hey guys, ryan here. i've got a great interviewcoming up with ben everingham from pumpedonproperty.com. as you guys may know, he's my number 1 recommendedbuyer's agent. he's got huge experience in the building industry. so we're going to go and talk about, if you'rebuilding a new house as an investment, moreso, but also as your home. what sort of featuresshould you add to this house? what sort of thing should you look at? what sort of thingsshould you avoid? because of his experience in this industry, it was so great to hearall of these things from him. just to let you know, we have some sort ofaudio issue with his audio. it was getting a bit of fuzz and feedback. the content isepic. it is, you can hear it but i just wanted
to make you guys aware of that. awesome interview,learned a lot from ben - i always do. every time we sit down, i learn something great. so, check out this interview with ben everignhamfrom pumped on property, where we talk about what you should do if you're building a newproperty. ryan: hey guys, ryan here from onproperty.com.au,helping you find positive cash flow property. today, i have with me ben everingham frompumpedonproperty.com and we're going to be talking about how to choose the right houseif you're building a new house for an area. if you're building it as an investment, whatsort of house do you choose? how do you know what to get? what sort of feature upgradesto choose and all of that sort of stuff.
ben has been in the building industry fora long period of time; works with the buyer's agent, works as a buyer's agent now. helpingmany investors buy great properties. i'm grateful to have you, ben. thanks for coming. ben: thanks a lot guys, good to see you allagain. ryan: okay, let's just quickly cover yourexperience in this sector so people know how awesome you are. ben: thank you. basically, my role beforei started pumped on property was a marketing manager for one of the top 10 building companiesin australia. they're also an international builder, turned over over a billion dollarsa year and had about 140 franchises globally.
we built in australia, in the year that ileft, over 2,500 homes. and across the world, about 3,500 to 4,000 homes. so, that was areally good foundation. and then, personally, i've also built and developed a number ofproperties myself with my partner. ryan: okay. so, you have a lot of experience.let's say someone is considering investing in a new build property. what's the firstthing that they should consider? ben: the most important thing with any newproperty, i suppose - are we talking about site selection as well or are we physicallyjust talking about the build? ryan: let's talk quickly about site selectionbut then we'll go in-depth into the build. ben: cool. so, from a site-selection perspective,if you're going into a greenfield - let's
just say that we're going into a greenfieldbrand new estate, like a stockland estate or a mirvac estate or a av jennings estate- you really want to be in the proximity to the people that are spending the most moneyon their homes. if there's something around the edge of a park or something around theedge of a canal, and you're not buying the canal-front home, you want to be as closeto those houses as possible. you don't generally want to be on a cornerblock unless you're building a duplex. you want to be tucked in on an average-sized blockin the estate and to probably look at building something that's just nicer than the medianhouse in the estate. ryan: okay. so, why not on a corner block?
ben: it's just a personal thing for me. i'vealways grown up in really, really, really quiet streets. generally, in these new estates,the corner block catches the traffic from people coming into the estate or into thatstreet and the people going out of it. so, you're just getting twice as much congestionand twice as much noise and twice as much, i suppose, movement in that particular partof the estate as opposed to something quieter. and generally, the quieter positions are soldto the owner-occupiers where the investment houses in these areas are sold to anybodywho's prepared-to-buy them type thing. ryan: okay. and you talked about - i understandbuying near someone who lives on the canal or near someone who lives near the park. mymother-in-law just bought a house and she
bought all the houses opposite her are righton the river or right on the canals and stuff like that here on the gold coast and so she'sin this really nice area but she's just one house back or a street back. so she's gotthis awesome area but she didn't have to pay for it. i guess, the area will stay nice becausethose houses are worth so much because they're one the water. so, that makes sense. what's the thinking around building a housethat's just above the median in terms of price and quality? ben: i think what you really want to do andthe way that i start looking at who i'm going to build with and what i'm going to buildin a particular area is to identify the 3
or 4 real estate agents that are selling themost property in that subdivision and also in the suburb. a really good way to do thatwould be through something like ratemyagent.com or openagent.com, where you can literallyjust chuck in the suburb's name and it will tell you who sold the most property out ofany agent in that suburb and how many properties they've sold in that suburb in the last 12months. i would go have a coffee with those guys and actually find out what the idealperson is or who the end client is for that particular property in that suburb. let's just pretend you're buying into a suburbwithin 15 kilometres of brisbane as an example for today. you really want to be looking forsomething that's going to make the most common
personality type both now and in the future;or the most common demographic for that property type. because that's going to give you themost renters, it's going to give you also the most potential re-sale value and you reallywant to identify who you're building for before you start building. ryan: okay. so, you really want to understandthe demographics of an area. because you want your property to appeal to the widest audienceof people. because, then, you've got the better chance of getting renters and you've got abetter chance of getting a bidding war to push your property up in value. so, i understandbuilding for the demographics of the area but why above the median price?
ben: i always just like to have a propertythat stands out. so, let's just pretend i'm a regular investor or a regular buyer in anormal market or a regular renter in a normal market. if i go through and look at 15 housesbecause it's competitive and at the end of looking at those 15 houses, i can't even rememberthem. i want my house to be slightly more memorable than anybody else in the estate. so, a way that i suppose that you can lookat it is a lot of your people that list into on property and a lot of my clients have beenthrough, at some point in the past, a display home village in a new estate. and so, by thetime you've gone through the 10 properties, you can't remember anything except those 1to 2 houses that really stand out. because
they're slightly over specification and they'reslightly nicer and they just appeal to you better. they've got a better colour palette that worksall the way from the front door through to the back door. they've got simple things includedin the houses; like slightly higher roofs and ceilings that give that illusion of feelinga little bit bigger; like the nicer stone benchtops in the kitchens; the nicer stonewalls,ceramic vanities in the bathroom; the 2-pack instead of laminate kitchen finishes; theslightly bigger tiles. all of those things just, again, create an illusion of luxuryand price. where at the end of the day, you might end up only paying $5,000 to get thosefeatures in a brand new home.
ryan: yeah. that's a good thing to think about.because i know, i've been through display homes before and i'm trying to think backto the ones i remember or the parts that i remember. and again, most of it is a blurand the things that i remember is there was this one house that was positioned arounda cornered deck on the house that just let the sun in and just really stood out. i understand what you're saying there now.because you're competing against all these other houses in the area that have been atthe same time, similar sort of style, same age, you want your property to stand out andyou want the one. if everyone looks at 10 properties and they're all the same but yoursis a bit better, well then, they're going
to want to stretch for yours because it feelsnicer and they're going to remember that and, hopefully, want to purchase that property. let's talk about designing your build andchoosing the right house. obviously, we're looking at demographics for the area. that'sgoing to affect, i guess, how many bedrooms and lounge room size and stuff like that.but when you're looking at so many designs for so many different houses, how do i knowwhat to choose? ben: the first step with design is identifyyour budget before you start looking. because you can really be hurt when you have an illusionthat you want to go out and build a $300,000 or $400,000 beautiful 250 sqm to 300 sqm architecturalhome in an area but already paid $250,000
for the land and by building that, you'regoing to over-capitalise. so, identify what your budget is first and then look at designsthat fit within that budget. generally, i would say, some design featuresthat i personally like - and from working in the companies that i've worked in actuallysold in the market values as well - are house where everything has been thought of fromthe front letterbox to the back fence, and so the house flows. when you go and start talking to a lot ofdesigners and builders, often people want to change things because they want somethingto be custom. but often, the best liveable, most economical design to build will be theone that they actually present you at the
time. and that's a huge way to save some moneywith these guys is just by building what they actually can offer you. but i like placeswhere, from the front door, you can see all the way through to the back door. and thebedrooms, you always want to keep them a minimum, for the standard rooms, of 3 meters by 3 metersas you walk through the house. people really like study nooks at the moment, definitelywalk-in wardrobes in all of the bedrooms. for a master bedroom, you really want - ryan: walk-in wardrobes in every bedroom?like if you have a 4-bedroom house - ben: sorry about that. sorry, walk-in robesin the master and just robes in all of the others, built-in robes.
ryan: built-in, like built-in wardrobes. whatabout, you were saying, with the bedroom size, you're keeping it to a minimum 3 by 3. isthat for the secondary bedrooms? ben: that's for the secondary bedrooms. they'rethe bedrooms you walk in when you're in a rental property and you go, "ah, there's spacehere. i can easily fit a queen-size bed in, couple of bedside tables and there's stillroom to move around the room." those rooms that people walk into, generally, bedroomsin these smaller, older style house that are 2.5 meters wide, you walk in and you're like,"oh, that's a bit pokey. i could only get a single bed or a double bed in there andthere's no room for anything else in there." ryan: yup. i remember hearing on those investmentproperty shows and stuff, they're saying,
when you're selling a house, if you can fita double bed in there, then present it with a double bed. because people just struggleto imagine things so you need to show it to them. so, 3 by 3 is going to ensure that. you keep going because you were saying, seeall the way to the back. bedrooms, 3 by 3; have the built-in wardrobes and a walk-infor the master. what else? ben: definitely, regardless of the size ofthe home - so whether you're building 3-bedroom, 4-bedroom, 5-bedroom, 2-bedroom house - definitely2 bathrooms. so, 1 in for the general house and an en-suite for the master is extremelypopular. as you walk towards the back of the home,you really want your kitchen, your living
room, your dining room, your lounge room andyour outdoor area - so, generally, that's called an al fresco, is the term at the moment- to all flow from the time that you walk in to be able to see right through. that gives,again, an illusion of space and a real area, as families spend less and less time together,an area for them to all connect again at night over dinner and at breakfast in the morningand things like that. that concept, particularly in queensland,is all about inside-outside living. where, obviously, in some other states, you've gotto build houses where you can segregate parts of the houses for heating and cooling andstuff like that. ryan: yeah. so, if you're in tasmania then,obviously, you need to design it a bit differently
because you're not going to have the doorsopen all the time. if you guys are watching the video, you can see me and ben we're bothin queensland, we're both in t-shirts and it is - it's not even august yet. it's likethe end of july, middle of winter and we're both in t-shirts because it's so hot up here.so, yeah, definitely, i guess with the inside-outside, depending on your state and where you're living.try to apply to that. but even, like, in sydney, half the year it'sfreezing and then half of the year, it's quite nice. people like to have that inside-outsideeven if it's going to cost them in winter. that's just the perception that i have. idon't know if you see that as well. ben: no. from what i've notice from workingin the industry is that queensland design
almost always sets the standard in housingdesign across australia. so, because queensland is the most competitive - outside of perth- home-building market in australia, a lot of the progressive stuff, in terms of housedesign installs flows out of there and it's obviously adapted for those others states.so that, you know, you did build things a little bit smarter with more insulation, underfloorheating, thicker walls, you know, different products on the outside of the house, insulationin the roof and things like that. ryan: okay. so, what about in terms of theadd-ons and things that they present to you? because, generally, they present to you, frommy experience, a house that has the basics and here's the base price of the house. butthen, for an extra $2,000, you can add a wider
front door or for an extra x amount of dollars,you can add a stone benchtop or you can add a media room or this sort of stuff. what isworth buying and what's kind of worth staying away from? ben: that's a really, really good question.because there's so many things that they will upsell you into. because, obviously, theyget a percentage profit of the entire deal's value. so, if they can sell you an extra [inaudible14:22] of stuff, and then they're making 20% on that, then obviously, they're getting rewardedfor that. plus, a lot of builders, obviously, like, personally, homes and they like havingall those features. but in terms of what's necessary, i think- starting from the very front of the house
- i will always build an investment that isextremely attractive from the streets - that's got massive street appeal. to get street appeal,it's basically looking at multiple textures on the one surface. whether that be rendering,cladding, some sort of stone finish - which is popular now in parts of australia. andthen also, creating like a well-landscaped finished product at the front of the houseand putting plants in there that might be worth a little bit more money. instead ofputting a cheap couch in - that's like the investor standard - putting in a high qualityturf, all of those things add value. and then, as you move through the front ofthe house, definitely an oversized garage. you see with a lot of the modern garages ininvestment properties, you'd really struggle
to get a van or a four-wheel drive into someof those properties. ryan: yeah, dude. my garage, i don't actuallyuse it for my car but if i was to drive my car in - and i've got a honda jazz, i gota small car - you'd just get the doors open and you kind of just get out of it. they'renot really designed for comfort, are they, those garages? ben: just in regards to garage, i always tryand put in some extra shelving or some extra cabinetry as well. just as a value-add anda bit of an unexpected thing that people don't sort of assume that's going to be in there. ryan: yup. okay. so, we've got street appeal.so we want the multiple textures. what about
- you know how you can get the different roofpitches and stuff like that or you can get, i guess, whatever the triangle thing is calledthat goes over the front door and stuff like that. are different pitches worth investingin? ben: yes. so, i have recently, all of my investmentproperties are skilion-roofed. so, if i was to look at the roof, basically, it would besort of pitched like that. there's also the hip-style roof - ryan: not like a triangle, like it's justone roof that's fully pitched? ben: just one long line that runs from x hereto x there, whatever the height is. and it gives that appeal of a little bit more modern,a little bit more [inaudible 16:44] stuff.
and then there's the traditional hip-styleroof, which is extremely popular, and always will be. and then you've got your more urbandesign, which is a little bit more blockier and squarer. so, that's just a real personalpreference, identifying what the agents in the area think is going to sell. and also,try and not build something that's a trend now. because if you hold the house, in 20years, it's going to look horrible. like that sort of red brick stuff in the 70's and 80's. ryan: so, try and predict into the futureor however long you're going to hold it, what the trend is going to be there. ben: yeah.
ryan: okay, so we've got the front. we'vegot the street appeal, the plants, the oversized garage. what else should we look at investingin to? ben: i think, for me, floor coverings is huge.so, investing in a semi-high quality carpet for the areas that you're going to carpet.and whether you decide to go with a wood look, a timber or a tiled finish or even a vinyltimber look or tile finish on your flooring, just making sure - for me, personally, ifi'm going to go tiling, i'm only going to go 600 by 600 sqm tiles instead of your conventional400 by 400. for timber look, again, like what's popular right now is the sort of wider floorboards.those things are super important. that's worth investing money on because that's the wowfactor when people walk in.
definitely, in terms of the colour palette,keeping it neutral. so, you want to create a colour palette where people tend to addtheir own touches of creativity or personality into the house by the things that they bringinto the house. my partner, who's an interior designer, describes this best. you're reallylooking for, for example, a grey sofa where you can put your splashes of colour in termsof the cushions as opposed to a blue sofa where you put grey cushions, it's just thatsimple stuff. ryan: yeah. put the cushions there becausethen they can change. yeah, my wife loves the cushions. she's got so many cushions. ben: nothing that's going to polarise themarketplace. for example, i walk into a lot
of homes and some cultures have completelydifferent perceptions around colour. it's really hard to, regardless of culture, walkinto a house and, sort of, grey, white and very neutral to walk out of that home andhave any thought about it outside "it was very plain." and it's not going to polariseus as an investor or as a renter in the future. ryan: yeah. whereas, when you go into thehouses with very bold colours. you know, that may all like deep reds and all this sort ofstuff. like, all wallpaper, like, you go into these houses and people will put trendy wallpaper.but, i think, the fact of the matter is, most people go in, they're going to change thepaint anyway, or change the wall coverings anyway. so, you just want to have it neutralso it appeals to the most amount of people.
and so, it doesn't exclude anyone who says,"well, i don't like that wallpaper so i'm not going to buy that house." and even thoughtthey could remove it or they could paint it or whatever, a lot of people won't actuallythink about that if they're going to somewhere and there's a pink room and they've only gotboys. they're like, "well, we can't buy that house, there's a pink room." people's imaginationsdon't tend to span as far as we might like. so, i think, neutral, yeah, is super importantthere. ben: my partner actually learned somethingreally interesting when she was going through her interior design and this is somethingthat she takes for granted but she learnt that only 1 out of every 10 people can actuallysee a final completed product from a plan
and from the colour selections that have beenchosen before they go into a place. so, because 9 our of 10 people are so visual, you're goingto polarise 9 out of 10 people by doing something dramatic, why not just appeal to that middlemarketplace where the majority of people live so that they don't have to see beyond what'sthere to actually think about and get emotional an reaction to a property when they're buyingit or renting it. ryan: yup. and so, what about kitchen andbathrooms, is there things that are worth investing in there? like, is it worth a stonebenchtop in the kitchen? what about bigger shower or things like that? ben: this is such a personal thing, but, forall of our properties - investment or own
homes - we go semi-frameless or framelessshower. that's just a personal preference because i think the screens look really outdated.again, like a more expensive bathroom will have a ceramic as opposed to just your oldlaminate-style vanity in it. we also always put a mirror directly above the vanity whichacts as a secondary storage, like a storage-style mirror. and we generally like to floor-to-ceilingtiles that match the floor tiling all the way through the bathroom with a quality-lookingtap fittings and quality-looking toilet. because that's sort of the stuff that sort of addsvalues in people's minds and it's not that much more expensive to do when you do it upfront. ryan: so do you think it's worth - like thosefloor-to-ceiling tiles, rather than the tiles
that just go up halfway? you think that'sworth the investment? ben: if it's your principal place or residenceor in a premium area, 100%. if it's your cheaper investment and you just want to get someonein there and you're not really thinking about re-sale value because you're going to holdit forever, just tile in the shower and where you have to. you know, that little skirtingthat runs around the wet areas and things like that. ryan: okay. let's go into kitchen. but theni kind of want to get an idea of, like, for all the upgrades that we've talked about thatwe think is worth getting, how much do we think this is going to cost? so we'll getinto that in a second. but what about, like,
kitchen stone benchtops versus the other ones,whatever they're called? ben: sure. so, that's just like laminate-typeof product. if it's not stone, it's almost guaranteed to be laminate. a more expensivekitchen would have 2-pack as opposed to laminate. 2-pack's basically just being - it's a productthat's been connected and sprayed directly onto the wood. as opposed to a laminate, whichis being applied on top of the wood and can easily peel off over time. i always go for stone because stone's a hellof a lot heartier than the laminate as well and if you're going to hold a place for 10years, you really don't want it to deteriorate. plus, there's an association with stone andquality. so, from a price perspective, stone's
about $2,500, $2,000 more expensive but froma future issues perspective and a valuation perspective, it [easily pays for itself 23:07] ryan: so, easily, you think stone easily paysfor itself both in its enduring quality as well as the retail value of the property? ben: definitely. ryan: which stone? is the stone like it'sreally thin stone and then they join it or something or do you get like the thick stone? ben: i personally just do the budget stone,which is the 10 to 15 millimeter stone but you see some of the beautiful places thatdo on the show like the block or whatever,
and you know, they're using some seriouslythick stone. that stone is worth a significant amount more money, obviously. ryan: yeah. so, for most places, the thinnerstone is going to be just a better option. ryan: okay. what about, in the kitchen, likedouble sinks and like islands and stuff like that? ben: yes. so, the way that we build our kitchensis basically - let's pretend you've got a wall at the back and then you've got a stonebenchtop, as you said and island bench, so we basically create a space at the back, whichis just basically floor-to-ceiling cabinetry because most conventional kitchens just don'thave enough room. basically, we try to create
a triangle - which is the stove, the microwave,the dishwasher and the sink - within about a 1.5-metre triangle of each other. so thatif you need this, it's easy to access than walking between here, there and everywhereto try and get something. we generally say this is the back wall, this is your islandbench and then on the side of the house where the wall joins, we generally have a walk-inbutler's pantry that's just storage. and then we'll also have a fridge that's built-in intothat area as well so that it sits against the wall line as well. ryan: okay. so, your hemming, is it just likea straight wall and then an island or do you have a wall that kind of like bends aroundfor the pantry/fridge?
ben: we'll just have a wall that sort of sitsstraight like that. with the pantry and the fridge into it and then we'll have a backwall where all of our shelving is and our stove is and then we'll have an island, whichis where your basins and your cups and your dishwasher's tucked in underneath there. the only other thing that we do is, like soft-closedrawers, just give that illusion of quality as well. and we don't like to put handleson our kitchen benchtops and things like that. so, from a price perspective, you know, youmight be looking at an extra $600 or something for soft-close drawers and something thatyou can pull that doesn't have a handle bar and all that stuff represents quality in theeyes of the buyer and the renter.
ryan: yeah. i think it's interesting, likegoing through this with you, is that a lot of times, people spend their money, ratherthan on the upgrades, they're going to spend their money on re-working the design of theproperty. and if you're saying that if you go to a good company that's got progressivedesign, their standard designs are probably going to be the best thing for that property,anyway. so, if you can pull yourself in emotionally and stick with the standard design, then thatwould give you more money to spend on the upgrades and things like that. is there any framework we can give peopleon how much they should be spending on upgrades or not? or is it just so personal, we can'treally say anything?
ben: generally, you look at houses as a priceper square metre for the entire home. the bigger the size of the home, the cheaper thesquare-meterage rate. but let's say a 200-sqm home is a pretty conventional size at themoment. or anywhere between - let's jut call it 180 and 220 is just sort of standard homethat you're going to get for most builders o on standard block, anywhere in australiaright now. you're going to be looking at anywhere between, if it's a really high-end builder,$1,600 a square-metre and if it's absolute cheapest of the cheap builders, you mightbe looking at $1,200 to $1,300 retail. again, if you've got a relationship with thoseguys or you're making their life easy by choosing one of their standard designs, or you're preparedto move forward quickly, you can obviously
negotiate on price. there's no fixed price with any builder inaustralia, that's a complete illusion. it all depends on how many sales they've madethat month and how open to getting new business they are at that time that you go and seethem. ryan: so how would someone negotiate witha builder if they wanted to? ben: yeah, that's a really good question. ryan: because, obviously, we're not goingto know their sales cycles or anything like that. ben: yeah. so, going in and working with thatbuilder and sitting down and listening to
that builder and understanding. getting tothe person in the sales process that has an impact over budget as quickly as possibleis important. being an easy client. builders put a painfactor in for most clients. so, if you are going to be pain in the bum to deal with,they're going to charge you more money and they almost know that from the first timeyou sit with them. whereas, if you go in and you've got an idea about what you want - they'vegot a product or another build that you've seen as a better product that's very similarto what you want and you can present them with a starting point - and then you movethrough the process of getting to a fixed-price contract the soonest possible, all of thosethings are going to shave time, energy and
effort with that final price with that builder. but it's like negotiating anything else. it'sabout starting from here and just playing that game with them. it's a bit of a danceuntil you get a win-win solution for both of you. because at the end of the day, theyrun expensive companies and need to make money. but their price is never final, that's forsure. ryan: okay. what about he fixed-price versusthe variable price? some builders will say, this is a fixed-price contract so it won'tcost you any more if we run into problems or things like that. what do you think isthe best option? ben: definitely, i would never, ever moveforward with a contract that wasn't 100% fixed-price
by the time i was signing off on the finalhia or mba contract. you put yourself at massive risk if you do that. because, for example,they could come back with a soil test and they've quoted you with a h-type class butit's actually a different type of soil class, and all of a sudden, you're up for an extra$5,000 or $10,000 there or they've quoted you a basic shell price but there's no driveway,there's no landscaping, there's no grass, there's no fences, there's no floor coverings,there's no window coverings. so, what you really want to do is get a fully turn-keyprice. if i was to just build this property with you and next, i want to move into itafter it's finished, or rent it out, that's the price that you're looking for.
ryan: okay, cool. that's good for people toknow when they're going into this. do all builders offer this fully turn-key price?because i know, like, when i was looking at it, some builders offered it as a package,here's a turn-key package. whereas, other builders didn't seem to offer it from theget go but i felt like i could convince them to offer it, do you know what i mean? ben: so there's probably 3 or 4 builders australia-widethat i know that actually offer a turn-key product. and even getting those builders togive you that turn-key product upfront is near impossible. the major problem in thebuilding industry at the moment, australia-wide, is that people don't know what they're buyingbefore they sign a document and provide money
to that builder. and when they've done that,it's almost too late because they feel obliged to move forward with them when the builderchucks an extra $15,000 to $50,000 on the price. yeah, it's about identifying which of thosebuilders in the marketplace actually provide a fixed-price. i suppose the easiest way todo that would be to jump on a site like product review. google the builder that you're lookingfor and actually read about what people - people will give great feedback to the good buildersand absolutely slag off some of the others. and they're very, very emotional because they'veobviously invested so much money with these guys.
so, getting a fixed-price contract, i suppose,is having a checklist. and, ryan, i can supply you with just a basic checklist for your audience,if you like, that you can attach to this. ryan: yup. ben: it will just be these are the items thatyou need to look at for a build, and then you can go compare builder a versus builderb versus builder c to get that fixed price. but it's probably the most challenging thingyou're going to come up against in the construction process. actually getting to a final price,not depending on x, x or x. ryan: yup. so it's worth working towards that.if people want to get that checklist, i'll put it over at the blog. this will be episode300. so, just go to onproperty.com.au/300
or 3-0-0 and then we'll provide that checklistover there so you can get access to that. thank you so much, ben, for your time andfor sharing these sorts of things with us. so, you are going ahead and you're lookingat purchasing a property, you're looking at doing a build, keep some of those things inmind. obviously, it's always going to be speculative, based on who you are, your goals, the areaand all of that sort of stuff. but, at least, now you've got an idea and some guidelinesthat you can push for those turn-key packages. so, ben, let's just quickly talk about pumpedon property. let people know, if they don't know already, you're obviously working asa buyer's agent helping people buy new and existing properties. do you have many clientsbuying new properties or are most of them
existing? ben: yeah. so, generally, we help between7 and 10 people buy or build brand new property each month. and, i'd say, probably 3 to 4out of those people that work with us each month actually build or we support them tobuild. so, from that perspective, if you were our client, you'd come in, we'd identify exactlywhat you're looking for. i'd go out and reach out to a network of builders and basicallyget you a number of fixed-price quotes and designs to have a look at. we'd refine thatand massage that together. i would hold your hand all the way through the process of signingthe contract, getting the fixed-price quote. we actually also offer a service as part ofour package, which where we'll physically
manage the construction process on your behalfand then go and review the property on completion to make sure that there's no issues with theproperty as well before it'd get rented out. so, it's kind of like armchair investing,i suppose. and we'll hold your hand and coach you with [inaudible 33:32]. on average, we'dprobably save people between $20,000 and $30,000 on the price of their average build than ifthey would have walked into that same builder and do it themselves. ryan: yeah. i think that's pretty importantfor people to know is that this is an industry where there is a quite a lot of flex, dependingon what your relationships are and the builders that you work with and, as ben said, there'sonly a few builders who would do those turn-key
packages. and so, if you don't have experience buildingproperty, then it may be worth getting someone like ben to help you out with the build ofeither your home or probably your investment property, moreso, for ben. because he focuseson investors, is that correct? ben: yeah, 100%. sorry, i'm not the best forthose emotional guys looking for their dream home. ryan: okay. so, if you're building an investmentproperty - i just didn't want to put that on you and say you won't deal with homeownersif you do. but yeah, if you're looking at building an investment property, you wantsomeone who has the inside knowledge, you
want someone who can save you a bit of money.and, truthfully, knowing this industry and knowing how these things work, having someoneon the inside who has relationships and can cut out a middle man or two, can save youa significant amount of money. and then, obviously, ben can walk you through in more detail, likepersonalised things about your kitchen and your bathroom and the layout and all of thesesort of stuff. look, if it was me, i would probably get yourhelp. i don't think i would build a house by myself anymore. ben: sure. ryan: just so people know, you can check himout, go to pumpedonproperty.com. just so you
guys know, if you do let him know you camefrom on property, i will get a referral fee for that. so, obviously, take that with agrain of salt, my recommendation because we do have a partnership there. but, yeah, thank you so much, ben. this hasbeen really insightful to me because i didn't know a whole heap about what to choose andwhat works well. and so, i feel like i've learned a lot and i think the listeners willas well. ben: thank you so much for your time, guys.and, yeah, i appreciate your support as always, ryan. thanks a lot, mate. ryan: alright, peace out. talk to you later,bye.