When buying a home, you tend to face three main problems, so let’s tackle them head on!

Information overload
There is so much information coming from every direction. If you do a search online, everyone from real estate agents to banks and brokers to bloggers will be offering advice.

Parents who haven’t borrowed money since the 1990s will be telling their children what they think is best and saying how they did it. Friends at barbeques will be talking about how their parents helped them out or giving advice based on their experience.

All the information becomes overwhelming and confusing. Life is just too busy and there’s no time to sit and sort through it all to figure out what’s relevant and what would work best for you in your situation.

It’s no wonder that there is so much confusion. The worry can be paralysing. So much of the advice is conflicting. There are so many questions:

  • Can we use our Superannuation to buy a property?
  • Do I have to pay Stamp Duty?
  • Are there any hidden costs?
  • Is it the same if I build?
  • Do I qualify for the First home Owners Grant?
  • Can I rent the property out?
  • Do I need to have 20% deposit?

Getting the facts at the beginning of your journey will answer many of your questions and having a professional project partner to answer any questions along the way will make it much less daunting.

Working out your budget
The second problem you come up against is that you are unsure of your budget. Is there a set percentage of your income you should assign to your mortgage repayments? Can you afford your dream location? Will the repayments send you broke?  How does everyone else afford it? Will the bank even give you a loan?

The first step to solving this problem is to take a look at your spending. Know what it costs for what you need, know what you spend over and above what you need, figure out what you can cut back on without losing your entire social life.

Finding out how you spend your money has been made so easy. Many banks offer this in their banking app or you can get more detail in apps that import the information from all your bank accounts and credit cards.

Once you have a grip on your spending, you’ll know how much you can afford to spend on mortgage repayments.

Fear of commitment
Buying a home can raise many fears. You may worry about a change to your lifestyle once you are committed to a mortgage, you may feel apprehensive about making such a big decision, you may be concerned about finding yourself overcommitted a couple of years down the track when you want to have a family or you want to take off travelling or you want to try to work overseas.

Most people work hard to secure their first job so it’s not unusual to enjoy the fruits of your labour and living it up. Spending can be a hard habit to break.

And taking out a mortgage means that you’re going to have to come up with the repayment every month for 30 years or so.

 

Whatever your challenge is, we’d love to help you work through it.

Because, in the end, it’s all worth it!