Member Resource Hub
This page is part of your private learning library designed exclusively for expat buyers who want structure, clarity, and confidence before taking action while overseas.
The Goal
Before you can decide where to buy, you need to understand what to buy.
This is where every successful search begins, defining the type of property that fits your purpose, lifestyle, and long-term plan. Most expats skip this step and end up with a list that’s too broad to act on.
By the end of this module, you’ll know exactly what kind of property suits your goals:
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Home, investment, or both
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House, townhouse, or apartment
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The non-negotiables that make your search focused and realistic
🎥 Training Video: From Idea to Brief – Turning Vague Ideas into Clear Buying Goals
This short video walks you through how to turn loose ideas into a clear property brief. You’ll see how we help clients define what they’re really buying, before they start searching.
Start Here - Defining What to Buy & How Much You Can Comfortably Spend
Before you decide what to buy, it’s crucial to understand how much you can actually spend.
It sounds obvious but it’s the single biggest factor that defines your entire property brief.
Most buyers, especially expats, start with ideas about property types or suburbs. But the real foundation of your search isn’t location, it’s budget. Your price point shapes every other decision, from the type of property you can target to how much competition you’ll face, and even how flexible your offer strategy can be.
The challenge for overseas buyers is that it’s almost impossible to calculate this accurately from afar. Property costs in Melbourne move fast, and there are layers of additional expenses to consider, stamp duty, legal fees, maintenance, insurance, management costs, and loan structures that are often very different for expats.
That’s why we start every client journey here. We help you map out your real comfort budget, not just what the bank says you can borrow, but what you can comfortably hold long term.
Watch the Training Video: Calculating Your Real Comfort Budget
Join Steve as he walks you through how we help every client uncover their true purchasing power, including examples, breakdowns, and resources to calculate it on your own.
Download the Budget & Cost Calculator Toolkit
Use our interactive spreadsheet to map your total buying power, ongoing costs, and target price point — designed specifically for Melbourne property purchases from overseas.
Need help clarifying your buying brief?
Book a one-on-one session with Steve to review your property goals and fine-tune your Shortlist.
The Expat Property Quiz
For most expats, the hardest question isn’t where to buy, it’s what to buy.
Is it a future home to move back to someday?
An investment property to start building wealth now?
Or something in between, a hybrid that does both?
It’s one of the most important (and confusing) decisions you’ll make from overseas. The right answer depends on your goals, lifestyle, timeline, and often, the trade-offs you’re willing to make.
That’s why we created the Expat Property Quiz. A guided tool that gets to the real bottom of what matters most to you. The questions are designed to probe deeper than surface preferences, helping you see your own motivations clearly and avoid getting stuck between competing ideas.
At the end of the quiz, you’ll see a scoring chart showing which type of property best fits your current situation - future home, investment, or hybrid. This clarity becomes the foundation for building 2–3 very specific property concepts, each with a defined price point.
Here’s the key insight we’ve learned after decades of guiding Australians abroad:
👉 Do not think about suburbs yet.
Trying to decide what and where at the same time creates confusion and stalls progress. To start is about focus and defining the right property types first. Location refinement comes later, where we apply those clear concepts to the Melbourne market.
This is a core feature of The Shortlist Method and one of the biggest reasons our expat clients succeed in buying from overseas.
Take the Expat Property Quiz
Answer a few key questions to uncover what truly matters most to you and discover which type of Melbourne property best fits your goals.