The team at Court Financial Services have gotten together to share their top ten tips for home buyers:
1. Don’t leave your finances to the last minute. Obtain a pre-purchase approval as early as possible.
2. Make sure you understand all the costs involved and work out a budget. The purchase price of the property is not the only cost. There are stamp duty taxes to consider, conveyancer and solicitor fees and more.
3. Identify your priorities. Write a list of the features your home must have, and another list of the features that you definitely don’t want the house to have.
4. Try not to let emotional feelings influence your decisions otherwise you may end up paying too much.
5. Be informed. Find out recent sale prices for homes in the areas you like to help you form an opinion on what will be a fair market price for the properties you’re interested in. Visit www.CoreLogic.com.au for a free suburb profile and the option to purchase more detailed suburb reports. Alternatively, ask your local real estate agent for details of suburb’s sale history.
6. Take notes. It’s hard to remember what you did and didn’t like about a property you inspected. Start a scrap book of the flyers handed out with each property you inspect and make notes on your thoughts. Record the auction results.
7. Work out the price you are prepared to pay and stick to it. If you are bidding at auction, don’t be influenced by the crowds or auctioneers. Have someone else bid for you (to a limit) if you are concerned that you will be persuaded to go over budget.
8. Don’t be disillusioned or stressed if you’re the losing bidder. Something else will come up and it will be your turn to be the winner soon. Look forward, don’t look back.
9. When you’re really interested in a property, drive from it to your place of work at the normal time you travel to work to test the traffic conditions. If you catch public transport, trial the route.
10. Speak with your solicitor to understand the implications or pro’s and con’s of buying a property with a particular title. ie Strata, Torrens, Stratum, Company share.
