House Hunting

Our step-by-step guide to finding your dream home

1. Obtain your finance first before you begin house hunting. Applying for a Pre-Approval is simple, and having finance approved will put your mind at ease. If you leave it too late to apply for your home loan, other buyers who already have approved finance may beat you to your chosen property.
2. Devote at least one day a week to serious house hunting.
3. Talk to real estate agents to get a better idea of properties available and prices in the area
4. Keep a property checklist. When you visit a lot of properties, individual features can begin to run together in your memory.
5. Invest in an instant or digital camera. It’s a good idea to take snaps of various properties, inside and out, particularly details you wish to remember.
6. Once you’ve found a potential home, arrange for property and pest inspections before exchanging contracts.

Pre-Purchase Inspection

Arranging for property and pest inspections before exchanging contracts is always wise. The fees for these services may seem high at the time, but you are likely to save far more in money, time, and trouble if you discover problems early.

If you are buying a strata property, the seller’s solicitor will supply a certificate that should show relevant information about the management committee, insurances, cost of levies, deeds and books.

You can also arrange for a pre-purchase strata inspection covering other written records about the strata plan that covers the property. These may reveal undetected structural problems, and also body corporate issues, such as restrictions on the use of common property, adequate funds for maintenance, and the policy on pets.

There are some things you can do yourself. When inspecting a home, look beyond superficial appearances. Simple measures like switching on lights and flushing toilets can sometimes reveal surprises. Very few properties are problem-free, so you also need to be realistic.

When you find a home you like …

Once you find a property you like, spend time in the local area at different times of the day or night to make sure it fits in with your buying criteria.

It would be an unfortunate experience on the first night in your new home to find the nearby hotel runs a nightclub until 6am every night of the week.

It would also be a disappointment to find that parking outside your front gate is governed by clearway rules at inconvenient times of the day.

If everything checks out, the next step for you will be the actual buying process

Related posts:

1. Buying at auction? How to prepare for the big day
2. Property Investment
3. Crunching the numbers on an investment property
4. The Buying Process
5. Pre-approval – Gives You The Power To Negotiate