City V's Country

I took a 4 hour trip to Flinders on the weekend with 8 girls that I went to school with. For those of you who have never heard of Flinders it’s a sleepy little town along the coast of the Mornington Peninsula and on a beautiful sunny day you can see Phillip Island from the shore.

It’s the first time all of us had been away since we made a break to schoolies at the end of our time spent in the class room. I was amazed how much our actions & conversation had changed over the 6 years since we have been out of school. We weren’t as brazen as we used to be, now preferring a nice glass of white or red wine over cheap red bears and cruisers we were drinking at schoolies but that wasn’t the only thing that had changed. Our conversations had turned from talking about exams and TER scores to private health insurance, purchasing homes & mortgage & car repayments.

We had an even split with City v’s Country if you exclude me from the bunch. There were 4 city girls & 4 country girls.

The main difference I saw between the girls from the city & the country is that their conversations were slightly different. The country girls seemed to have either bought or were talking about buying their first home & discussing mortgage repayments whilst this wasn’t a thought on the radar for the city girls. It made me ponder the idea - if this is the case, is living in the country more beneficial to you financially when starting out? A significant factor for this is Real Estate prices in the country compared to those in the city. Will the country girls be more financially stable as they are able to break in to the real estate market a lot earlier then those who are living in Melbourne?

The girls in the country are repaying mortgages instead of paying rent & hopefully getting some capital growth along the way – all this is formed around the affordability of living & buying in Echuca over living & contemplating the dream of buying a house or apartment in inner Melbourne.

The start of my compulsive saving went hand in hand with my first purchase of Real Estate. It gave me something to aspire to and save towards. I have since sold the house that I built with my brother which has left me in a far better financial position than I was before my first real estate purchase.

I see some obvious benefits of living in Melbourne. They have the major events ie: sporting, entertainment, however all of this costs money.

I did have a short stint in Melbourne and the pinnacle reason for my return was because I was able to save and make a life in Echuca & could therefore do more of the things I wanted to do because I was more financially stable. It hasn’t always been easy with friends living it up in the city – having extremely exciting social lives. However, I can now afford to go away for weekends to Flinders or go to Melbourne to catch up with my friends & also do what I am most passionate about, which is travel.

Starting out and getting your foot into the real estate door is always a tough decision. It’s an even harder decision when the First Home Buyer range is between $400,000 - $500,000 in inner city Melbourne. Echuca is a great place to call home and helps me with my journey to financial stability. I don’t feel like I have missed out on what my other city friends have because everything they have done I have experienced it with them.

Gen Z keeps this Gen Y on her toes!

Last week, a young work experience student – Harry – came in to the office to learn the ropes about Real Estate. It was refreshing to have Harry in the office with his vibrant attitude and a strong eagerness to learn.

It made me remember the first time I decided that selling real estate was going to be my chosen profession. I was 16 and had arranged to do a week of work experience at a Graphic Design firm in the heart of Melbourne. I was staying with my uncle who was the manager of a boutique real estate office in South Yarra along Toorak road. I would go to work with him in the mornings and make my way down to St Kilda road for my week of work experience. After the first few days I realised the best part of my day had been going to work with my uncle in the mornings and chatting to the staff before they started their day. They were lively, fun, vibrant and I felt like it would be a great industry to work in. Little did I know that same office would be where I would start my real estate career 3 years later.

Harry probably felt like he was here to learn from us (technically he was), however I felt it was the other way around. His skills & positive attitude with the feeling that the world is his oyster was something that rubbed off when I was working with Harry.

It made me first of all appreciate that life is short because it felt like only yesterday that I was doing work experience myself with the pressures of finding a suitable career. Harry also made me realise that the younger generation have a lot to offer. Their ideas are fresh, their minds are eager & they pick up on things so quickly. It is easy to get into the every day grind and forget to be inspired or to give yourself time to grow your ideas or how important it is to work in an environment where your ideas are appreciated and respected.

I spoke to Harry about his thoughts on going into schools and chatting to Year 12 students about Housing and everything that awaits them when they leave school. We discussed how difficult it is to find a home when you have never rented and how difficult it is to save money when you have nothing to save towards. He gave me some great ideas on what would work and what wouldn’t.

One thing Harry made me realise is; as I grow older and wiser (I hope), I will make a commitment to keep learning & to continue to develop new ideas, new ways of doing things end evolve with the use of technology. It will be essential for me to continue practising & honing my skills as everything in life has an expiry date and there is always a newer model.

It’s like my grandmother at the ripe old age of 69 – asking me to teach her how to text 6 months ago. I commend her on continuing to learn as it’s too easy not to.

Last but not least I would like to write a note to my ex school teacher who has subscribed to my blog – thank you for your support & words of wisdom last week. You continue to teach & inspire me long after I have left the classroom.