Shows
How's The MarketMastering Pre-Auction Offers: When, How, Why? | Ep 34Pre-auction offers can feel like the fast-track to buying a home no crowds, no auctions, no stress. But going in early isn’t always the smart move. In fact, it can cost you big if you get it wrong.In this episode, we unpack when a pre-auction offer actually makes sense, how to execute it the right way, and most importantly when to hold off.Here’s what you’ll learn:When it is the right time to offer early like when the vendor’s already bought, or the home is wildly underquotedThe war...2025-07-2319 minHow's The MarketWhat You Should ACTUALLY Look For When Inspecting A Home | Ep 33Open homes can blur into one big, beige blur. So what should you actually be looking for?In this episode, Tristan and James take you step-by-step through the key things to watch out for — from the street to the shower grout. Whether you’re buying your first place or your forever home, this is the open home checklist you didn’t know you needed.You’ll learn:What to look for at the estate and street levelHow to assess neighbour condition (yep, it matters)Quick visual checks that reveal deeper issuesThe little details i...2025-07-1831 minHow's The MarketWhat Every Buyer Needs To Know About Building & Pest InspectionsWhat Every Buyer Needs To Know About Building & Pest Inspections | Ep 32 Building & pest reports: essential… yet often misunderstood.In this episode, Tristan and James break down what really goes into these inspections — and what buyers need to know to avoid getting caught out. From dodgy inspector tactics to confusing legal clauses, they unpack the fine print and share tips you won’t hear at the open home.You’ll learn:The difference between a minor defect and a major structural oneHow to spot a bad inspector (and why some are recommend...2025-07-0943 minHow's The MarketOvercoming Underquoting - How Agents REALLY Price PropertiesOvercoming Underquoting – How Agents REALLY Price Properties| Ep 31Why does underquoting keep catching buyers off guard — especially in Melbourne? In this episode, Tristan and James dive deep into the pricing game that’s frustrating homebuyers across the city. From vendor conditioning to CMA manipulation, we unpack what’s really going on behind the scenes.You’ll learn:Why underquoting happens (and where it’s worst)How agents manipulate price guides, comps & vendor expectationsWhat buyers can actually ask agents to get aheadWhy rules like “10% over the top of the range” are misleadingThe too...2025-07-0339 minHow's The MarketHow To Buy A Property Before Anyone Else Even Sees ItHow To Buy A Property Before Anyone Else Even Sees It | Ep 30Off-market deals are often hyped as the holy grail of property buying — but are they really as exclusive (or as good) as they seem?In this episode of How’s the Market, I unpack the truth behind off-markets: the real ones, the red flags, and how to actually get access to hidden gems before they hit the portals. You’ll learn:The difference between true off-markets and pre-market soft launchesWhy some “off-markets” are just overpriced leftoversHow se...2025-06-2538 minHow's The MarketOwners Corporations: The Good, Bad & The Ugly | Ep 29Owners Corporations: The Good, Bad & The Ugly | Ep. 29Owners Corporations (formerly known as Body Corporates) cop a lot of criticism — but is it all justified?In this episode, Tristan and James break down the shocking and the wonderful realities of Owners Corporations in Victoria. From sky-high fees in flashy towers to well-managed, stress-free communities — they cover it all.Whether you're a first-home buyer wary of “OC horror stories” or an investor weighing up strata costs, this episode will give you the knowledge to separate the good from the bad (and the ugly).2025-06-1834 minHow's The MarketThe Big Question: Should You Buy Now or Wait? | Ep 28The Big Question: Should You Buy Now or Wait? | Ep. 28 Every buyer hits this moment: Is now the right time to buy? Or should you wait for prices to drop, interest rates to change, or life to “settle down”?In this episode, Tristan and James break down the most common reasons buyers delay purchasing — and why many of those reasons don’t hold up under the microscope.From media noise and market timing myths to the hidden cost of hesitation, this is the real talk you need if you’re sitting on the fenc...2025-06-1126 minHow's The MarketTop 5 Auction Mistakes (And How to Actually Win) | Ep 26Top 5 Auction Mistakes (And How to Actually Win) | EP 26Bidding at auction can be one of the most nerve-wracking parts of buying a home — especially in Melbourne, where over 1,000 homes can go to auction in a single weekend.In this episode, we break down the top 5 mistakes buyers make at auction (and what to do instead). Whether you’re a first home buyer or an upgrader, these real-world strategies will give you the edge you need to stay calm, in control, and competitive on the day.You’ll learn:Why...2025-05-2937 minHow's The MarketWe’re Back: Why Now Is The Most Confusing Property Market Ever | Ep 25Why Now Is The Most Confusing Property Market Ever | EP 25What’s really going on in Melbourne’s housing market?In this episode, we unpack why 2025 has started with such mixed signals — and what it means if you’re buying in Melbourne. We explore the surprising price movements across different suburbs, the growing gap between Melbourne and other capitals like Perth and Adelaide, and the sharp increase in interstate buyer activity we're seeing on the ground.You’ll learn:Why Melbourne’s housing market has underperformed since 2022Which suburbs are...2025-05-2126 minHow's The MarketWhat Do You Actually Need To Check At A Pre-Settlement Inspection? | Ep 24What are pre-settlement inspections, do you need to do them and what should you be checking?In this episode we answer all the above.PLUS - download our free pre-settlement inspection checklist below:Pre-Settlement Inspection Checklist - DOWNLOADWelcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to get access to our Ho...2023-11-2315 minHow's The MarketHow's The Market? Melbourne's Property Market Update | Ep 23In this week’s episode we will be doing a market update across Melbourne. If you would like to read the full version and look at all the numbers, you can check out this weeks blog below:https://www.tomii.com.au/blog/hows-the-market-melbournes-market-updateIn The Media Article Link: https://www.realestate.com.au/news/will-rising-interest-rates-put-the-brakes-on-australias-property-market-recovery/Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the...2023-11-1615 minHow's The MarketThe Secret Free Property Tools You Didn’t Know About | Ep 22In this week’s episode we will be showing you the best free property tools that you can use to help you get an edge when analysing properties fast!Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to get access to our How's The Market blog and join the mailing list and we shall see you again in next week's episode!2023-11-0820 minHow's The MarketEvery Government Grant You Need To Know As A First Home Buyer In Victoria | Ep 21In this week’s episode, we will be outlining the basics of every government grant available to first-home buyers in Victoria.Read the full blog below:www.tomii.com.au/blog/every-government-grant-you-need-to-know-as-a-first-home-buyer-in-victoriaStamp Duty CalculatorWelcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to g...2023-11-0128 minHow's The MarketThe Shocking & Wonderful Of Owners Corporations | Ep 20In this week’s episode, we deep dive into the shocking and wonderful sides of owners corporations in Victoria.Owners corporations (previously known as Body Corporates) in Victoria don’t have the best reputation.Many first-home buyers come to us and say they wish to buy a unit or apartment that isn’t in an owner's corporation, without even truly understanding what an owner's corporation is, they just think they are bad.I hope to demonstrate in this article & podcast that they are not all bad. For the full article, click below:2023-10-2526 minHow's The MarketMelbourne’s Market Outlook For 2023 to 2024 | Ep 19In this week’s episode we will be doing a market update across Melbourne. If you would like to read the full version and look at all the numbers, you can check out this weeks block below:https://www.tomii.com.au/blog/melbournes-market-outlook-for-2023-to-2024Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to g...2023-10-1813 minHow's The MarketMaking Offers: The Power Of Being Unconditional | Ep 18Making offers is the most crucial part of real estate and where you can save yourself tens of thousands of $$ or where you can lose it.In this episode, we break down the difference between a conditional and unconditional offer and just how much that might cost you.Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to get access to ou...2023-10-1128 minHow's The MarketHow To Know If An Off-Market Is Good | Ep 17In this week's podcast, Tristan Larkin deep dives into the 3 biggest challenges of analysing off-market properties and how you can overcome them!Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to get access to our How's The Market blog and join the mailing list and we shall see you again in next week's episode!2023-10-0416 minHow's The MarketWhat You Need To Know About Victoria’s Housing Statement Sep 2023 | Ep 16Everything you need to know about the Victorian governments most recent housing policy updates that has been released in their Housing Statement in September 2023.You can find a copy of the Housing Statement here.Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to get access to our How's The Market blog and join th...2023-09-2734 minHow's The MarketAnalysing Floor Plans With Jonah Howard | Ep 15Understanding the Do's & Don'ts of floor plans is paramount in creating a flowing and functioning home in today's day and age.In today's episode, Jonah Howard dives into the important things you need to look out for and how you can analyse the flow of a house just by doing a thorough review of the floor plan prior to even inspecting it!Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong....2023-09-2119 minHow's The MarketThe Time To Buy Is Now | Spring 2023 | Ep 14After a tough year for buyers with supply shortages, heavy competition at each open and multiple offers on most properties, the spring market is now alleviating pressure and providing a great opportunity to purchase prior to Christmas.Finally, across most markets, we are seeing an uptick in stock. Whilst it has not been an extreme jump yet, it is a positive sign.In this episode, we deep dive into the opportunity that the next few months presents in 2023 as well as diving into the topic of off-the-plan apartments and some horror...2023-09-1326 minHow's The MarketHow’s The Market? RBA Holds Rates Again, Property Prices Continue To Rise, Vacancy Rates Hold | Ep 13The RBA has now officially held the cash rate on pause again for their September meeting which means that the analyst were right in their predictions.In this episode we deep dive into the RBAs meeting minutes, what the major banks have predicted, what property prices are doing and where vacancy rates are at across the country.Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong....2023-09-0626 minHow's The MarketWhat Are Off-Market Properties And Should I Buy Them? | Ep 12Off-market properties have been a hot topic in recent months around Melbourne and a conversation we are constantly having with our clients.So what are they? Are they worth buying? Do we buy them for clients? And where do I find them?All will be covered in this week's episode!Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground.Make sure to...2023-08-3022 minHow's The MarketThe Importance Of School Zones & How They Affect Property Prices | Ep 11When we first chat with clients, we always stress that the most important thing to get crystal clear on is their brief. As the only way you can reverse engineer a great result is from seeing what the perfect result actually looks like for them.We start by giving them a list of property attributes including things like distance to public transport, natural light, and a separate study and encourage them to separate all attributes into ‘nice-to-haves’ and ‘must-haves’.To no surprise, oftentimes the number one ‘must-have’ on many people's lists is being in the right school...2023-08-2321 minHow's The MarketAvoiding Costly Mistakes: What to Prioritise in Your Property Search | Ep 10In today's real estate landscape, buyers often find themselves in a challenging predicament – the need to compromise on their property wish list due to limited options. However, it is critical not to make certain trade-offs that could lead to future buyer's remorse.In this episode, we break down the things we believe you should never compromise on.We also have an Upgraders webinar coming up with Mortgage Choice Berwick on Wed 23rd Aug where we will breakdown everything you need to know about getting the finance to upgrade your home as well as tips and tr...2023-08-1722 minHow's The MarketUnderstanding The Mortgage Prison & What You Can Do To Get Out | Ep 9The Mortgage Prison with Juliana Backman from Mortgage Choice BerwickIn this week’s episode, we have a very special guest, Julianna Backman breaking down all things finance including the current interest rates, the mortgage prison the fixed rate cliff and the banks reduced serviceability buffers.If you are interested in registering for the Upgraders Webinar with Mortgage Choice Berwick & Tomii Buyers Agents, you can register via the link below:Register For The Mortgage Choice Upgraders Webinar HereMortgage Choice Berwick's WebsiteWelcome to How’s The Market, a podc...2023-08-1023 minHow's The MarketMelbourne Home Prices Forecast To Surge 10 Per Cent In 18 months | Ep 8A recent article on realestate.com discusses the findings published by NAB in their latest Residential Property Survey which has estimated a 2 per cent increase in property prices by the end of 2023, followed by a 7.4 per cent jump across 2024.In this week’s episode, we deep dive on the current state of the market and what we think the future holds based on NABs predictions.If you are interested in registering for the Upgraders Webinar with Mortgage Choice Berwick & Tomii Buyers Agents, you can register via the link below:Register For The Mortgage Ch...2023-08-0919 minHow's The MarketUnderstanding Underquoting: What Buyers Need to Know | Ep 7Buying a property in Victoria can be stressful enough, but when you consider the fact that many agents/agencies intentionally underquote properties, it can push some buyers to give up on the home hunting journey completely. Time and time again we hear from buyers that show us a property that sold for $100k - $200k above their budget that they tell us they went to auction or made an offer on a property that was ultimately out of their reach from the beginning.This can slow down the home buying process for months as buyers e...2023-08-0219 minHow's The MarketAre Apartments A Good First Purchase? Ep 6Are Apartments A Good First Purchase?It seems the typical journey as a first home buyer looks something like this:See some friends purchase a property.Check some calculators online, wondering what their deposit was and how much their repayments are.Speak with a mortgage broker to see if you could get finance.Get pre-approved.Start looking at properties and realise you likely can’t afford a house nearby.So you start looking around.You are then faced with the decision:Do I buy an apartment closer to the city, a unit a bit further out or...2023-08-0215 minHow's The MarketWhat Is Due Diligence? The Top 6 Due Diligence Steps You Need To Take Before Making An Offer | Ep 5Join Tristan Larkin & Melissa from Conveyed Conveyancing in this week's episode as we talk about all things due diligence.What is it? What's the most important? How do we do it? Who do we need to help? PLUS MORE!Make sure to check out more of Melissa's content and her services over at https://conveyed.com.au/ Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground.Make sure to ch...2023-07-2737 minHow's The MarketWhat To Look For At Open Homes - First Home Buyer’s Checklist | Ep 4Going through open homes for the first time can be daunting.Especially in today's market, you are probably lining up behind groups of people and then only walking through each property for 5 - 10 minutes so that you’ve got enough time to make it to the next one.Then you get a text or a call from the agent later that day saying someone else has made an offer and they’re asking if you would like to compete against the offer.But you’ve only seen the property for 10 minutes?And it...2023-07-1928 minHow's The MarketCan You Rely On Building & Pest Inspections? | Ep 3This week's HTM might be a bit more of a controversial one, though we want to discuss the effectiveness and shortcomings of building and pest inspections.First and foremost, this podcast does not suggest that you should not get a building and pest inspection done before purchasing a home. As buyer’s agents, we insist in most cases on completing B&P inspections before purchasing every home or making our offers subject to.Though, recently I’ve heard a few alarming stories from buyers and agents regarding the quality of inspectors, which has inspi...2023-07-1919 minHow's The MarketThe Inheritance Tsunami | Ep 2Recent forecasts indicate that the amount of inheritance being passed down from the baby boomer generation will experience an extraordinary surge over the next few decades. According to estimates, the volume of inheritances is expected to quadruple within the next 30 years. This means that an astounding $3.5 trillion will be passed down over the next decade alone, steadily rising to an annual transfer of $224 billion by the year 2050.Welcome to How’s The Market, a podcast for First Home Buyers and Upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from on the ground.2023-07-1321 min
How's The MarketHow's The Market? Ep 1Welcome to the first episode of How’s The Market, a podcast for first-home buyers and upgraders that gives you tips, tricks & up to date real estate information from buyer’s agents on the ground across Melbourne & Geelong.Make sure to check out www.tomii.com.au to get access to our How’s The Market blog and join the mailing list and we shall see you again in next week's episode!2023-07-0324 min