'The market was very intense': How one couple cracked the hot Queensland property market

In our Buyer Diary series, you meet recent first-home buyers, next-home buyers and investors from around the country and discover how they made their property purchase.

After living in the United States for the past 15 years, Deborah and Joel Flom decided to move back to Australia in late 2025.

Their two children were now into their 20s, and the pair were keen to start the next stage of their life in a warmer climate with a better lifestyle.

They sold their house in Colorado and set their sights on the Coolum area of the Sunshine Coast, but what they didn’t bet on was the fierce competition from other buyers.

What inspired you to move back to Australia?

Deborah: We had been landlocked in Denver for 15 years, so I wanted to get back to the ocean; I didn’t want to be inland.

We came to Coolum when the kids were little and we loved it. And I feel like Coolum still has that small-town feel. It still has locals who can afford to live here, although that is starting to change, but it’s just beautiful.

Colorado is also beautiful, but after those winters, I thought, ‘If I never see snow in my life again, I don’t care.’

How did you find the house hunting process?

Joel: When we got to the Sunshine Coast, the market was very intense. We started going to inspections, and I would say half of them had already been sold or under contract. So you were basically doing the courtesy walk-through and handing in yet another offer.

We started to get the sense that we were seeing properties too late. We also wanted to buy cash with no mortgage, so we capped our budget at $1.2 million.

We were coming into a market where we got a good exchange rate from US dollars, but it was immediately apparent to us that we were on the lower end of the market here.

Then, once we understood how many pre-listing inspections there were at that time, that’s when we started thinking about a buyer’s agent.

Deborah: The whole process was very exhausting. I was working full time, we were staying in an Airbnb, and then we would go out to do property inspections on the Saturday. Half of the open for inspections were at the same time, so you’d be running from one to the other.

How did the buyer’s agent help?

Deborah: We used a buyer’s agent from Vendee who started going to the inspections for us. They were weeding out properties and doing due diligence on things that we may have missed.

There were a couple of houses that we loved, for example, and the buyer’s agent let us know that there were issues, including one that was in a flood zone.

Also, since we knew we were at the lower end of the market, we had to be really creative. We wanted a lot of things on our list, but we had to figure out that right mix, and that was where they were helpful in walking us through which aspects of a wish list we were willing to sacrifice.

Tell me about your new home?

Joel: After about six weeks, we ended up purchasing a four-bedroom, three-bathroom terrace-style home in a Peregian Springs strata development.

We paid $1.13 million, so under budget. We were aggressive with the offer though, and we went $20,000 over asking. Our buyer’s agent said to us, ‘If you like it, you have got to go for it.’ And the offer was accepted quickly.

Do you miss anything about the US?

Deborah: We miss our son and family members still back in the States, but overall, no, we love it here.