Deciding what to buy
Build your buying brief
Turn your household needs, space requirements and compromises into a document you can actually use at inspections — before listings start setting your priorities for you.
- A buying brief separates genuine needs from nice-to-haves, written before you start looking.
- Six categories — non-negotiable, strong preference, optional, compromise, unknown, rejection condition — keep the brief useful rather than a vague wishlist.
- A written brief is genuinely useful at inspections and for aligning with a partner or buyer's agent.
Why write it down
A buying brief is a short document that separates what your household genuinely needs from what would just be nice to have — written before listings, agent photography and open-home atmosphere start shaping your judgement. Consumer Affairs Victoria's own buying guidance recommends deciding your preferred location and desired property features before you start looking, for exactly this reason.
The categories that matter
Non-negotiable — without it, the property doesn't work for your household.
Strong preference — meaningfully improves suitability, but you'd compromise on it.
Optional — worth having only if the price is right.
Compromise — a trade you've explicitly decided you'll accept.
Unknown — something you still need to research or experience before deciding.
Rejection condition — something that rules a property out entirely.
Using the brief
A written brief is genuinely useful at inspections — compare what you're looking at against your own non-negotiables rather than relying on memory or in-the-moment enthusiasm — and useful to share with a partner or a buyer's agent so everyone is working from the same document, not separate mental lists.
Practical checklist
Building your brief
- List your household's daily, occasional and imagined uses of a home separately
- Sort each requirement into non-negotiable, preference, optional or rejection condition
- Note the compromises you're prepared to accept and why
- Record the unknowns you still need to research or experience