Everyone has a dream suburb. The parks, the school catchment, the cafés you already know by name.
But here's the question I ask clients before we get too far down the track: does the dream suburb fit the budget, or is the budget being stretched to fit the dream?
Just this week I was speaking with a couple searching for a townhouse. Their dream suburb ticked every box. After a few Saturdays of inspections, a buyer's agent introduced them to a suburb ten minutes down the road, and their budget dropped by a couple of hundred thousand dollars.
That's not a small difference. That's the spare bedroom. That's the off-street parking. That's breathing room in the repayments instead of stretching to the ceiling of what a lender will approve.
This is why I work closely with buyer's agents. My job is to make sure the finance structure is right and the numbers are stress-tested. Theirs is to know the streets, including the ones that weren't on your list but probably should be.
The right suburb isn't always the first one you fell in love with. Sometimes it's the one that gives your family options.
If you're weighing up suburbs and want to understand what your numbers really support, happy to walk you through it.
—
My Mortgage Concierge is licensed under ACL 392736 Sattout Accounting Services Pty Ltd. General information only — seek personal advice before acting.
