How to find a gem among the weeds

“You know, you can walk into one house and it might look amazing from the outside, and then you walk in and it may have been refurbed but not in a very good way.

“Or it may be, say, all really original and so you know from a rent-ready [perspective], tenants don’t want to be living in that sort of style of home, and typically, that’s what those type of tenants want in that particular area – they want something that is fresh.”

With that being said, Ms Hona shares why all properties are worth a look, regardless of what their listings look like, recounting one particular property that was a “gem under the weeds”.

“When I say, ‘under the weeds’, literally the whole front of the house was covered in grass and weeds and everything else. The grass is like a metre high,” she shared.

“The tenant was supposed to be doing the lawn. They hadn’t done them, and the tenant also didn’t allow for interior photo for the advertising, so Todd [Hunter, director of wheregroup] and I, we had the agent, and he goes, ‘Look, I think you’re really going to like it. It fits exactly what you guys want.’

“No one else has really looked at it because it looked terrible, and all because of the way ... on the exterior. [At a] property maintenance level, it was fine. There [were] no issues building wise, no issues with the front and exterior, it’s just really, really long grass and weeds.”

After going ahead and purchasing the property, Ms Hona said they addressed the lawn by amending the lease to include the lawn would be maintained by them rather than the tenant.

If they had walked away from the property without giving it a second glance, Ms Hona would have simply missed out.

“Sometimes there’s more to the story. That can happen here in Australia as well,” she said.

“It really just comes down to having a conversation with your realtor and going, ‘Do you know it?’ ‘Yeah actually, I’ve been in the property. I think you'll like it,’ and that’s ... what happened in our situation.”

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