After reading 
However, to be honest, we didn't need to do much research. The area we had our hearts set on was nestled on the edge of a national park, meaning it couldn't be developed further with new housing estates that had destroyed areas in the same shire. One can only buy an empty block or an existing house, and because we didn't want to build, an existing house was the answer.
The thing is, the entire area is one of the most expensive places in Australia to buy.
Around 2000, the median house price was $170k.
Now, it's 1.3 - 1.4 million.
You're not actually buying a spectacular house for that either - it's usually a small weatherboard house with no insulation.
What you're actually buying is proximity to the ocean and forest in a really beautiful part of the state, a place people come to holiday or spend the day or weekend.
We always thought it wasn't something we could afford, and in 2007, we moved half an hour inland to 5 acres and a weatherboard house we renovated for $300k, because a small house in Anglesea on 700 m2 was more like $450k. In hindsight, had we stretched the mortgage, we would have done quite well.
However, the most important thing to us was to have NO DEBT.
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When the house came up in Anglesea, we just lucked out which probably wasn't a good way to search for houses. However, right place at the right time coupled with damn good real estate agents and the right person coming along to buy our house meant we ended up in our paradise.
Did we look at fire and flood? Well, yes, it was in the back of our mind. In fact, being right next to a national park meant that one day we might be impacted by fire. Everyone living in this area has a fireplan - we leave under certain conditions, know we may lose our home, and we spend summers clearning up bark and leaves and cleaning gutters. Whilst the risk is real, it hasn't lowered the value of our house and it's the anxiety people put up with to live in this area.
As for crime, the demographic is such it's filled with boomers who have either second homes here or have retired to their second home here. There's a good neighbourhood watch and everyone looks after each other. As the suburb can't and won't extend, we have less people moving into the area from Melbourne like neighbouring suburbs whose crime has moved up.
We are also empty nesters so we didn't give a flying hoot about proximity to schools. There is an excellent primary school here and secondary school kids get the bus either to Geelong (30 - 40 minutes away) or to Torquay (20 minutes away). That's what I did growing up on the coast.
There are, however, a few things we did take into account when buying this place that made us feel more comfortable
- no termites/whiteants
- single brick (warmer) - it's almost impossible to find brick houses in this area
- it had been restumped and no obvious cracks
- there was a SHED, which though it needed work, was concrete based and built at end of relatively flat driveway. This was a miracle in this town and to build a shed would have cost us at least $50k
- Whilst small, this worked in our favour as many wouldn't want to buy a small house that did need some work. Families like bigger in Australia, and boomers want the view of the sea.
- whilst it needed work, we could do it ourselves and nothing too complicated
The other thing was how to fund it when we were both working on short contracts - not favourable for the bank - and it was dependent on the sale of the old place. We did stretch things a little, saying Jamie was ongoing (which they didn't check) and that we were going to rent out our current house. But the biggest contributor we had to our finances was a 400k loan from my parents. When I say parents, I mean Mum - but if it wasn't for my father dying, there's no way they could have lent us that money. It was part of a payout he got for acquiring mesothelioma. Whether or not you call this loan part of the whole 'luck' parcel or not, I don't know, but there certainly was a whole set of circumstances that happened for us to be able to pull it off.
We then were panicking about whether we'd sell the house on time for enough money to at least break even. Our place had gone up in price by four times since we'd bought it, so even if we didn't live on the coast which was probably selling for six to eight times more, we bought well enough for it to be worth something.
We'd had a lowball offer which would have meant we'd be in debt some 50k - 100k, meaning no money for renovations and a mortgage to pay. At that point I was getting upset about how neither of us seemed to have any financial acumen at all. However, again, luck meant another offer came in at the same time and the initial one loved it that much she outbid him meaning we got over the asking price, could pay for some 50k of renovation (solar panels, new iron on roof and insulation, Ikea kitchen, floor sanding, repainting and a few other things) and still have a little left over.
We also were able to put in an offer under 200k from their asking price - they needed to sell, and we were in a winter slump generally. I think they'd overestimated demand and had to settle fast for their new place. In Australia, capital gains tax is zero if you've lived in the house for most of the time - I think there's even a six year rule meaning even if you rent the house out for six years you still don't pay it (correct me if I'm wrong) so we had nothing to worry about there.
We did pay $12k worth of bank fees for the loan - asshats - but that was way cheaper than a bridging loan, and it could have been worse if we hadn't sold the old house faster than we did and before the interest rates went up just as we paid off the loan - I know right!
Somehow we'd got a house in a desirable coastal suburb and ended up a lot better off than we started, even though we'd really thrown whatever caution we had to the wind.
It's even gone up in estimated value by 1.6 percent, though that would be more given the work we've done on it.
However, all of that is a moot point - we are just happy to be debt free and to live in a place we absolutely love.
It's also a wise decision becauase if we travel it'd be easy to maintain and rent out, we could Air BNB it if we were strapped for cash, and it'll genearlly cost us less in maintenance than the old place.
So whilst arguably you can look at metrics for a good house purchase all you like, sometimes it's just all the ducks lining up in a row by some coincidence, timing, and luck. Or maybe some financial nouse you didn't know you even had. I know some people here will shake their heads in despair at our 'strategy' but it worked for us - thank goodness. I do think you could loosely argue that the universe has a way of providing and if you have to force something that hard it's probably not worth doing. Whilst this was anxiety inducing, if we couldn't make the figures work it would never have happened at all.
Bloody will never do it again though, what a stress!