Sam Harper bought a $225,000 home in Ballarat this month and said it was still possible to find ‘incredible deals’ in Australia. (Source: Sam Harper/TikTok/Instagram)
A young tradie has issued a reality check to first-home buyers after he was able to purchase a home for just $225,000 this month. Property prices have skyrocketed across the country and the dream of buying your own home can seem impossible for many young Australians.
Sam Harper said it’s a sentiment he is hearing from young people all the time and it’s something he wants to push back against. The 27-year-old electrician turned house flipper told Yahoo Finance it was still possible to find cheap properties in Australia, but you had to think outside the box and be prepared to make some major sacrifices.
“You can’t expect the capital cities are going to stay cheap forever, so people will naturally start moving out a little bit further. And that’s where opportunities like this are,” Harper said.
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“If you want something around that price [$225,000], you’re not gonna be able to get a free-standing house. That’s just the reality of it.
Harper said there were still “opportunities” in the capitals, but generally they were ones you would need to do a fair bit of work on.
“That’s generally where the opportunity is, because most people don’t want to do the work. That’s half the problem with young people these days. They want a newly renovated house at the start, but it’s just not the reality of it,” he said.
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Harper said the Ballarat home would require a full gut. (Source: Sam Harper/Supplied)
The property Harper purchased this month is in Ballarat and was an “ex hoarder house”, which still had furniture inside.
“It’s pretty much a full gut. So the whole inside needs a lot of work. The outside needed quite a bit of work as well,” Harper told Yahoo Finance.
He has put new flooring in throughout the home, stripped the bathrooms, and is putting in a new kitchen. While it’s not finished yet, he estimated the renovations would cost between $70,000 and $80,000.
The project will take between four to five weeks in total, with the house set to be back on the market next month. It will be the seventh property he has flipped in the last year and a half.
The home is set to be listed for sale next month. (Source: Sam Harper/Instagram)
Harper shared a video on social media of the $225,000 property he purchased, saying that many people in Australia believed property was “too expensive”, but his experience showed “incredible deals” were out there but people had to go find them.
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The video divided commentators, with some Aussies pointing out they shouldn’t need to move regionally just to afford a home.
“Yes, $225,000 to live 3 billion km from my job. Housing in Australia is just soooo affordable isn’t it?” one clearly sarcastic Aussie wrote.
“What’s a first home buyer with a family going to do with a junk yard and no skills to do it up?” another commented.
”Some of us don’t have jobs or careers that are that location flexible. I bought an hour outside of a major city and was stoked to get a house [for] $720,000,” another said.
Others agreed with Harper that deals were out there, arguing people were unrealistic with their expectations for their first homes.
“Unfortunately, the young ones don’t want to work their way up. They want the best house now,” one said.
“Unfortunately everyone wants a 4 bedroom house already renovated in the suburbs for their first homes. It’s a little unrealistic,” another agreed.
At the end of the day, Harper said people couldn’t control house prices so they had to focus on what was in their control and “look for other ways” to get ahead.
“I’ve found this property, it’s obviously regional, so it’s an hour away from the capital city. But if you have to move out of the capital city to be able to get your foot in the door and then start building your way up. You’re going to have to make little sacrifices like that if you want to get ahead,” he said.
“But in saying that, if you don’t go down that path, then you’ve got to find ways to increase your income.”
For Harper, that’s come through house flipping, which he now does full-time.
Harper said people needed to look for other ways to get ahead. (Source: Sam Harper/Instagram/Supplied)
“I’ve learnt the skill-set of how to buy properties and fix them up and put them back to market. That’s dramatically increased our income, which has opened up so many more opportunities,” he said.
Harper bought his first home at the start of the pandemic in April 2020, a duplex in Perth for $278,000.
He did a basic renovation to the property and ended up selling it for $400,000 about 18 months later.
When searching for homes to flip, Harper said he looks for ones that most people wouldn’t want to touch, like the hoarder house he bought or ones with “grass going up to the windows”.
“I try to look for ones where you can just do cosmetic repairs that don’t necessarily cost an arm and a leg,” he said.
“Things like paint, flooring. You don’t necessarily have to redo the bathroom and kitchen. Sometimes you can just tidy them up if they’re still in okay condition.”
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