Five
Ways to Make Buying a Home Easier
Buying
your first house can be scary,but you can make it easier
on yourself by following some simple rules. Here are five things to do
upfront:
1.
Get pre-approved
A
preapproval is simply an indication of what you can borrow and gives you a feel
for your repayments and any other costs. Make sure you understand the
term of your mortgage and any additional costs (especially low equity fees) and
whether the bank will require a valuation. (You can get started by doing
our online application.)
2.
Talk to experts
You
might try coercing a real estate agent to act as your buyer’s agent. That
can be useful to get a feel for the market and for properties in an area.
Squirrel can also help you by providing property intelligence and local sales
data to help you better understand the market. We will help you with the
whole process and provide useful feedback on the property and negotiating the
price. We’re in the market every day helping buyers. We know what’s
hot and what’s not, and where to find the best deals.
When
it comes to your mortgage don’t settle for second best. If you can use a
top mortgage broker for free, why settle for someone less
experienced?
3.
Know the neighbourhood
Spend
time in an area. Have brunch at a cafe, walk around the shops. Find
out about the schools and public transport. Go back at night and
different times of the day. I’ve even gone down the street and talked to
neighbours.
4.
Be realistic
Look
at a lot of property. That way you will get a feel for what’s available
and it will make those necessary trade-offs seem easier. All properties
have problems and what you need to decide is: Can you live with those problems
in the short term until they can be fixed? With older houses the roof
will often need maintenance, repair or replacement (in the next five to 10
years.)
5.
Put in offers
Bugger
perfection – there is not one property out there for you. There are a
number of properties out there that would be great at the right price.
If you’re not totally sold on a particular property, at what price would change
your mind? There is no harm in putting in low offers and who knows, it
could pay off! If you are doing low offers don’t bother putting the offer
in writing and putting the agent through the whole process. Just tell
them a price you’d be happy to negotiate at – and if it’s ‘No
deal’, simply walk away.
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