This first step is as easy as picking up the phone and making an appointment with us! As your mortgage broker, we’ll help you determine your borrowing power and give you a clear understanding of how much you can realistically afford to spend on your new property. In this process, we’ll get to know you financially. Having an accurate idea of your borrowing power will help ensure that you’re looking in the right price range from the very start.
It’ll be easier to research the property that you’re looking for when you have a set of criteria. With a lot of quality properties to choose from, it’s easy to fall in love with aesthetics, so it’s important to make sure that the property meets your requirements. Here are some useful questions to ask yourself when listing down your set of criteria.
So, where do you plan to buy? Whether you’re a home buyer or an investor, the aim is to purchase in a suburb with solid capital growth potential. It’s also better to buy in a suburb where it’s in its early stages of growth, rather than at the peak of a growth cycle. The surrounding area is also worth looking into. Get to know the local transportation situation, as well as local facilities located at a walking distance or just a short drive away. We can provide comprehensive market reports, so please reach out to us if this would be helpful for your research.
When inspecting the property, check both the inside and outside conditions. Here are some items to include in your checklist.
It’s best to compare prices with other recent property sales in the same location to make sure that you’re getting a reasonable deal. There are a lot of online resources for this, where you can research property sales in a specific location, and you could compare with other properties with comparable conditions and land size. Don’t forget to also include ongoing costs in your budget. Research the ongoing costs that will be applicable to your desired property, such as council rates, strata fees, and water costs.
You may want to get to know the property a little bit more by researching its history. You can trace the history of a property through online archives, street directories, council rate books, and Title Office records. It’s also important to know if the area or property has been flooded before, as this can greatly affect the property’s resale value.
Make sure to consult with reliable professionals (like us) who can give you advice that’s useful in your property hunting journey. We can give you referrals and you can also do additional research. Best practice is to ask for recommendations from friends and family based on their experience with that service provider. You can also check reviews and testimonials.
We can’t stress enough the importance of doing plenty of research before purchasing a house or an investment property, but we guarantee that the effort will be well worth it in the long run. And of course, we are here to help you every step of the way!
Additional source:
https://www.realestate.com.au/advice/buying/first-home/
https://www.nla.gov.au/faq/how-do-i-trace-the-history-of-my-house