1. Understand your borrowing capacity
This is perhaps the most critical step as it will guide your decisions around location and property type. Understanding your borrowing capacity will provide clarity on what you can actually afford to spend based on your personal circumstances.
Your Rise High Mortgage broker can help you set a “ceiling” or maximum purchase price, as well as understand purchase costs like stamp duty which come with buying a new home.
2. Narrow Down the Location: Where can you find your dream home?
Once you understand what your borrowing capacity is, the fun part begins and you can start thinking about where you want to live!
Would you want to be close to the beach or is city life more appealing? Is being close to family and friends one of your priorities? Would living close to work or a school zone for your children be important? All of these are questions you might want to consider to find the right property, narrowing down on the location where the right property resides. Being realistic about your expectations and working out the practical elements that your dream home will bring into your lifestyle, will ensure you can make the right decision when the perfect property comes around!
3. Think about the right property type
After you narrow down your maximum purchase price and preferred locations, you can start drilling deeper into the type of property you are interested in.
Brand new properties might be more expensive but might become accessible through grants. Established properties might be the perfect fit if you are looking for a place that is ready for you to move into. Renovator delight properties might be for you if you are keen to invest in a cheaper property so you can add some value to yourself.
Whatever your particular case is, make sure you are always bringing it back to how much you can afford. Attending lots of open houses in your target areas can become extremely helpful at this stage, allowing you to develop a feel for the average value of its properties. The more you visit, the more you will start to understand what you can get for the money that you spend (helping you find opportunities to negotiate the right house price!) and give you an idea of the things you like and don’t like (such as property size and layout), so you can even contemplate upgrading your home to suit your lifestyle needs in the long-term.
4. Make the most out of our services
Your Rise High Mortgage Broker can help you find the right property with ease by providing access to high-quality property data. You may narrow down the suburbs of interest through suburb profile reports, or use property reports to determine the true value of a property, understanding what you should be looking to offer to an agent.
We hope these tips were helpful to guide you in hunting your dream home and would love nothing more than to support your journey to homeownership! If you are feeling stressed or overwhelmed, contact us for a fee-free consultation!
You might also be interested in exploring our videos for First Home Buyers, or learning more about home loans, investment loans or construction loans!
