The medical profession is one of the most demanding. As such time spent outside of work is valuable and can either be consumed by further study or simply sleeping. When the day (or night) is done, the last thing you want to be doing is searching for a property right?
Seek Independent Financial Advice First
Before you start purchasing, probably even before you start organizing finance, it’s a good idea to sit down with an accountant/financial advisor to set up a path for the future. The important thing to consider as a medical professional and this is probably targeted more toward those seeking to do a specialist role or allied health professionals is commercial property. If you are considering purchasing a commercial property later, ensuring you have a sound property and financial structure can ensure you don’t have complications with tax or liability.
I strongly advise you to speak to a financial advisor and accountant that specializes in working with medical professionals. A couple I can recommend that have worked with my clients before are
Maxim Advisors – Steve Roxby
McGregor & McGregor – Brendan Nabb
Robards Wealth Management – Andrew Robards
Loan Structure
While on the topic of outsourcing, essentially what the title of this article should be, seek finance from a number of lenders. This is best done through a broker or medical specialist lenders. Many within the medical profession can access great loans with 90% loan and no Loan Mortgage Insurance. A good broker should be able to source these lenders out for you.
Once you’ve worked out finance and then what kind of property you want or need the next step is to decide whether you have the time or patience to do it.
The Property Search
Searching for a property is both time-consuming and frustrating when you are trying to fit it in around your busy work schedule.
Not only that, if its your first time buying, you haven’t bought in a long time or not bought in Newcastle, its can be quite daunting. While at work, each person has a role or specialty. If something is outside your wheelhouse, you refer it on to someone who has that skill set.
This is where having an experienced professional buyer’s agent assisting you with your property search can help you stay focused at work and give you some precious time back when you’re home.
Another way that having a buyer’s agent helps leverage your time is when there is a property to see but you can’t leave the hospital or your office. Most buyer’s agents can call you via a video call or record it for you so you can see what they are seeing rather than a stylised version polished and presented online.
In the past, I have picked up clients and taken them to appointments or dropped off keys/contracts to them at work. This has saved them from having to leave the hospital and potentially their car space.
What does a buyer’s agent or buyer’s advocate do?
A buyer’s agent will help narrow down the search and select properties that best fit your criteria. Or even make suggestions you hadn’t considered. A bit like House without the opioid dependency.
How do they do this?
- Monitoring the market – 100-200 properties a week come to market in the Greater Newcastle/Lake Macquarie Region. Domain, Real Estate & social media are the most common sources.
- Approaching sales agents – keeping contact with agents most active in the area search brief
- Marketing – using social media or other methods to reach potential sellers directly
A good buyer’s agent should be able to narrow down properties quickly and efficiently without the need to be inspecting every property on the market. In most cases, I can rule out a lot of properties simply based on their address and my knowledge of that location.
Once a property is identified that meets the brief, there’s a fair bit of due diligence involved behind the scenes. This can be quite detailed and rigorous. Sometimes a property can be really exciting then after a few searches it becomes a write off.
Some of the tools I use
Nearmap – subscription service with up to date and accurate high resolution mapping.
Corelogic (RP Data) – subscription property data service
Pricefinder – Same as RPData but has better mapping functionality
Council Websites – flooding data, development applications etc
NSW Planning Portal – a one-stop site to check zoning, mine subsidence among other things.
An experienced professional buyer’s agent will have worked with a number of medical professionals, especially in Newcastle where the sector employs the most people. The person you engage should be the one that manages the process, inspects the properties, shortlists and negotiates the outcome. While its great to have a support team in place and everyone has to start somewhere, you don’t want to be the guinea pig. A wrong property purchase can cost a lot more than the fee that you pay to a lazy or underqualified buyer’s agent. People don’t leave university then start performing neuro surgery the next day, it takes time, practice and skill.
Things to Consider When Buying (if you do decide to go it alone)
If you do decide to go it alone, here’s a few things to consider. There’s tonnes more but this is a start.
Location
If its your first home or you’ve forgotten how many times you’ve moved, location is unchangeable and does most of the capital growth.
Where will you be working?
How long is the commute at the time of day that you’ll be travelling?
What schools are in that area?
What’s the demographic like?
What’s the long term plans for the area? Eg. increase density, public transport, major infrastructure
Property Type
House, unit, apartment, townhouse or villa? What’s the difference?
Do you have time to maintain a huge yard with landscaped gardens?
Is the apartment complex popular for short term letting?
Practicalities
This is probably my strongest suit. There’s a lot of things I notice with properties that my clients miss.
Aspect – how sun is going to be on the spaces you spend the most time in? What about during different times of year?
Position of main bedroom – are you going to be able to get good undisturbed sleep whenever you need to?
Parking – is there adequate parking in case you do finish a long shift and need to get home to hit the pillow
Questions to ask a buyer’s agent or buyer’s advocate?
Ask – who does the search, inspections and negotiations?
Check – how long have they had their license for? Does that match what they say is their experience level? To check a property agent’s licence click here
Testimonials – video are obviously the best as they are hard to fudge but ask if the testimonials can be verified or are they related parties to the agent. Some inexperienced agents may start by helping friends and family which are less likely to provide a negative view.
How can they best deliver value to your search?
Quite simply, doing better than what you can do yourself. Is this person that is going to charge me a lot of money going to having me feeling I have been shaken down? Or will you be confident you have made a sound investment.
To find out more about the difference I can make to your property search, reach out today call 0438 502 371 or use the booking link to organise a chat.
