John McGregor
But as spring rolls over, people have just been waiting for their houses to be able to you know, presented its best buys of what it you know it tenants don't like to move through them into winter months either. So there's just naturally a lot more activity that happens through this, through the course, this, you know, through this time.

Aaron Horne
All right, guys, welcome back to the Property Pod, your weekly engagement into real estate here in the Hobart marketplace. I'm your host, Aaron Horn. And as always, I'm joined by superstars of real estate here in Hobart, Patrick Berry and John MacGregor. Welcome back to the table bully.

Speaker 5
What an angel.

Aaron Horne
Tell me about it. Yeah.

John McGregor
I was right on the verge of being a grind and I'm here always.

Aaron Horne
Now I look, I felt the the vibe halfway through. I'm like, I'm going to make it. I'm going to make a one shot wonder so yeah welcome to the well the table how we feel in our.

John McGregor
Time to the moon, baby. I'm excited. My kitchen's finally getting installed at Arena, which is taking obviously far too long and cost more than we, you know, plan for. But it's happening, which is very exciting.

Speaker 5
That's everything in the building industry.

John McGregor
John Pretty much exactly.

Aaron Horne
I found it interesting the other night at the Investor Seminar where you were talking about kind of, you know, you had your place and you thought, I'll give my client or my tenant this long lead in to find a new place. And they found something the very next day. So it completely backfired on you. And but it opened up for you to have to get into make the plans and get everything started on the rhino.

John McGregor
Yeah.

Aaron Horne
But that was a a while ago.

John McGregor
I mean there are many ways those that the plans were already there with the framework of what we're going to do, but no one could really start there to November. So I was sort of for months anyway, so I just had dead space.

Patrick berry
Alpha.

John McGregor
Flowering. Yeah. But you know, I devoured not just 24 hours that just, just.

Patrick berry
To.

Speaker 5
Sort of be the Good Samaritan.

Patrick berry
That you.

John McGregor
Completely exploit.

Aaron Horne
So what's happening with the kitchen? Give us a rundown. Give us the the visual picture. Paint a picture with your words about what's happening with this kitchen. What was it and what will it become?

John McGregor
So originally it was an L-shaped kitchen. And as you know, smaller, right? Yep. But what we did was we did the typical ripped down that wall that connected the lounge room to the living room. So I just got this one long connected space now. Yep. And then we cut a hole at the back of the house and put it into two doors.

Aaron Horne
French doors.

John McGregor
French doors, glass. And then what it will be is just will be nice. It's a three meter island that stretches right down the middle and then the left hand side. Then you've got all your other cabinetry that connects it. So starting from the at the front, there's the pantry, then the centerpiece where the oven is going to be and then the fridge and then it'll pull out just a little bit.

John McGregor
And then we've actually got the internal laundry connected to it as well. Okay. Yeah. So it's all, all, all blossom white, it's cold. So it'll all sort of just hopefully just disappear into the room and and then there's some dark features on the above the oven space. So I think there was like a dark gray. So to try to keep it neutral, modern, but have a couple of little.

Aaron Horne
Bits, little splashes.

Speaker 5
No McGregor tartan, no covering on TV.

John McGregor
Like I did. I did get it quite up.

Patrick berry
And it's that Splashback McGregor understood.

Speaker 5
What a statement face outrageous.

John McGregor
Yes, it was. But now it's all come together. Even just caught up with the lads yesterday to just step in the islands a little bit. We measured that out a little bit more. So it was quite nice because once we did the final design with them on like the last Thursday, we went, Yes, this is going to be we've hit it.

John McGregor
Yeah. So it was it was a really nice feeling. It's been a long, long, long time coming.

Aaron Horne
So when you say the laundry's built in, he talking like you're paying your bills. Yep. So it's not a room it's not connected in. It's just literally maximizing space.

John McGregor
Yeah, absolutely. Because where it is actually is where the separate laundry well used to be. That was a hot water cylinder there. And then the laundry is connected to it. So hell is it tiny little attachments to the back of this house. Completely wasted space. Yeah. So we actually reclaimed a bunch of the Baltic pine floors in throughout the whole home.

John McGregor
Yeah, but because we're putting carpet in the bedrooms, we reclaim some of the pine boards from the air, from the bedrooms and then relayed that down into the kitchen space. I was able to connect all the floors again. Nice. Where we ripped out the walls and the floors it stuffed but where the but there's but there's still some it looks pretty rough on that side.

John McGregor
But because the counter is going to go right at the top of it, it doesn't matter. Yeah. Yeah. So then what we've done too is the other diyer changed my mind. I ripped off all the skirts throughout the entire house where it had the like the the wooden ones which, you know, a great for the time, but it ends up being cheaper to replace them with what you know, the ones you can buy now and then paint them once rather than the paint having to do three coats around the entire home.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, for sure.

John McGregor
But because we had most of it was all modern looking and he still had this, you know, this 80 sort of feature that.

Aaron Horne
I'm right in the middle of that at my place where debating. So I was like, Oh, but I like this and I will change this. And I'm just like, Yeah, but like, yeah, it's got the modern white, like, let's just get the prime stuff. And rather than.

Patrick berry
The rest of.

Aaron Horne
Why he's here, it's, there's the hours has even got the, the power points. You used to be in the actual skirt. And so there's a bunch of like holes that I don't like masking taped up. So the mice come.

Speaker 5
To find out it's cold. I can't do that. It's no draft going.

Patrick berry
Through his house.

John McGregor
So all that stuff of good nick. So it'll all be recycled, but for the house because a lot of it had been ripped out of the main areas anyway and it can't replace it. Well, you just have all these different rooms with all these different parts and stuff. It let's just, let's just go back to, you know, make it all nice and nice and clean.

John McGregor
And we've come this far. Just finished off now.

Aaron Horne
And then what what's the goal at the end? Is it to live in this or is this to rent out and continue to as an investment property?

John McGregor
It was it was originally it was just going to be it wasn't until, you know, met my current partner where it evolved a bit more because I'll be staying in it for a little bit longer. So that's why, like, we've spent a lot of money on a kitchen. The bathrooms are nicer than they would have been. It wasn't just like a little start up to be in a good condition.

John McGregor
You could say, Yep. So now we'll probably be in there for 2 to 3 years and we've got to get ten house design on the back of that block which the with 90% through. But realistically it's going to take 12 to 18 months.

Aaron Horne
To then build that.

John McGregor
On that actually even start anyway. Yeah. So then once that's done we'll move into the back ten house and then ideally rent out the front provided we can keep it in the finance and stick up cycle.

Aaron Horne
Which yeah, like obviously last episode we spoke about having a plan and and then sticking to it. But I guess like it's a matter of having a plan and then being flexible enough to be like if the numbers stack up in this way, yeah, now we're going to change our plan and be like, Oh, we can't actually get the townhouse built in the time period that we want.

Aaron Horne
We're going to be sinking costs into renting. So instead, let's live on this from bad boy. We'll do a little bit extra to make it comfortable for this period of time. Yeah. And Bob's your uncle.

John McGregor
Oh, looking a bit financially. If you're looking for investors perspective, it doesn't make sense, you know? But what it was then, both of these were more so that, you know, we're looking for us to enjoy that lifestyle and those properties. So that's that basis for that little, you know, for that one little development.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, yeah. Oh, look. And there's like there's reasons for A, B and C and you can kind of be trying to balance the checkbooks across all boards. But yeah, you've got to live somewhere as well. Yeah. Yeah. And ultimately it's you're renting with your mates, trying to have a relationship, maybe kids and stuff on the horizon.

John McGregor
So it's, it'll be nice to have the house.

Patrick berry
Yeah, we'll.

John McGregor
See that.

Aaron Horne
Indeed. Indeed. What's happening in your world Patrick Barry we've got the John update.

Speaker 5
You know, a huge amount, to be honest.

Aaron Horne
Your plans for your place are coming together.

Speaker 5
Yeah, we've been working with our architect, and he's just doing up plans and they're looking pretty.

Aaron Horne
Set out to set out to the toy blog himself. Sam Bresnahan.

Speaker 5
Yes, I had another phone call with him last night and went back to him and all the amazing design elements and the concepts and the reasons why it has to be like this squashed 50% of.

Patrick berry
It's.

Speaker 5
Even though on paper and like it has to be that way. We went back and said can we make all these changes against these suggestions? So you know, you pay an expert in architecture and then yeah, tell him that he's wrong and ask you to fix it all.

Aaron Horne
Now like, well, you guys are dealing with that all the time. Like get giving advice, you know, by this time, by that, like this is your best option.

Speaker 5
Too bad we didn't go back with too much stuff was just a few little things that and now more trade offs between Abby and I to make sure all of us were happy. Yeah. Was like, well, I really like this. And Abby hated it, but she really liked a different element, so we sort of swapped. So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5
It's kind of coming together quite well. It's looking really.

John McGregor
Good. I think that's a good way to roll because if one of you is allow the other something that they hate, you'll always resent it just a little bit. Yeah, it's got to be that way. We both agree 100% cent Yeah.

Speaker 5
So our biggest challenge now is, you know, we've hired an architect to design the property and architects have creative ideas and maybe those creative ideas a little bit more than what we were brave enough to build. Yes, I'm was saying last night, well, you know, we can make some of these changes, but then you're really just paying for an overpriced metricon homeowner.

Speaker 5
Overpriced? Oh.

Aaron Horne
What an argument.

Patrick berry
Well, fine. Oh, no, it's just.

Speaker 5
Like, you know, it's up to you.

Patrick berry
Like. Yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 5
So three conversation that we came to a happy medium and he's going to make some amendments to hopefully get it to where we want it to be. So yeah, we're excited, but yeah, it's amusing that he was happy to make the changes if we wanted to go back to a plain old Jane.

Aaron Horne
If not well, play Pres. I look at the joys of living with Perez while we're at uni, while he was training and doing all these architectural design and environmental design and stuff and the things I would be coming in telling me like, Oh, I got to bounce off this and do this, and I'll be like, Holy moly, who thinks about this stuff?

Speaker 5
But yeah, that's been crazy.

Aaron Horne
Not it's, it's, it's really, really in-depth and really interesting. And yeah, as he said, you can have a run of the mill home or yeah they braver I've never known the barriers not to be brave and to push the envelope.

Speaker 5
Thing on it but had compromise had to happen. So happy wife, happy life they say.

Patrick berry
Well the good.

Aaron Horne
News is none of our team members are on this episode.

Patrick berry
So I say.

John McGregor
Well, at least, you know, even when it's, you know, it looks amazing. All that makes sense. But you can if someone looks at the planning, go, but I'm just not going to use it for that reason.

Speaker 5
You got to live in it.

John McGregor
Well, then it's going it will. Then it's pointless.

Speaker 5
So you've got to be able to say how you're going to live in it and make sure it works for you. So yeah, there are other things that we just changing, but we're just looking at some small things that we do on the daily and thinking done. Does that really work or do we just need to tweak? But now Sam's been really good about it.

Speaker 5
Yeah, he was telling me last night that, you know, the changes we've requested are so small to some of these clients, some of his clients, he gets to this stage where renders are all built and we're basically 90% there and then they pivot in 180 degree direction and wanting to cut half a house to pieces. So, yeah, he wasn't worried at all by our one and a half pages of suggestions.

Speaker 5
Yeah, yeah. He's like, It's nothing compared to what some of my clients do to me.

John McGregor
So it's not like you said. Oh, anyway, change. Changes. So we bought another block. Yeah.

Patrick berry
Yeah, we hate this block.

Speaker 5
So yes, I know. It's been really fun working with him and working with an architect because it is a different experience to to design with somebody that knows, oh, oh yeah.

John McGregor
Even looking at you plans, I'm like, God, I never would have even been able to conceive that, you know? And that's what's really exciting.

Speaker 5
You see the 3D renders, they look pretty impressive already. Yeah. Yes, I know. It's exciting times. E that. No it is slippery when we're all.

Aaron Horne
Right in a sign or something.

Speaker 5
You know. Anyway, no one seems worried. Look. Yeah. So exciting times, really happy to keep pushing forward and we'll see where we end up.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, well, speaking of exciting times, it's an exciting time of the year. Things have changed. We're in a state of change currently. You see that? We previously were beanies. Now we're going to hats on. Yet the sun is out, the sun is shining, spring has sprung.

Speaker 5
More is about to come in.

Aaron Horne
It's kind of coming to blossom. That actually there's down on West Street where I'm will walk the dog that is by now the tree that is just like come to life with all this pink and like is what past is like. Holy moly I love this time of year. Yeah, it's so good. I never thought I'd be a guy that would stop and appreciate.

Aaron Horne
Stop and smell the roses. But stop and appreciate this magnolia.

John McGregor
Tree makes a difference, isn't it? Yeah. Like from, you know, buying and selling everyone. This slowly starts to get in a bit more of an aspirational I like, oh, things are getting better you know.

Speaker 5
You feel an eyesore though, like last night it was 6:00 and I was fixing my barbecue so I could fire it up for the first time and God knows how long it could take and why.

Aaron Horne
I was I was out digging a hole. I've got a a leak under my driveway, which I've got Jackson and Cooper working on today, but they're like, Oh, look, if you can dig the trench for us, that'd be way easier cause you're hopeless. So I'm out there and at 630, dig these trends, and my little son Jack's like, Daddy, what are you doing?

Aaron Horne
Digging a.

Patrick berry
Hole. Exactly.

Aaron Horne
But at least he can be doing that. And then obviously daylight savings is kind of coming around. But what I what we've been trying to talk about for two weeks of recording is let's get into spring has sprung and let's talk about kind of what that means for the market. I know you say it's like a really active time, John, and I'd love to go into kind of why that is and what that means for buyers and sellers.

John McGregor
Well, the one of the statistics that grab from real estate dot com was and they or the product that they released or probably tracked is that they noticed that in terms of price growth is it the the the most and most intense growth happens around the last quarter so that October, November, December those those three months. Yeah. And then that coincides absolutely with the volume of sales and activity that goes year on year.

John McGregor
So what that will mean is it, you know, obviously cycles will change where the bloody bang bang is.

Speaker 5
So that is what's going on.

John McGregor
It's a lot of this clanging, the record setting from the storage field down anyway. So, you know, obviously year on year we might see volumes go up or down with a larger, you know, the larger market. Yeah, but through the year, spring always ends up being your highest turnover and the highest growth if there is to be any.

Aaron Horne
So I guess what I'm really interested in is the kind of state of the market at the moment feels like it's in a bit of a lull or like it's kind of changed or correction is kind of what we've been calling it. Yeah. What do we think is going to happen in this like next world period? Like, I know like you can't make a crystal ball.

Patrick berry
Up.

John McGregor
When we had that investors not we ask that question is look who thinks we're in a rising market. No one put their hands up. And so if that's a reflection of what everyone feels, that's, you know, again, the larger proportion that people probably couldn't control. But as spring rolls over, people have just been waiting for their houses to be able to, you know, presented its best buyers of what it you know, it tenants don't like to move through with them into winter months either.

John McGregor
So there's just naturally a lot more activity that happens through this, through the course, you know, through this time. So we may find that properties that we've had a hard time moving through this winter and the one one of our clients, we're just advising it. Look, let's just take a break. You know, the problem is because it's cold, you know, it's just the house is there's nothing about it that screams, I want to live here during winter, so let's wait when there's more activity, you know, give it a give it a refresh and maybe we just start to get that activity that you need.

John McGregor
Yeah. And just, just because of a change of season. Because, because it presents better.

Speaker 5
I think there's that notion too that people love the idea of being in a new house for Christmas. Yeah. So okay so now you can sell said old move and be ready new place before you know that Christmas.

Aaron Horne
Fresh start kind of Christmas and new.

Speaker 5
Year and you know then you get to enjoy the house through the summer. Yeah the summer is the best time in any house like, you know, family barbecues in the backyard and you know, being outside, kicking the footy lot, there's so much more enjoyment in the house in the summer months than there is in the winter months.

Aaron Horne
So yeah, you're kind of taking advantage of all the other aspects rather than just buying. Yeah.

Speaker 5
So I think if there's people out there that have got homes, we've outdoor entertaining areas or backyards that really scream amazing by spring is the perfect time to sell because the garden comes alive like and people can start to think, oh wow, we up by this Christmas at our place would be awesome in the backyard with a family coming round and those type of conversations start to happen.

John McGregor
Hang on with that. Clients at Dodgers, they they've been doing all the prep work to effectively launch things at the tail end of September that we're planning for. So that right into October, like you've got, you know, the perfect season for them to start going. Everyone's revisiting it. People are going down there visiting friends like I could I could experience this lifestyle.

Speaker 5
Well, I mean, I had Christmas last year, didn't I. Just very in a caravan. Yeah. And we had seven days down there. We commuted back here to work each day and went back them during the nighttime. Yeah. And overnight we were walking the dog on the page. You know, kids are in the home life and love it down here.

Speaker 5
I mean, I could move here.

John McGregor
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 5
And then I remember it's, you know, 50 minute drive to work every day and that's for that small window of time. I fell in love with that little lifestyle that summer.

Aaron Horne
And and as you said, doing that in summer, you can kind of. Yeah, like get home from work and do that little beach walk where you get home from winter. You're leaving in the dark. Coming home in the dark you're stuck in. Yeah, well, you'd be in a caravan, but if you lived down there you just stuck in that kind of.

Aaron Horne
Yeah. Different kind of lifestyle. Yeah.

Speaker 5
Yeah. So I definitely see the advantages of spring and why people flocked to sell in that. Yeah, it would just be interesting to see how this year goes.

Aaron Horne
So yeah. So I guess where I was trying to angle before was like in your previous experiences when you've gone through lows in markets and stuff, does it still kind of work itself out into like spring still is I kind of arise or do you still kind of find like a it's probably going to just sit where it's not.

Speaker 5
In any market in spring. There's still more activity around it, but more activity in a quiet market versus a busy market is just reflective of what's happening at the time.

John McGregor
That's the thing. And that's where you taking that trends over a longer time frame. And then when you shorten them down, it's still say, well, look, within that 12 month, it's still going to probably be more active, see more activity than we did in winter. Yeah, because that's just what happens every year. But then year on year was probably less than what was last year and less than a year before.

Speaker 5
And I think, you know, interest rates have been on topics for a lot of people now. And I think as we record today, they're announcing potentially another interest rate rise. But I think people are starting to accept that is what it is. Yeah. Like I don't think people are as stressed anymore as what they potentially were. And I think people have accepted that, you know.

Aaron Horne
It's kind of leaving itself out to what it.

Speaker 5
Was.

John McGregor
And they were in a position to be able to meet those requirements and mortgages.

Speaker 5
Yeah, sorry. I don't think we'll see those interest rates be as painful as what they we thought they were going to be. Yeah, I think all we'll do and people need to accept that is that with the interest rates increasing, people's borrowing capacity will be slightly less. So potentially they can pay slightly less for a home. But like we always say, if you're buying and selling in the same market, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 5
Yeah, because if you sell your home for slightly less, you'll be able to buy another home for slightly less. Yeah. So it all works out in the wash. The only people that struggle are the ones that are moving marketplaces that, you know.

John McGregor
Yeah. Like moving interstate or, you know, retiring or getting work.

Speaker 5
So I've got friends in Rocky at the moment and that marketplace is going off. Adelaide's another one that's going on. If you're moving from Hobart to Adelaide, for instance, that's where you might struggle. Yeah, you're selling your home at a cheaper rate, moving to a market where it's accelerating.

John McGregor
So yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5
That's the challenge for the people at the moment. So anyone that's staying here I think can go on their business as normal.

Aaron Horne
So the only other question I had for buying and selling in spring before we kind of finished was we're talking about like the market gets busier, more properties come on board. Does that make it trickier to sell because you've got more competition like to compete against.

John McGregor
It would I would say that you've also got higher levels of buyer activity.

Aaron Horne
Like I saw yet even though there's more properties there's probably more buyers to go around those more properties.

John McGregor
Exactly. The the the only caveat to that would be if three houses that are all average get listed in the same street at the same time, you.

Speaker 5
Just got to make sure you've got the best of the three. Exactly.

John McGregor
And then, you know, you might be a little bit more aggressive in your pricing strategy. Just say that you're the most attractive option in that moment. Yeah, but yeah, it just it's matched with more properties and more buys.

Aaron Horne
Yeah, cool. I was just trying to, I was just picturing as we were kind of going through the ups and downs, I was like, Oh, but if it's more properties like then how's my property going to stand out? But I guess that's why there's lots of kind of ways that we can look around.

John McGregor
And you can make a case in any direction, you know, like you could if someone's debating over the windowsill in winter, you might say, Well, look, now's a great time to do it because there's less competition on the market, you know, than if it's in spring. You could discourage them to do it because it could be more competition on the market, you know?

John McGregor
So you can swing it both ways.

Speaker 5
So so you just manipulate your clients to whatever that's like.

John McGregor
You know, you want to be careful with who you chatting to. Sometimes they might have an ulterior motive and they can sell you in a direction that might not be suited to you, but that's where you know, again, it's always that thing is you make you buy and sell when it's most appropriate for your lifestyle. Not trying to pick the not trying to pick the pick.

John McGregor
You could say.

Aaron Horne
Why, what? What's your thing? You know, I've got one of your sayings in my head. Do you know the one I'm trying to think of now?

John McGregor
The problem is I just.

Aaron Horne
Don't try and play the market and have the market play it or something like that. That one. Oh, he's got it. He knows there's something there.

John McGregor
I know there's something there.

Aaron Horne
I know I've got one of these saying somewhere there's something.

Patrick berry
And he says.

Speaker 5
He's looking through the filings and.

Patrick berry
It really just.

John McGregor
Outcomes.

Aaron Horne
That are there. There's one in this. Someone can find the audio clip.

John McGregor
Of it, go back to the office and.

Patrick berry
I'm sure.

Speaker 5
He's got a file next to his daily schedule.

Patrick berry
It's on his.

Aaron Horne
Dialog. I love spring. Spring is probably look, summer is awesome. You get to the beach to do the things, but spring is kind of that new life. Everything is kind of happening again. And as you say, you go for the walk and I'll say the technology trends. I think, oh, bloody hell, yeah, long nights, here we come. So I really like spring.

Aaron Horne
I'm excited to see what's going to happen from here. Perhaps looking at me like I'm a ghost.

Speaker 5
No. Next week's episode sponsored by Spring.

Patrick berry
They hit them up with that sort of endorsement. Oh, I.

Aaron Horne
Remember when I brought the Apple.

Patrick berry
iPad.

Aaron Horne
Looked fairly sponsored by spring. It's a cracking story. I've got a lot of energy. I'm actually heading up the East Coast this evening to go through to a wonderful property in Dolphin sand. So this is kind of your perfect spring summer retreat. So I'm excited to get out and about and do that. Would have been a lot tricky to do in winter.

Patrick berry
Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. Cool.

Aaron Horne
Spring has sprung.

Speaker 5
Spring is awesome.

Aaron Horne
Anything we want to close off with now?

John McGregor
I think the one you're thinking of was a time in the market, not timing the market.

Aaron Horne
That's the bad boy. That is what I was thinking of. Doesn't really equate to.

John McGregor
Do it, but I think that's what we're.

Aaron Horne
Doing now. I think you should make an announcement about don't let the market play you. You play the market. Oh, there you go. You think about that. I trademarked I own every time you use it. I'll have five since.

Patrick berry
It's sponsored by spread.

Aaron Horne
All right, guys, that's probably par for this.

Patrick berry
Way to say.

Aaron Horne
I'm going to say it like my. You have been listening to the property, both recorded and edited by 414 media house in conjunction with four one for property code.

Speaker 5
This podcast is general information only and the thoughts of views expressed is the opinion of our panel and listeners should always seek than use their own investigation into any topic we discuss to ensure they fully understand their own situation.

John McGregor
It does not constitute and should not be relied on as purchasing, selling, financial or investment advice or recommendations expressed or implied. And it should not be used as an invitation to take up any agent or investment services. No investment decision or activity should be undertaken on the basis of this information without first seeking qualified and professional advice.