What should I do before I search for a Property?

You are at the start of your property journey.  What should you do now?

The first thing that you should do is to contact your Bank or Mortgage Broker and find out how much you can spend.  You should also consider how much the mortgage repayments will be.  You should only borrow an amount that you are comfortable borrowing and feel comfortable that you are able to make the repayments.

Now that you have an idea of what your mortgage repayments will be, you should sit down and work out a budget to make sure that you have sufficient capacity to be able to afford your new home.  You will have to consider the following costs:

• Mortgage repayments;
• Rates and water rates;
• Electricity;
• Insurance(If you have a mortgage it is a condition of that mortgage that you have insurance);
• Telephone, internet and streaming services;
• Living expenses such as groceries etc;
• Motor vehicle expenses;
• Property maintenance, such as gardening and lawnmowing and repairs.

This is not an exhaustive list, and if you have any trouble setting out a mortgage then you should consider speaking with the financial advisor.  There are online tools such as Budget planner – Moneysmart.gov.au and How to budget – Managing your money – Services Australia which you can access for free and they also have information on free services you can contact for assistance.

If you are unsure of how much any of the budget items will be you should contact the supplier directly or speak to family or friends to find out how much they spend and who they use to find out if it fits your budget.

The next thing that you should do is to make contact with a Solicitor.  You will need to appoint a Solicitor for your legal work after you sign a contract and by making early contact with the Solicitor you will be better prepared when you are looking at making an offer and will avoid unnecessary mistakes, which will save you money down the track.  You should also ask your Solicitor the costs involved with purchasing a home, such as legal fees, transfer fees, building and pest reports and search fees, so that you can make sure that you have taken these into consideration in your budget.  If you do not know of a Solicitor, speak to your parents or friends who have purchased a home.

Once you have gone through all these steps and are satisfied that you can afford to purchase a home, then you can start looking making sure to look for property that are within your budget or just slightly above your budget as you might be able to negotiate the Seller down to inside of your budget.