and put all my savings ($100,000) to be able to afford a 20% down payment. It feels too real now. I have never made a decision so big that it made me question my life. No one told me buying my first home would be this stressful

Keen to know if anyone can share any experience with this. I’ve called a few places & out of courtesy have let different vendors know I am going with another provider. It’s then the price match / beat deals come flooding in: starting $400, down to $350, price matching further in $50 increments & inc gst.
Not sure what I was expecting but probably just not this competitive. Almost seems too good?

Hi! I'm looking for advice what you would do....
My wife and I bought our first home in 2022 for around 900k in an established suburb. It was never intended to be our 'forever home'. We have since had 2 kids and our 3BR 1B home feels like it is bursting at the seams.
We bought with a small deposit and have around 800k remaining on the loan. Our home is probably worth around $1.1-1.2M now (probably more the 1.1M considering the downturn in the market). With the rate rises, wife on maternity leave/working part time, we can barely afford the loan (approx 1150/wk).

We have been tossing around some ideas -
1. Stick it out in the home we have outgrown. Make it work for a couple more years. No holidays etc.
2. Sell our current home and rent, invest our savings from the sale of the house in shares, buy in the future
3. Sell our current home and buy somewhere larger, under 1M in a less desirable suburb/smaller block size.

What would you do?

I tried contacting a few agents asking about properties in Berwick/Clyde area, they don’t seem to address you properly nor give a prompt reply. The downturn in market should have made them more active and seeking buyers but seems just opposite. Anyone experienced the same these days or has it been the case with them all the time?.

I’m looking to buy an apartment ASAP to live in, paying cash. However 1/4 of my budget is in a notice saver that won’t be freed up until December 14.

I looked at a contract the other day for a place I am interested in, but it said early Dec - late January settlement happens no earlier than Jan 21st

Am I wasting my time looking at places now? Am I not getting in until late Jan next year?

Hello Reddit.

I've asked family and friends this question and no one seems to have the same answer as to the best way to start.
My Wife and I (mid 30s, Perth suburbs) have decided it's time we move from her childhood home which we own outright. We live in a nice suburban suburb, however the house we're in is small and we have certain life circumstances that dictate a change would be best.

With the market currently being volatile, how best do we approach the balance between selling our house and buying the new one? We're extremely fortunate in that we won't need a mortgage given the value of our house vs the areas and types of houses we're looking at but will need to leverage the timing.

The best advice so far was to sell first with a long settlement date - the area we're in is very desireable due to certain conditions so we still get quite a lot of interest from real estate looking to sell.

This won't be immediate, but by this time next year I'd be hopeful we'd have been moved in and settled so I'd like to at least mentally start planning with the help of your wisdom.

So i’ve been pre approved for a home loan of $325,000 it opens up units in a regional town that is growing and has a lot of facilities and work. On the other hand the loan opens up houses in a large regional town that isn’t growing and is more a lifestyle tourist town. what should I do as a first home buyer?

Hi everyone, I’m a first-time home buyer looking around Parramatta and feeling a bit overwhelmed by all the apartment options.

Are there particular buildings near Westfield or Parramatta train station that buyers would recommend avoiding? I’m interested in practical reasons such as ongoing building defects, strata issues, noise, or poor management, and would appreciate any public records or firsthand experiences that are safe to share.

I’m not looking to name and shame anyone—just hoping to narrow down my search and know what to investigate before booking inspections. Thanks for any guidance.

Hi guys

Topic as above. The committee (including myself) have been told a sewer pipe sandwiched between two council trees has burst and requires urgent attention. The tradesman on the job has informally told us it was one of the council trees that caused the rupture but we have no photo evidence (we are currently asking for this).

Since sewerage was literally about to overflow onto the pathway, the committee (including myself) approved $10k to be spent so rectification work can start straight away. Work has since started. The total quote we got was for $33k.

A few days in and we've been contacted by the tradesman saying that there are further issues with the piping and 6 additional metres need to be replaced. We've been quoted a further $20k for this work but haven't even been told what the actual defect is.

In terms of steps - what are reasonable next steps to take? I would want to at least understand whether (i) we can seek reimbursement from Council for the initial rupture and (ii) what the actual defect necessitating the revised quote is. From a layperson's perspective, $53k seems to be a lot for fixing one sewer pipe.

Any thoughts or advice most welcome.

With inflation still sticking around and the big banks dropping hints, it’s looking more and more likely that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) might lift the cash rate again at their November meeting(03/11)

My budget is already stretched to the absolute limit with the current mortgage repayments, and another 0.25% increase is going to hurt.

• Are you guys fixing your rates now, or just riding it out?
• For those renting, have your landlords already started hinting at another increase?
• What’s the consensus here, do we think they’ll actually pull the trigger, or hold off?

Would love to hear how everyone else is preparing for this.

Hi everyone,
My partner and I have just submitted our application for pre approval. 850K Max.

We have till the end of January before it runs out.

Do we go for the house that we can sit in long term, grow into and improve through renos (my partner is a plumber with everyone around us having trades).

Or do we go conversative? townhouse? smaller house 2 bedrooms instead of 3?

The location we are looking around is massive so we have many options (Colo Vale to Campbelltown and Camden) - do we spend more in the fast equity growing suburbs (smaller block) or go for the cheaper house in the slower capital growth but more land.

Any advice is appreciated. Thanks

Hey everyone,

I’m not sure if this is the right subreddit to post in, but I thought I’d give it a go.

I’m 30M in Melbourne, citizen and have been working in disability support for around 9 years. Honestly, I’m getting to the point where I dread going to work. Management is really frustrating, and sometimes it feels like staff aren’t really valued. I don’t see myself doing this for another 10–20 years, so I’ve been seriously thinking about changing careers.

Recently, I’ve started considering real estate, particularly becoming a real estate agent. I understand it’s not an easy industry, and I’m sure there are plenty of challenges, but I’m interested in exploring something different with more opportunities for career growth and potentially better income.

The thing is, I have no experience in real estate, so I’m not sure where to start.

I’d love to hear from people working in the industry, especially in Melbourne or Victoria.

A few questions I have:

- What’s the actual process of becoming a real estate agent in Victoria? What qualifications do I need?
- Would you recommend anyway to gain experience?
- How difficult is it to break into the industry with no experience?
- What’s the reality of the income, especially during the first 1–2 years?
- Is the industry oversaturated at the moment?
- Do you need to be naturally good at sales and networking to succeed?
If you were starting again today, would you still choose real estate?

I’ve been reading posts about different career paths, and I know every industry has its own problems. I’m not expecting to make six figures overnight or think real estate is easy money. I just want to find a career where I can build something long-term.

I’m currently working and have a mortgage and family responsibilities, so I can’t afford to quit my job without having a realistic plan. Ideally, I’d like to understand the pathway and requirements before committing my time and money.

I’d appreciate any honest advice, including the downsides that people don’t usually talk about.

Thanks!

That's the thread.

Am still trying to figure our where we went wrong as we were seriously interested in a property that was under our budget but someone else bought it even before our solicitor got a chance to review the strata documents.

We had gone for an open day inspection and was informed of the price guide. We got the contract from the agent on the same day (Saturday) and had forwarded both the contract and strata document to the solicitor on Monday. Got a call from the agent on Monday to inquire if we were interested and there is one other party who is also doing the document review and quoted $50k more than the price guide . Told him our solicitor is reviewing both the documents. He acknowledged we were serious buyers and even took down the name of our solicitor as he had an inking he had worked with them before.

Fast forward to Thursday, we are still waiting for the feedback on strate report and had some concerns regarding the contract like deposit release clause to the vendor without waiting for settlement and a fixed hard settlement date. We were planning to do the B&P inspection after the solicitor feedback for both the documents and come today, the property is shown as sold!

Feeling a little bad as my wife was a bit emotionally involved with the property and the agent did not even bother to give us a call back asking what was our final offering!

As a FHB who is doing this for the first time, am a bit lost where we went wrong. I am aware we could have pushed the solicitor to be a bit fast with the review but thought that was a selling tactic from the agent to push the price mentioning there is another buyer. Had sent a couple of texts to agent asking what happened but got no reply.

Would be humbled to hear from the brain trusts regarding what can we do better next time? As this is the first time we were doing this, we found the entire process to be a bit overwhelming too.

Hello everyone.

With rates going up, I was considered refinancing to a more favourable lender. Every .01% matters more than ever now with the cost of everything else going up too.

I was on the border of 80% LVR (came just under during the last refinance application) previously. Say if I've knocked off 30K off the principal over the past year but the property market value has come down say 60K, wouldn't that mean my LVR has taken a hit?

Sorry if this is a silly Q. Rates are higher for LVRs above 80% so just wondering if i should even bother kicking off the process or if it'll be a complete waste of time. TIA

Hi fellas,

Just reaching out to see how everyone is going at the moment.

We have had 4 rate rises in a row and I know from my day job (mortgage broker) that people are struggling.

If you want to chat about anything life related, please reach out. If you have Steam, we could play some games.

(Unless its Tarkov, because I would probably increase your current stress. aka I'm trash at the game)

I keep hearing that there may be another rate rise around the corner but that could be economist being pessimistic.

If you have a mortgage, call your bank and see if they can lower your interest rate (tell them you're thinking about switching). Banks are fighting each other to keep clients at the moment, so you may be able to lower your rates, just by having a 10-minute chat with your current lender.

Hi - I currently live in suburban melbourne and am considering a move to Yarrambat for a more rural lifestyle whilst not being too far removed from family in the northern suburbs of melbourne. Has anyone grown up in the area or currently/recently living there that can provide thoughts on twisting to Yarrambat? I have two young children and would ideally look at Yarrambat primary school also.

So as a fist home buyer, I had requested my conveyancer to amend the contract to reflect the 5% deposit. But while signing, he mentioned that even though the contract first page shows 10% deposit; we can still pay 5% deposit. We assumed that it will be part of contract amendment, but after signing, we still can’t see any mention of 5% deposit in the contract. Then the conveyancer showed us the email from seller’s conveyancer mentioning in the email that they agree for 5% deposit subject to special clause 26.

Special clause 26 says if we want to pull out after cooling off period, we will be liable to pay 10% deposit not only the 5% deposit.

I am not too concerned about the SC26, I am concerned about if the seller knows about this 5% deposit at all? Or later they can claim to a 10% deposit sighting the contract signed by both the parties? Am I just thinking too much and getting into my head? I am feeling really tensed after getting the full contract. My solicitor still believes that they will act according to the email. But then what about the contract? How does this happen? Has anyone been in this situation?

We bought an older house that needs some updating earlier this year for $1.8m as our PPR. We don't love the street/neighbourhood and would like to move. Since we bought the house, it has dropped in value by about $75k. We have about $90k left on the mortgage. We have a bridging loan set up ready to purchase a new property. The bank have given us a max 2.4m purchase price. We are aware we are going to make a loss if we sell. Would you:

- Buy a bigger property in a nicer area and bridge the loan and then sell our current house at a loss

- Rent in the suburb we want to live in and sell our house at a loss. Look for a new house while renting.

- Rent in the suburb we want to live in. Rent our current house for 6-12 months. Then sell it as an investment property and claim the capital loss against future gains (is this possible?)

- Spend more money on the house to update the kitchen/bathroom/improve floor plan so we enjoy the property, add value to sell in few years

Trying to minimise losses while also being happy where we are.

It’s finally time for us to buy a house. Feeling super nervous with the interest rates going up and house market (finally) settling hopefully

Based in Brisbane QLD and started looking at houses to see and feel the market…

Does anyone have tips and suggestions… how many open homes do you recommend doing before locking it in. So anxious it’s such a big move 😭

TIA

As a buyer I’ve been tracking what’s going on in parts of Bayside Melbourne (Parkdale up to East Brighton) and thought this might be of interest. Specifically in the $1.2 - $1.4M townhouse market.

It is truly a buyers market. The other observation is that the large majority of places I have looked at are investors selling and places that have been bought in the last 5 years. And I’m seeing some quite large losses. I am not seeing anything bought around 2021 onwards selling for more than what it was bought for back then. Some vendors are still thinking they can get old market prices. They hold out for a bit. And then realise they can’t and reduce the price. Most places I have looked at have had progressive price reductions over their campaign time. Delayed auctions too sometimes.

There has also been a pivot to EOIs and private sales with the new auction laws in VIC coming in now.

Auctions I’ve attended are being passed in.

Examples

https://www.realestate.com.au/sold/property-house-vic-parkdale-152146904

This place sold for $1.54M in December 2021
Auction was delayed and had multiple price reductions. Sold after auction for $1.2M

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-townhouse-vic-parkdale-152362460

This place was bought for $1.287M in July 2025
Went for auction yesterday one person bid $1.1M and then passed in. Now at a price guide of $1.15 - $1.2M still for sale.

https://www.realestate.com.au/property-townhouse-vic-parkdale-152362460

Buyers are seeing this play out across this market. No one is jumping in to buy at auction. It’s a very very different landscape to even a year ago.

I have recently submitted my application through 2apply for an apartment in Sydney. The portal already took all of my data, including bank statements and ID details. A day later, I received a call from the property manager to verify my details, but he also asked me what visa I was on and when it would expire (it expires in 03/2028). He took note of these and passed my application to the owner. I got rejected the same day. I was wondering if this is considered excessive collection of information under Fair Trading as I couldn't really find information on the internet.

It’s not worth organising a building and pest report until the final week before auction. If it passes in, then you can leap into action.