Massive 80 hour weeks lands 38 yo first home in sizzling market

38 year old butcher Chris Jarvis bought his first home at Labrador after working 80-hour weeks. Picture: Adam Head

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A Queensland butcher worked 80 hour weeks to crack the sizzling housing market for his first home, but expects to buy his second much faster thanks to surging property values,

GJ’s Organic Meats owner-operator Chris Jarvis had taken out a loan to buy the butchery business off an $80,000 deposit, paying that off first before jumping into the Labrador housing market.

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Chris Jarvis employs around a dozen people in his organic meats business.

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“As far as money goes, I’m very patient,” he said. “When I first bought the business, I didn’t spend a single cent. I didn’t buy any new shoes, the only thing I bought to make myself comfortable was new work clothes and socks for about two years.”

Buying his first home in Labrador for $680,000 came after around three years of savings – with the previous owner having paid $275,000 for it in 2009.

“I’ve owned the house now for about four or five months, and previous to that, for two and a half to three years, I didn’t spend any money.”

“It’s a lovely duplex, very spacious and a great big backyard, which I’ve spent a lot of money on already inside and out.”

He has a garden growing with vegetables and fruit trees and loves that the property is just two streets from his business.

Agnes Fu of Little Real Estate says owner occupiers are on the rise again.

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Agnes Fu, sales consultant at Little Real Estate, said owner occupiers had made a big comeback in the Gold Coast property market in the last six months making up 85 per cent of attendees at open homes.

PropTrack data found house prices rose in 41 Gold Coast suburbs during the December quarter, 17 suburbs saw prices drop from record high and two suburbs remained unchanged.

Competition for property, Mr Jarvis said, “was an absolute nightmare”.

“I’m quite a patient person, but I just looked up at the sky every now and again and just kept asking for what I wanted.”

Working on weekends meant he could get to many open homes and auctions, so he liaised with agents directly on homes up for private treaty sales.

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38 year old butcher Chris Jarvis who cracked the sizzling housing market with a lot of hard work and determination, buying his first home at Labrador after working 80-hour weeks. pics Adam Head

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Mr Jarvis now plans to buy again in the neighbourhood, though it may be a commercial property for his cured meats business rather than residential.

“I will buy a commercial property, maybe 200 sqm, something for less than a million maybe, about $700,000 would be about where my budget is.”

He said prices gone “crazy” in the last three years, with even the investor-quality duplex he bought seeing massive gains.

“My place is original cupboards, drawers and everything and it works fine, but it is very outdated. I find a lot of people buying these places, knocking walls out, and redoing the gardens and things which lifts the value.”

He’s spent about $20,000 on the property already.

“I’ve got to put a great big gate out the front and an overhead roof, but that’ll come when I’ve got some time. It’s hard to find tradies so you have to actually do some of the work yourself. I was a chippy for about three years so the walls I’ve installed myself saving about $5,000.”

His tip for anyone househunting was to check everything: “flush the toilet, turn the shower on, look through the cupboards for mould, check for sagging ceilings, give the carpet a bit of a scuff, check the blinds, open and close the doors, see the tracks are all okay.”

“That’s $100s to $1000s of dollars to replace things if you can find a tradesman that wants to do it for over $100 an hour.”

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