How to Navigate Property Valuation When Building a Home With Belinda Botxolis

Jaimi: Welcome to Home Building Like a Boss, the podcast dedicated to helping first home buyers in Perth build their dream home with ease and excitement. I’m Jamie, your host and go to building broker. Are you ready to feel empowered, in control, and excited about your building journey? I’ll help guide you with expert advice, insider tips and tricks, and real life stories to help you navigate the confusing world of home building.

Tune in as I take you on the journey to building your home like a boss. Hello and welcome back to another episode. This week I am super excited to have Belinda here with me from Advaluar and Belinda and I have been trying to catch up to this podcast for a little while now and I’m so excited to. Have her expertise on property and value, what adds value and how it works through the building process.

So thank you for being here, Belinda. 

Belinda Botzolis: It’s my pleasure, Jamie. We got here in the end. Yeah, for the listeners, you don’t know Jamie and I have been trying to tee this up for a little while. Um, and if she was in person, I’d give her a high five. High five that. Virtual high five. We made it. 

Jaimi: Awesome. All right, Belinda, would you want to tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do and how you help people?

Belinda Botzolis: Sure. So Jamie, I’m a certified practicing valuer. So I’m the valuer that comes out to your home when you’re getting finance from the bank. If you’re needing to get anything market value, that’s what I do. I used to be a mortgage valuer probably for a good portion of my career. I’ve been valuing for 17 years.

Um, probably about, yeah, long time, long time. Last year, I went out on my own and I started my own business called AddValuer. And what that’s really tailored around is a bit of play on words. I help people add value and I’m a valuer. I do floor plan reviews. So if people are building and I, and I review their floor plan and just help them maximize.

Also renovations, making sure that they’re adding value correctly. General, obviously general valuation stuff. I’m also a registered tax agent, so I help people with tax depreciation schedules. So it’s an investment, property investment advice. So it’s a real holistic property advice I give just so sometimes people feel like, I don’t know who to turn to.

Um, you know, a real estate agent might have a, you know, a bit of a bias or something, and being a professional, I can give unbiased advice.

Jaimi: Yeah, for sure. You do, you cover a huge amount of things that you just mentioned there. And I think they’re all so important for people to know and have access to as well.

Belinda Botzolis: It’s just a little gap in the, in the market that I found because value is a very much behind. the curtain behind the scene, um, they turn up, they’re doing the inspection, you don’t really talk to them, you don’t know what to talk to them about, they go back and then half the time you’re like, they, what?They valued my place for how much? And you can’t contact them.

Jaimi: Yeah, that’s true. 

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah, and we secretly love that. So I’ve stuck, as I said to you before, I’ve stuck my head out from behind the curtain. I’m like, Hey guys, uh, what do you want to know? So here I am. So Jamie, what do you want to know?

Jaimi:

Yeah. And I love that. Cause especially like when I have clients going through the process and I’m like, Oh, we’ve got a valuation issue or this has come up or that’s come up. It’s like. Oh, well, what’s that? I didn’t even know that that was a part of the process. So being able to educate clients and maybe people who are looking to get into the market, that this is a part of the process.

And yeah, you can’t get finance without valuation. And the valuation happens at the end as well. So let’s kick it off by chatting about what is property valuation and why is it important? 

Belinda Botzolis: It’s important. So I guess valuation is, is just a real. Big umbrella of just attributing what a property is worth residential, commercial, rural, industrial, uh, we value 10 centimeters of land.

So say your neighbor’s land fence is encroaching on your property and you need compensation because, you know. We have to now change the border or the boundary line. How much compensation am I getting? They’ve encroached on my land by 10 centimeters. Enter the valuer. So it’s much more than just what’s my property going to sell for if it went on the market, like you would engage a sales agent.

Their role is to sell your property. What can it sell for the role of the valuer? Is basically, so if we’re talking mortgage perspective, which most of your listeners will be, um, be the only real time that they engage in a valuer really is with mortgage purposes, 

Jaimi: right? Yeah, or mainly, or at the end of the build and then refinancing and stuff.

Belinda Botzolis: Correct. Yeah, it wouldn’t be unless the government’s putting a highway through your land and you need to get compensation and speak to the valuer. Getting a divorce, you’ll need a valuer. So there’s a lot of, there’s a, uh, Valuer has, as I said, a big broad career role or job title, I guess. Job description is the right word.

We have a big job description, but my role, uh, if I was a mortgage valuer, it is to do a valuation on the property and let the bank know what that property’s worth. Are there any risks attributed to the property? What will it sell for if it went? To market on the day of inspection, okay, in its current condition, and then the bank take that report and see if there’s any risks associated what they should know about it because they ultimately, and this is what people need to understand, they own your home, they own it, they own the deeds to the property until you pay that last cent off, and they want to know, is my, is that property going to attribute a risk?

Okay. at all to us lending it because they treat every single loan that they put out to you, assuming you’re going to default. And if you default, we have to sell it. What can we sell it for? What are the risks if it was to enter the market? And that’s why they employ a valuer. And they’re like, right, we’re not qualified.

We don’t know. You guys are the experts. You tell us. What the property’s worth. Are there any risks attributed to the property? What can we sell it for? What’s it worth on this date? So we basically give an independent unbiased professional opinion on what the market value is of the property. And just to be a little bit sort of technical, what market value means is the transaction.

Between a willing buyer and a willing seller. So I’m willing to sell my property for a certain amount, but if no one’s willing to buy it for a certain amount, it can’t transact. My job is to work out where that beautiful little equilibrium or that medium ground medium. Yeah. So, uh, that’s what market value is.

We know that sometimes you can sell for more, but we can never put a price on an emotional value, meaning that. Someone might fall in love with your home, someone might have their in laws living across the road and it’s free babysitting, right, and they’re going to pay a premium for the home. We can’t attribute that, that’s something that’s like, surprise, come auction day, um, somebody paid more for your property than maybe it was worth.

That’s just something we can’t attribute to the property. Yeah. But we do it as close to what we believe market value is, never under.

Jaimi: Yeah, yeah, that’s like a little extra bonus if somebody’s paying a little bit extra. Yeah. Okay, awesome. And how, can you explain how the valuation process works? When you’re building a new home.

Belinda Botzolis: Yes, so I’ve personally gone through this process myself However, it was a knockdown rebuild versus a green land a greenfields land meaning vacant Lot to start with and then you’re building on that for the purpose of this exercise Let’s say that you buy the land first and then you engage a builder and then you need to get the finance for the building obviously when you buy the land You need to get the land valued on a vacant possession, meaning there’s no improvements on the land.

So the valuer comes out a lot of the time we are driving around these estates for like hours. ’cause the streets aren’t on the maps yet. No they’re not. So you’re just guessing. Um, and you have to find these little timber stakes in the ground with the lot numbers in them. So half the time you’re like 1, 0, 0 5, 1 0.

Where is this? Six? Yeah. Yeah. And then you find it and you’re like happy days, you got to take photos of it. And then you just got to compare it with other vacant blocks. Easy, right? Half the time, as long as there’s enough market evidence, you put that through. Now, when it comes to your house, this is what we call an upon completion valuation.

So, you’ve got your land, let’s say, I’m talking round numbers here, uh, 500, 000 for the land and then you want to build for another 500, 000, so you’ll, uh, your security or the end product is a million dollars. Now, the bank typically don’t lend you a million, they’ll lend you, uh, whether you’re triggering LMI, lender’s mortgage insurance, either 80%, 90%, whatever that is, that’s all subject to that end upon completion valuation.

So, I’m like, well, the land’s worth 500, and these are the floor plans, and I look through the plans. Importantly, it’s not just what the house, it’s also the building contract. Jamie, I need to know what’s in the contract. And when I used to do these, I’ve done, I’ve done about 15, 000 valuations in my career.

And out of them, I reckon a good, I reckon a good two to three thousand were these off the plan. Uh, apartments, houses. Yeah. You get the contract and there’s no flooring included. Um, a lot of the builders are much, much better now. But over the years, um, they wouldn’t have flooring included, they wouldn’t have air conditioning, um, no blinds.

So a lot of gaps in this contract and we’re like, well, if this property, assuming Upon completion today was to enter the market with no flooring, no carpet, no blinds. It will have some market pushback or resistance because I want a home with carpet or floorboards. We have to read the contract and what’s included in the contract to be able to know what the property’s worth at the end, assuming at today’s date, but at the end of the pro the project, and then.

Tell the bank, yep, look, there’s about 500, 000 worth of improvements, 500, 000 worth of land, and together as a combined market value, we can justify a million dollars and we’ll put that through. Another important thing is we, uh, landscaping, driveways, fences, uh, all the ancillary improvements. It’s really important to make sure that you at least get some quotes for those.

Okay. Even though the builder, some of the full turnkey, I love those. Brilliant. 

Jaimi: Yeah, they’re great. Move in, ready to go. That’s a big thumbs up. If the budget works for it, that’s the question, isn’t it? Yeah. And a lot of the… Especially first home buyers. 

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah. It does affect your val because we pick it up and go, Ooh, no driveway.

And it’s like, well, if a home sells, if I’m valuing it today, upon completion, meaning assuming it’s completed, but there’s no driveway fences, if it went… to auction that afternoon. And I’m a buyer. I’m going to be like, Oh man, I have to spend another 30, 40 grand finishing this off. Yeah. And it’s going to affect your valuation because you, you know, that they’re not going to just take a 30, 40 grand for the improvements.

It’s always a hundred grand. Cause like, Oh, I got to take time out of my day. It’s harder for me. I could just buy a property that’s ready to go and turn key. I have to waste my time on this property. and I’m going to discount it even further. So all your documentation, if you’re doing an upon completion valuation from the beginning, please, please, please, I’m talking on behalf of all the valuers in Australia, have all your documentation, have, have your contract, have your floor plan stamped council floor plans.

Uh, we don’t accept, um, just regular floor plans. They’ve got to be council approved and even CDC, whatever, all your landscaping, the full turnkey package. Now. If the quote doesn’t include it and you’re like, well, I don’t know what driveway I want. It’s like a year away. Just get a couple of quotes and stick them in there.

Even if you don’t, aren’t going to exercise those quotes, just stick them in. Go to Carpet Court or Harvey Norman, I don’t know, wherever you go, get a couple of quotes for the carpet and the floorboards. Stick it in there.

Jaimi: The mortgage broker that I work with and I, we had some clients that just received formal finance yesterday and they removed the driveway because they want to put aggregate concrete down later.

And yet valuation came back off. Could you give us a quote for the driveway? So we got a quote, we got one direct from the builder and one just from a. paving company and yeah, it was like three grand and then gave that and then they were happy with that. 

Belinda Botzolis: So yeah, you’ve got to imagine your home a hundred percent complete and that’s what the value will value it.

Assuming it’s a hundred percent complete. If you’ve got things missing, they will eliminate those from the valuation and it will affect your, your figure at the end. 

Jaimi: Yeah, yeah. And the good thing I guess with new land estates and like house and land packages, a lot of the time the fencing and the landscaping is included with the sale contract of the block of land, but it’s not actually done through the builder.

Yeah, yeah. What things do you, so like how you just mentioned before, the blinds, the flooring, the driveway. And there was one other thing that you said. Oh, aircon. Like, are there any other things that are super important that valuers always look out for inside house and land Package?

Belinda Botzolis: As long as it’s within market, and what I mean by that is if all the other homes in your area are built to a certain standard, we would hope and expect that your home is built to that standard.

I guess what you’ve got to understand, Jamie, is you have to build your property in accordance with what all the other properties are being built. So 1. 5 or 2 million, which there is around the country, depends where you’re listening. Um, you have To make sure that your home is built to the highest standard.

Okay. You can’t just get away with a budget project, build a home. You need to spec it up. Now the opposite, if you’re in an estate area where all the homes around you are selling about six or 700, 000, you’re going to be overcapitalizing if you’re putting in really, really expensive things. So just because you’ve got the best quality stone benchtops and tiles and.

Three meter ceilings and void areas doesn’t mean that the value is going to value your property more. It just means that you’ve over capitalized and spent too much on your home. Babal, sorry, sorry for you. Sorry, not sorry, but we will only value it. Well, yeah, we’re ruthless. It’s tough guys. We’re tough.

Jaimi: You can’t upgrade all those nice things sometimes. 

Belinda Botzolis: If you want it for yourself to enjoy your home and have these higher end finishes, don’t let the value stop you. Don’t let anyone, it’s your life. Enjoy it. Spend what you want. But my advice to you is if you’re doing it and you want to have a return on your money and make sure that you haven’t overcapitalized and your improvements will reflect your market value, then just be mindful of the area that you’re living in.

And spend within, within your means, but within what’s acceptable in your market, because somebody will be like, wow, great. I have all these things, but I’m not paying more than 750, 000 because once I start going to 800, 000 or 900, 000, I can actually move to a better estate or have a much better home. So, um, and there’s always a ceiling that someone’s prepared to pay in an area.

That’s why you have suburb records. If the record is 800, no one’s going to pay you a million dollars for your home because you spent an extra 200, 000 on marble

Jaimi: Upgrades. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And touching on the location that you just mentioned, how important is getting the right location for your house and do you have any tips?

When looking for location and picking suburbs and land that will help first home buyers. 

Belinda Botzolis: I think a lot of first home buyers, uh, will go into a new land estate area and the developer or the sales agent will just show them a bit of a map and you have all those little green blocks with lot numbers on them.

And then always will be like a red sticker or yellow stickers, meaning these are sold and this is what’s left. And they’re like, I don’t know, honey. What, what do you think? And they just go, um, I don’t know. I, I’ve heard this before. I promise you I’m not lying. We just closed our eyes and went, um, oh God.

That one. And then wherever our finger was, the closest the, and they’re telling me like, it’s something. And it was cute. It’s a cute story. And then we just went, okay, the closest one. And then we like the, it was like, it was like eight and eight, our lucky number. And then we just went to the closest one to our finger that had the number eight on it.

’cause that was our wedding anniversary date. I promise you. And I’m like, okay, um, cool story. So I feel like you should have a little bit more of a plan behind your selection than just allowing the gods of the land estate area select it for you. Um, because I have this theory that you, with property, you got the fixed and the variable.

The fixed is the land. The land size and the orientation and the location. You can never change that. Ever, ever, ever. The land size, the location and the orientation will never change. Your improvements can get knocked down, rebuild, added to, renovated to. That’s a variable that matters, but the land, if you’re doing it and you’re doing it once, get it right.

So I can never tell you where to live. Go live where you want in whatever estate you want. I think it’s important, though, to make sure that I, I would avoid, okay, here you go, I, I don’t like it when you have, um, homes that’s sort of back on to three or four other lots, so, you know, when you have along the side boundary, then you’ve got one house and then another, so you’ve got, The more neighbours you have, yeah, the more problems you have, and it also means that their homes are like backed up right against the fence because there’s no, you know, they’re on zero lots, some of them, so everyone’s got more eyes looking into your home, trying, corner allotments are always good, I like, I didn’t like them for a long time, but they’re starting to be worth more, you’ve got less neighbours, avoiding roundabouts, Because people are slowing down and speeding up.

Being in a good school zone is great, but not in a school zone, as in not in a zone where the school Too close to the school, yeah.

Belinda Botzolis: kids, moms are dropping, and dads are dropping off in the big SUV, slamming doors, screaming and, you know, hanging out in the front of your property. The, you know, the parents are chatting.

It’s like, it. It’s a, it’s a risk rating as well to the bank. We flag that staying away from big electrical towers. Yeah. So power substation towers, staying away from main roads, staying, you, your, a lot of your clients, Jamie, would be in Perth. Um, having something with a sunny outlook, either north, northeast, east, try and avoid south because you don’t get much light.

And. You’ve got to remember guys, a lot of these homes in the new estates, they’re built so close to the boundaries or so close to the house next to them. The sun doesn’t quite penetrate into the windows as much as it would with homes that are more set back from the side boundary. So having homes that allow for.

Maximum natural light is really important. Um, the flatter the land with less slope, the better. It just means that, you know, you don’t have a sloping driveway. Kids can play in the front yard, maximizing your backyard as much as you can. If you’re doing a single level home. I hate it. It’s a massive pet peeve of mine.

I don’t know why they design them this way, where they have um, an in, uh, in the middle of the home, they have like a courtyard off the kitchen and dining and then you’ve got to walk at the back to get to the living area because the bedrooms are at the back of the house and I just feel it’s just such a waste of land.

Um, maximizing Yeah, having the living on the side. 

Belinda Botzolis: It’s, I hate them. Sorry, if you’re listening to this. I won’t, it won’t affect, it’s not that it will affect your valuation. It’s just that you will limit your, your marketability later on. And they’re very dark because they have the awning or the, the cover, the, the roof.

And then you’ve got immediately the fence and you’re not getting any natural light coming in. So. Yeah, there are a few, there are a few.

Jaimi: That was really helpful, good to, for people to start thinking about when they’re looking at land, what they need to be thinking about. Because yeah, some people will rush into it and not think about it, like putting your finger down on a map, which is a very terrible idea.

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah, I only heard that once, but it always stayed with me. Yeah. 

Jaimi: What are some misconceptions that you come across quite a lot? Where people think items add value or misconceptions in property value that are not true.

Belinda Botzolis: Okay. Straight off the bat came to mind is the more bedrooms I have, the better. So someone’s got five bedrooms, um, or each, each bedroom has an ensuite.

I’ve seen that. And I’m like, Oh God, what a waste of money, especially if you’re in a. State area where like, they’re nice to have, but if you’re paying an extra 000 for bathroom, what happens is it’s, I mean, it’s nice at the beginning, a lot of people just don’t maintain them and they, I’m speaking, I’m speaking nothing to do with people’s hygiene, but I find that you don’t.

maintain your home the way they do in the house and land package. The kids, the bathrooms are shared by the kids. The kids are grotty. They’re peeing on the floor. It stinks. They’re not, and then the mom’s like, Oh, I don’t, I don’t clean the bathroom because the boys are in charge of cleaning. I’m like, yeah, they’re doing a great job the boysaren’t cleaning the bathroom. 

So you’ve just got to remember who are, who, who are you building the home for? Is it full? You’re yourself or for the market because the market probably won’t care and if you don’t look after these bathrooms, they tend to get a bit like just unkept.

My point is, is that think about who your target market is when it comes to homes. Let’s talk about a five bedroom home with a four bedroom home. If you have. a four bedroom home and you have like a study, that’s fine. But if you have five bedrooms and each bedroom is small and pokey with a big master, you’re better off having slightly bigger rooms.

It’s going to appeal to more people versus lots and lots of little rooms. Because I find that the homes are getting larger, but the bedrooms are getting smaller. I feel like they’re trying to just cram everything into the home. Theatre room downstairs, living dining room, study, downstairs bedroom, four bedrooms upstairs, and another living area upstairs.

But everything is inadequate for the overall scale of the home. The butler’s pantry’s too big, the laundry’s too big, but then the bedrooms are small. So I feel like… Yeah, the portions are out. So I think it’s just because it’s five bedrooms. If the rest of the scale of the home is off, there’s no point.

Rather, rather sacrifice a room, turn it into a study, make the bedrooms all bigger, and then you feel like, in a weird way, your home feels more spacious. 

Jaimi: Yeah, definitely, because you haven’t tried to cram everything into the same size house plan. Yeah. To make more rooms, unless you’re… Making the house bigger, but if you’re making the house bigger, you’re adding more to your budget and maybe that doesn’t allow for it either.

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah. And, and, and going back to my point about the, the en suites, it just means that, uh, somebody was prepared to pay the exact same money for your house, whether it had three en suites or it had one en suite and one big main family bathroom, they’re probably like, Oh, these bathrooms, who’s going to wash them?

What a pain in my backside. And a lot of the times those homes, Jamie. The en suites take up valuable bedroom space and the bedrooms are small. And I was like, I would rather bigger bedroom and no en suite. 

Jaimi: Yeah, yeah, definitely. Or maybe a bigger living room or other areas where people spend a lot of time in the house.

Yeah. When, if people are building and it is a first home and not a forever home, what are some things that they need to consider for resale down the line? 

Belinda Botzolis: If it’s your forever home, I feel like you, and if, and if you have the budget for it, you can push the budget a little bit. Okay, if it is your for now home and not a forever home, really think about what’s important to you and what you can live without.

So have a list of your needs and your wants and if it is your need like, I don’t care. I’ve had somebody, Jamie I promise you, they had a walk in robe the size of a bedroom and I was like, oh you can make that smaller. She, she didn’t actually flick me but she was like, She just sort of pushed my hand away off the plan, like, do not touch that.

That is my walking robe. This is my forever home. I am not compromising on the size of my walking robe. I was like, okay. Okay. That’s fine. That’s your life, right? 

Jaimi: Some people want what they want. 

Belinda Botzolis: Dude, she wanted that walking robe. And I was like, who am I to get between a woman and her walking robe? I was like.

Babe power to you. So in that sense, unless it means to you as much as that walking rope meant to that woman, have a think about it and see if there is an equally good, but cheaper option. So it’s not about doing it on the cheap. It’s about going, Hey, Do I, I really love, I’ll give you a great one. Do I really need that ultra, not ultra, I don’t know what they’re called, supernatural ultra stone bench top?

Yeah. Because I want it and it’s like so important to my life if I get it. Or, you know what, this isn’t a forever home, I will be saving 15, 000 on the stone if I got something. Just as nice, but not that stone. Yeah, that 15, 000 could be sitting in an offset account offsetting your mortgage and using it as a deposit for your next forever home.

That’s how you should be considering it. This extra 5, 000 I’m using because I really want these tiles. Could I get other tiles for less and put that five grand in an offset? You start doing that enough? You will save yourself a lot of money, but don’t compromise on the quality or the style, just on potentially, do I really want those, those KitKat tiles?

Because they look great, but they are an extra 50 a square meter to buy and to lay. Could I potentially get an equally nice tile? Still the same design, but maybe spend an extra 200 on nicer lights and a nicer mirror that will make the room look a bit more bougie than the tiles. I could get away with something, maybe subway tiles.

They’re not as cool, but you can lay them in a different pattern and that could be your compromise. 

Jaimi: Yeah, it’s kind of like, not, yeah, making it cheap, but like, how can my money go further? Correct. And not necessarily… Spending it for the brand or the luxury items, but how can my money go further by achieving the same look?

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah. It’s like when you buy a car and they’re like, do you want to put paint protection? Do you want to put the, um, the better wheels? Do you want better? And it’s not about, like, better brakes because that’s the quality of the car, it’s just all the aesthetic stuff that it’s like, and then in the end you get a quote, like, sidesteps and the sunroof and, you know, the neon lights instead of, I don’t know what I’m talking about, instead of the standard lights and then it’s nothing to do with the performance of the car, it’s all aesthetic.

Jaimi And before you know it, you’ve added 18, 000 of extras in your car that you’re like, I don’t really need this, yeah, and I’m paying interest on it. 

Belinda Botzolis: Correct. So that’s how you got to look at about. If it’s your forever home, and as I said, it means a lot to you, do it. Okay. But no, you’re probably overspending.

Um, but if it’s a for now home, and you’re a first home buyer, just put it this way, work out how many hours you worked for that. And is it worth it, dealing with all the crap of your boss and your colleagues at work? And you’re like, that’s six months worth of work to pay for that. Was it worth working six months for that benchtop?

Hell to the no. 

Jaimi: That’s so funny. That’s a really good way of putting it. 

Belinda Botzolis: Um. Nothing was worth that then, but if you’re that chick with the walking rope, she’d be like, I paid a whole year and it was worth every minute, every minute of it. She might, she maybe even sleeps in there more than she sleeps in her room. 

She’s like, I don’t care. I got three jobs. I work part time at Macca’s as well. Hated every minute of it, but I love my walk in road more.

Jaimi: That’s where you’re going to be at. That’s just the difference of mindset of yeah, the forever home and the non negotiable items or the for now home and then sorting out the forever home later. You don’t really need all those upgrades and things. What advice do you have for first home buyers entering the market to build a new house?

Belinda Botzolis: I think as a first home buyer, so I’ll give you a little bit of a advice, something that worked for me. Um, I, I use my first home as a bit of a stepping stone. A lot of us get caught up in this. Oh, I want, I want the home that I grew up in because I want my kids to live in that home too. Times were different and I’m so sorry that we can’t go to those, those days where we could bloody buy the same home as our parents for, you know, 

Belinda Botzolis: 18, 000 or 36, 000.

Way cheaper than now. Yeah, I’m sorry Sandra and Bob. Times are a little bit different now and I’m so happy that it worked for you because you’re my parents and hopefully I will get that property’s inheritance one day. Maybe not, but you know, as an example, just remember that don’t kill yourself for that first time.

Use that first home as a stepping stone. A lot of the times your first home, you may be relatively young. And for me, for example, then I got a pay rise and I got a slightly better job and I got another pay rise. And before I knew it, I was like, wow, I can, I can borrow more. I’ve done a bit of renovation on my home or I got some equity in my home and I was able to pull it out.

and buy again. Use your first home as a stepping stone to the home that you want later on. And don’t put too much pressure on yourself to have it all now. It’s about the keeping up with the joneses. Especially with the cost of living. Especially with the uncertainty in the interest rates. And a big tip for the first homeowners, please have a buffer in place.

Have some money, Set aside. Don’t put your, I mean, we all hear this, or I put every last cent I earned into that, have some money aside, you’re young, you’ve got kids or whatever. Enjoy your life as well. Okay. It’s not only about the mortgage and shoving it all in there and keeping up with the Joneses and, you know, deep down, you’re like, Oh, some of our friends, they’ve got really nice homes or, you know, I want, I want that too, because they’ve got her and I went to display home just time for that.

There’s time for that. There’s strategies to, to save the strategies, to grow your equity. There’s strategies to invest elsewhere. Just buy what you can afford by with a bit of wiggle room too, because if you maximize your borrowing capacity too early, the banks aren’t lending like they were. a few years ago, you are capped out and you’re capped out for a while.

So even if you wanted to go ahead, the bank will be like, well, by the time you sell this and you’re exiting costs and you’re stamped duty to buy back in, you can probably buy for an extra 10, 000 more. What a waste. So it’s about going, okay, if I buy my first home. Use whatever government incentives, if that, if you can, but don’t go and put it all in there, because you might find, I think statistically, it’s what, five to eight years people hold on to their first home.

Jaimi: Yeah, I think that’s between that range, yeah. Five and seven years. Always get into it. Like I have a lot of clients and I mean, my wife and I did it as well. And it was like first home forever home. And now that I’m in it, I’m like, it’s definitely not the forever home, but as you’re going through the process, you’re like forever, forever, forever, because you, I don’t know, you think you can’t do it again, but if you make the right decisions, you can do it again and you’ll end up better off for it if you do it right.

Belinda Botzolis: And I’m telling you now, this is someone that’s, I am a property expert. I’ve I’m professional valuer. I’ve inspected 15, 000 properties. I thought I knew everything about property. When I built my home, there’s a handful of stuff in here. I do differently next time. So you might think you’re doing everything right in that, that home.

And I guarantee you, if you’re listening to this, my voice will haunt you. When you walk into your home, you’re going to be like, Oh, I would have done that different would have done that different you learn and then you’re like the next one will do it differently the next one will do it differently so you you want to do it again you kind of get this bug look you hate the process it’s like never doing this again but you do secretly you want to do it again.

So. If it ends up being a forever home, good for you, but, um, statistically you will only hold on to it to five to eight years. So don’t get too attached and use it as a stepping stone for the next one. Yeah. 

Jaimi: Awesome. Belinda, could you explain what the process of a valuer is through the building process and towards the end?

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah, sure. So when you borrow money for the build, they’re not going to, and say it’s a 500, 000 build. They’re not going to just release 500, 000 to the builder. They release it in what they call progress payment stages. So first is the slab. So the value walks out, I stick my head inside, I’m like, yep, there’s a slab.

And I take a photo and I do a quick report. And I say to the bank, we’re satisfied that the slabs there release the funds, 25 grand. Yeah. Whatever it is. Cool. Next, the frame stage. Stick my head in. 

Jaimi: There’s the WA as well. Yes. Yes. We’ve got frames and bricks

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah. Okay. 

Jaimi: Thank you for that. We’re a bit weird over in WA.

The east coast is all frame. 

Belinda Botzolis: Mate, whoever signed that contract with, uh, your, your bricks company and got that into the psyche. The best marketing I’ve think in the history of Australia. So we’ll down to whoever that is, but, uh, we stick our head in and we’re like, yep, the, the walls are up the frame, the bricks release the funds.

Now, what I want people to know is valuers are only there to be the eyes and the ears to the bank always. And us to go, yep. Um, Mr. Bank person, Ms. Bank person, they bank person, whatever. The, the improvements are up. We are satisfied that the improvements are finished, release the funds. We are not there to qualify or to inspect any defects.

So some people think they have a security blanket of, Oh, if the valuer said it was fine and they released the funds, it was fine. We are not building, we’re not qualified building inspectors. So if some of the, the timber frames are dodgy or the workmanship is not up to, To code, it is not our place to address it.

I, unless it’s like glaringly obvious, I will make a note and say, the home’s on a right angle, the house is wonky, uh, I don’t know, but I would probably get, considering you’re lending money on this, I would probably get an independent inspector to come out. So if you’re wanting to have an independent inspection to qualify that the work’s done to code, get your own independent inspector.

Don’t rely on the value. Are they literally there to release the funds? If we get out there, Jamie, and there’s like a little bit left. So I’ve seen parts where like, just the guys like, Oh, we’ll be done this afternoon. Come back. I’m like, I’m not coming back. I go and I sometimes, uh, withhold maybe three or four grand or five grand or 10 grand and be like, we were satisfied that.

You know, uh, approximately 90 to 95 percent of the work was done. However, it is in our opinion that we will withhold 5, 000 because a very, very small portion of the brickwork was not done because basically if the builder goes into default, they can take your money and the work’s not done. And then they turn to the value and they’re like, you told us the work was done.

We released the funds. But there is still five or ten thousand dollars worth of brickwork or a day’s worth of labor left to finish it off. You told us it was done. We’re going to sue you. You were supposed to be our eyes and ears. So, yeah. 

Jaimi: Yep. Yeah, that makes sense. What happens at the end of the build as a valuer from your side and your role?

Belinda Botzolis: Uh, at the end, uh, We get to the practical completion stage. So that means that the property should be satisfied as per the contract and it is finished. And again, we are not there to pick up any defects, so that’s not up to us. Now, typically when it gets to this stage, we just release the very, very last funds and then your financial obligation to the builder has ended.

Now, a lot of the times people get the keys and then they do the, you know, all the photos on Instagram and they’re standing in the kitchen with the builder and the flowers and like, ah, hashtag I did it. I mean, it’s a, yeah, I did it. And it is, it is a very blessed time because you, you know, it’s a big achievement to build a home.

Yeah. And they go, right, babe, let’s go. Let’s pull out the equity. And then they get the valuer to come back out. Half the time, the property’s still not finished. The landscaping’s, not in the driveway’s, not in. It’s going to get done or it’s partly done, but it’s just not finished. The value will value it in its current condition.

So my advice is if you want to maximize your equity and you really want to pull out as much as you can, get the property finished, finished. It needs to have an OC because it’s always subject to the final OC being issued. So even if it’s got the interim OC. Always subject to the final O. C. What’s an O. C.?

Occupational Certificate. Sorry. So, the Interim Occupational Certificate means that, yep, the house livable, but it is not completely finalized and certified until we do that final check, right? And it’s also important for your insurance because the insurer doesn’t want to insure a home that’s not… They want to ensure a completed home.

So it’s important for that. So until you get that final NC, until the property’s finished end to end is probably your best chance to pull out the most amount of equity. Don’t assume you’re going to get equity just because you need to have had enough of market movement because you’re. Borrowing in your homes.

Your home is the most valuable it’ll ever be because it’s absolutely brand new. It will never ever be brand new again. So that is, it’s in the moment in time, it’s absolute peak value. Now it will increase the land, but the improvements will decrease because there will always be another home that’s newer than yours.

That’s popping up, popping up, popping up. It’s just the nature of the beast. So at that point, when your property is done, it is going to be it’s at most valuable. And unless the land has improved, the improvements won’t add value. You can’t do anything to that home. There’s nothing you can do to it. You can’t rip out the kitchen and start again.

It’s brand new. You just have to wait for the market to move and then pull out the equity. 

Jaimi: Yep. Okay. And what is equity and how long do people have to wait to pull out equity once they’ve moved in? It’s just 

Belinda Botzolis: the difference between what the property’s worth and your… Money that you owe. Everyone’s going to be different.

Typically, uh, the bank want to see no more than 80 percent owing on your home. So, uh, we’ve just come through a once in a generation boom. Perth has been a sleeping giant. It hasn’t done much for a very long time. It was more expensive to buy in Perth than Sydney, uh, in 2003 or seven, something like that.

And now Sydney’s triple. Um, so Perth’s waking up. Uh, there’s always reports about, you know, records, you know, Perth’s going gangbusters. So I can’t, I don’t know. I don’t have a crystal ball. Maybe it’s your time to shine. Maybe it’s Perth’s time. That’s why they say it’s not about timing the market. It’s about your time in the market.

The longer you hold your asset and don’t get scared and sell five to seven years. If you’re, if you’re trying to draw equity, it’s about your time. In the market. So somebody might’ve sold this year and next year or the year after, I don’t know, I don’t have a crystal ball, but Perth could go through its biggest boom in 30 years, I don’t know.

And then you’ve missed out on all that growth. And that’s where you can say, wow, my home was worth 700. It’s now worth 1 million, 300, 000 of market growth. I only got a 400, 000 loan. The difference between your loan and the market value, you can borrow 80 percent of that or whatever your percentage is.

That’s equity. I’ve got a video on it on my TikTok

Jaimi: if anyone wants to see. Yeah, yeah. With 

Belinda Botzolis: your yeah. I keep it simple. So, 

Jaimi: yeah. Well, you’ve got to keep it simple, otherwise it’s too hard to understand, isn’t it? Yeah, that’s it. That’s it. Yeah. Yeah. Cool. And I really like how you mentioned, yeah, it’s the time in the market, not timing the market. Cause I think people always try to time the market and then you wait and you wait, wait, and you miss your boat and then you’ve missed what you need to, or it’s about that time in the market.

So I think that’s really important as well. 

Belinda Botzolis: Yeah. I think everything comes out in the wash eventually. 

Jaimi : Does, yes. All right. Let’s wrap up for today. Belinda, is there anything else you wanted to pass on or any other messages or tips that you want to give out while we wrap up? 

Belinda Botzolis: I think it’s just hanging there.

It’s tough. Um, sometimes it’s first time by, so if you’re listening to this going, I don’t know if I should be buying or not, or I’m just. You know, I’m trying to educate myself, keep educating yourself, keep learning, keep studying, keep trying. Don’t give up. Please don’t go buying, you know, the brand new car before you buy the brand new house or go on that 50, 000 European holiday.

YOLO. I want to, you know, my life on experience. You can experience all that after you get the home. If that’s your goal. I’m not saying that everyone needs to be a home buyer, but if it is. Just save, eat, bake beans, do what you got to do to save that deposit. I promise you it gets easier. The first one’s the hardest and then it just gets easier after that.

But if that’s your goal and that’s what you want, hang in there. You’ll get there. 

Jaimi: Yeah. Awesome. Thank you so much. It’s been so good chatting with you today and we’ve done. Quite a long episode, which is really awesome. We’ve been chatting about lots of things. So thank you so much for your time. And if anyone wants to reach out to Belinda or get in contact, I’ll put her TikTok and Instagram and contact in the show notes, so you’ll be able to find her in the show notes below.

Thank you so much, Belinda. 

Belinda Botzolis: it was a pleasure, Jamie. And, um, I’m more than happy to answer anybody’s questions. So please reach out anytime. Awesome. 

Jaimi: Thank you so much

Belinda Botzolis: Thanks for having me. 

Jaimi: Thank you so much for tuning in to the home building like a boss podcast. I hope you enjoyed today’s episode and learned something new.

Remember you’ve got this and I’ve got your back until next time. Stay inspired, stay informed, and stay confident on your building journey. I can’t wait to chat with you on the next episode. Don’t forget to check out the show notes. and free resources. If you haven’t already, hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode of the Home Building Like a Boss podcast.