New property developers don’t know what they don’t know. That is not a criticism; it is simply how a first project works. On a recent episode of the Property Mastermind Podcast, Bob Andersen and Hilary Saxton walked through one ordinary week of questions from their mentoring students, with names changed, and the mistakes that were caught before they cost money. Between Bob, Hilary and Aaron, the team fields 15 to 20 questions a week each, from quick texts to hour-long Zoom calls. Here are seven of them.
1. The broker who didn’t know development finance
Andy had bought a site, had approvals underway and a builder lined up, and needed to sort construction finance. His broker’s emails were full of “I’m investigating this” and “I’m looking into lenders”. As Bob puts it, a good commercial broker who knows development finance isn’t investigating. He already knows.
Bob checked the broker’s website: car loans, equipment leases, home loans, chattel finance, everything. A jack of all trades, and definitely not a master of commercial property finance. The package he was assembling came out hundreds of thousands of dollars above Andy’s feasibility, built on lenders Bob had never heard of in decades of borrowing. Andy was panicking because it blew his numbers to bits.
The fix was one introduction to a specialist broker. Andy is now saving around $200,000 compared with what the first broker was lining up. Bob has watched inexperienced brokers kill deals for new developers in exactly this way.
2. The building contract that didn’t match the finance
The same week, Andy was about to sign a draft building contract from one of the industry associations, because it looked standard. The catch is that a building contract is legally binding, and your finance approval comes with its own conditions. When the two don’t line up, the financier can withhold money, and the quantity surveyor who sits between you and the builder cannot release payments. Bob has seen quarter-built and half-built projects stall this way.
He picked out eight items for Andy to raise with the builder before signing, not after. The rule: understand your finance conditions first, then match the building contract to them, not the other way around. There is more than one builder out there, but the money is coming from this financier.
3. The joint venture agreement in conflict
Sophie joined the mentoring program with projects already underway. One of them is near completion with three parties involved: a paid project manager, an equity partner who put in most of the money, and a serviceability partner. The relationship has soured. Bob’s first step is to read the joint venture agreement, drafted by a lawyer he has known for 15 years, and look for a businesslike resolution before anyone starts paying $1,000 a letter.
He is also working through the finance at the end of the project. A slow build has consumed the capitalised interest, so the question is how to carry the completed stock until it sells. Sophie’s own verdict is that she should have joined earlier. Bob hears “I’ll find a deal, then join” often, and on several occasions has had to tell someone they bought the wrong site and it cannot be fixed. Good due diligence before you buy is the whole point.
4. Three builder quotes that couldn’t be compared
Simon and Ben had three quotes for a two-stage project: subdivide off an existing house and renovate it, then build a duplex on the remaining land. The quotes covered different scopes, so they weren’t apples with apples. On a new build the fix is simple: give every builder the same fixtures, fittings, colours and brands list, and tell them to price that regardless of their preferred suppliers. For a renovation it is messier, so Aaron is using AI to pull the inclusions and exclusions apart into one comparison sheet. You still need to know your own requirements and ask the right questions, but it is faster and more thorough than the old spreadsheet.
5. The architect who ignored the brief
David owns a site suited to four townhouses and briefed an architect tightly, using the brief template from the course. What came back was magnificent, almost working drawings, with planters and hanging gardens, and completely wrong for the suburb. The area sells townhouses at around $1.1 million to $1.5 million; the design belonged in an area selling at $2.5 million or more. David spotted it the moment he saw the plans. The fix is to bring the builder in now to work with the architect, keep the bones and strip the expensive trappings. It costs a week or two, but the DA can still be lodged before Christmas. If you want more on where design costs hide, Bob covered it in detail recently.
6. A first feasibility, and a weekly call
Sam is looking at a duplex and wanted confidence in his numbers. Bob stepped back to the due diligence first, checking service connections, trees and levels, then worked from a basic design. The big numbers are always the sale price, the land and the build cost. Sam had done his reconnaissance on what the area wants, and his second or third feasibility was close, with one finance line item missing.
Kelly, meanwhile, is heading toward lodging a DA for three townhouses, kept on track by a standing weekly call. Some weeks not much happens; the rhythm is what keeps a project moving. He started in the Mastery group program and moved up to one-on-one mentoring.
7. The deal that fell over, then came back cheaper
James rang with what Hilary calls a low five. His contract fell over when an investor couldn’t follow through. The sellers, in the middle of a marriage breakup, then dropped the price by around $200,000 within a month, and James has re-signed with a new equity partner. The lesson from both Andy and James: have your investor conversations early, so a deal doesn’t depend on one person.
Bonus: do falling house prices kill development profit?
Two workshop attendees asked whether softer house prices mean development can’t make money. Bob’s answer: most development sites are houses, so sites have come down too. Price falls are not a blanket thing. The top end is hit hardest, the bottom barely moves, and some suburbs have gone up. A duplex won’t be sold for about two years anyway. Buyers are quiet right now, which is an opportunity to buy sites better.
What this week has in common
Every one of these questions was about a specific deal, which is why one-on-one mentoring works differently to a group answer. None of these problems looked like problems until they were about to cost a deal. Having someone to call who has seen it before is the difference.
Hear the full stories, including the eight contract items Bob flagged: listen to episode 277 of the Property Mastermind Podcast. And to see the whole process laid out step by step, join the free Profit with Property Development Masterclass on Saturday 21 November 2026, 9am to 1pm AEDT, live on Zoom with Bob and Hilary.