Conveyancer Jodie combines love of property law with love of real estate
Practitioner Jodie Sherman's shared passion for her clients' property sales and purchases has paid off with a raft of repeat business.
THE countdown is on for Gold Coast-based conveyancer Jodie Sherman who can’t wait for the rollout of Queensland’s long-time-coming Seller’s Disclosure Regime.
“It excites me because it is a big solution to a massive ongoing problem in Queensland,” says Jodie, 44, who works for Dott & Crossit Conveyancers and Solicitors.
“When you’re selling a property, you should have all your ducks in a row before you sell, and we have never done that before in Queensland. We are the only state in the country that doesn’t do any kind of seller’s disclosures for buyers.
“So the overhaul of the Property Law Act, which was drafted 2 years ago, becomes legislation on August 1. And, thanks to the power of triSearch, we are working together to put a disclosure package within their search functionality that conveyancers will be able to use when helping agents get homes on the market.
“Believe me, the Seller’s Disclosure Regime is a long time coming! It is great news for Buyers, and I honestly think it will prevent a lot of Contracts from terminating.”
Formerly a highly paid pharmaceutical rep, Jodie, was looking to find a job where she could travel less after having her first daughter eleven years ago.
“A friend of mine is a lawyer and he said I should become a conveyancer because I would never be without work. And he was exactly right,” says the mother of two, who was the first conveyancer in Queensland to do a residential PEXA transaction when she was working in Cairns.
“I love everything about the job. I always wanted to be a lawyer so being a conveyancer combines my love of property law with my love of real estate. I love to provide a great service and people see the passion I have for what I do which in turn has created loyal referrers over the years.
“Most people selling are excited to be selling a property and most buyers are pretty excited about buying one”.
“You’ve got quite a lot of cool clients you’re dealing with, so the excitement towards the end is awesome.
“Conveyancing is a fast-paced environment which suits me as I love challenges and problem solving under pressure.”
With the rush to try and build the government’s quota of 1.2million houses to ease Australia’s current housing crisis, Jodie says the politicians are forgetting some key aspects of the chain.
“I think it will be interesting to see if they can get these houses built that they keep talking about,” she says. “Everyone is talking about the housing crisis and how they want to get so many houses built by a certain date. Yet nobody seems to be addressing the fact we don’t have enough tradespeople to execute their plan. We don’t have enough builders to deliver the homes. Plus, material costs are through the roof. I think this is definitely some of the challenges facing the building industry.
“So, while there’s a rollout of abolishing stamp duty for first homebuyers in Queensland – up to $800,000 for a new build or a new house – it is still going to be restrictive with them purchasing as there’s not a lot of those properties out there for the first homebuyers to get their feet into the market. It would be much better if they could purchase any property under $800,000.00 with no stamp duty.”
