Is Now Really the Best Buying Window in 7 Years?

Sammy Gordon (0:05)

Good day, listeners, and welcome to another episode of the Scouting Australia Podcast, powered by Australian Property Scout Buyers Agency. I'm your host, Sammy Gordon, and I'm joined by big Jimmy. And mate, we're in Adelaide, sunny old Adelaide. Look at the day, mate. What a cracker.

Jimmy Ibrahim (0:18)

Mate, we are here. And a big thank you to all the South Australians for welcoming us here. It's couldn't pick any better place, Sammy.

Sammy Gordon (0:27)

It's pretty good.

Jimmy Ibrahim (0:28)

It's right there. The River Torren is looking, reminds me of the Yarra actually. It's looking just as good.

And here we are. Where else would you rather be?

Sammy Gordon (0:36)

Mate, there's plenty of places, but Adelaide will do for today. We do have the live tonight that we'll obviously rip it in and kick it off. It's our producer, Kelly Loster.

Jimmy Ibrahim (0:46)

We just said thank you to all our South Australian people. You said thank you.

Sammy Gordon (0:50)

You said thank you. You said thank you. I will say thank you tonight when we see our South Australian clients in person when we do the live, when we're interviewing Big Ash Manuel. But mate, I'm looking forward to jumping in that episode with him. That is being recorded tonight. We're then shooting to Perth tomorrow, which then we've just released.

We're going to be doing the renovation. Well, I'm going to be doing it. You're bitching it. We're going to be doing the renovation over there. And yeah, man, the 150 grand quote that came back that's then preempted me to get off the tools. Oh, sorry. Get off the mic, mate, and get back in the tools and knock over a renovation. So mate, it's all happening at the moment.

Jimmy Ibrahim (1:23)

Mate, you have talked a big game about your early renovation days. Have you still got the chops?

Sammy Gordon (1:28)

I don't know if I did talk a big game. I know I used to do them on an absolute budget. I used to work eight an hour days, every fucking day for seven or eight days to knock over a full house renovation.

Jimmy Ibrahim (1:37)

Mate, I remember there's that classic photo of Sammy. I think you were either rendering or doing something. You had some...

Sammy Gordon (1:43)

I was sandpapering the roof.

Jimmy Ibrahim (1:44)

Oh no, painting the roof. I don't know. Something, yeah? It's because I didn't even just take photos of myself renovating. It was pretty lame back then.

Sammy Gordon (1:49)

What happened? I'm heavier now than I... No, sorry. I was heavier then than I am now, mate. I don't know, actually. Mate, talking about seven years, it's effectively going back nearly seven years. This is the same window.

It was January 2020 was the last time I did a proper renovation, man, when I renovated two units in seven days.

Jimmy Ibrahim (2:06)

Now, I know you don't like giving me the notes before the actual podcast because you want me just to... You want it to be fresh. You want it to be fresh. I nearly fell off my chair when the producer, Kelly, sent me to the first topic. Sammy wants to discuss, this is the best... Is this the best buying window in seven years? And I was thinking, holy shit, where has Sammy been? I mean, the market is full of fear right now, Sammy boy, rising interest rates, government changes, falling sentiment, prices are falling, doom and gloom everywhere.

First time buyers at negative equity, they've lost their deposits and we are telling people...

Sammy Gordon (2:46)

Okay, Tom Panos.

Jimmy Ibrahim (2:46)

We are telling people, this is the best buying window in seven years. Now, Sammy, have you drank the River Torrens water or is there some truth into what you actually... What are you trying to tell the listeners today? Is there any truth in that?

Sammy Gordon (3:00)

One thing I'm going to throw in, I forgot before, this is River Torrens, the Adelaide River up in the north is where Croc Island, what is it, Goat Island is, with all the Crocs in Darwin. Big shout out to Goat Island.

Jimmy Ibrahim (3:08)

Big shout out to Goat Island.

Sammy Gordon (3:09)

Adelaide River, Adelaide River, so that's, mate, we've got to throw in there.

Jimmy Ibrahim (3:11)

Is that the Adelaide River up there? That's the Adelaide River, yeah, full of Crocs.

Sammy Gordon (3:13)

Yeah, 100%.

Jimmy Ibrahim (3:14)

Shit.

Sammy Gordon (3:15)

Yeah, mate. Anyway, to detour, to detour, I guess, back onto the road of your question. And obviously the title of today's episode, is this the best buying window in seven years, man? I think it's a very prudent time to look at the marketplace right now, what's playing out. And it's funny though, because you're like, oh, there's all this stuff playing out. It's like, well, is the best buying opportunity when sentiment is at its highest, and it's the hardest to get into the market, and there's peak confidence in the market. Or are the best buying opportunities when sentiment is at its lowest, and there aren't as many people in the marketplace, but also similarly, this is what we'll flow on to a little bit later, man, people also, when people are uncertain, they don't go to market, and people are uncertain, they sit on their hands. That comes from both the buying and from the selling side. So a lot of people are talking about how much transactions are down at the moment, but they're also not really talking about how much new listings are also down. So once those current listings do finally transact and clear off the market, what's left after the fact? And this is where if we rewind back to early 2020, when COVID obviously came in and hit, and this is probably where I pushed back to the most prudent, last genuine buy window that I saw, there was a proper buy window countrywide. Man, it really came back to sentiment was at its lowest, fear was at its highest.