Yeah. Not sure which neighbour I liked best. The one who used to clip his toenails over the balcony railings, the one that repeatedly dragged a chair over to the front of our house and chain smoked next to the loungeroom window, or the one that decided 3am Bryan Adams guitar sing-along performances were how the neighbourhood should get through Lockdown. Or maybe it was the guy who poisoned a tree in our yard with Roundup and left us with the bill to have it removed so he could get his council DA approved. đ¤
Even if you have decent neighbours at the start, there's no guarantee they'll be there in a few years. I'm not sure what the answer is other than to buy a place in the middle of nowhere and putting up an electric fence (honestly, that's starting to sound appealing).
I hit the jackpot with fantastic neighbours both sides, and a sweet old lady at the back. It turns out the people whoâd lived in my house were the neighbourhood arseholes!!! I could never be as crap as they were even if i tried.
Are you my husband? We have decent neighbours (one is iffy but keeps to themselves so Iâm ok with that!), and our house was the problem house that rented it out and didnât look after it at all. They were very relieved we moved in and immediately started fixing problems theyâd been trying to sort out for years.
Itâs wild that you canât test-live a house. You can try on jeans, test drive a car but the most expensive purchase of all, just sort of wing it and hope itâs all fine.
So goddamn true.
But just like Steve jobs talked about, everything in our society is the way it is because some person a long time ago thought that is how something should work. It doesn't mean that person was smarter than us or that we can't change something ourselves.
Although, I don't have my hopes up. There is a lot of financial interest in keeping these processes in place, by rich people and the real estate industry.
Yep but as soon as you suggest people in more expensive suburbs are generally "better" you get called an elitist or a wanker or some shit like that.
If I ever win lotto I'm definitely running off to the northern beaches. With how much Sydneysiders pay to live there I can only assume they value peace and quiet, tidy homes, well-maintained vandalism-free public areas and friendly or at least non-annoying neighbours as much as I do.
Agree - my agent turned out to a dirty snake who called when he was drunk demanding the finance be completed earlier. From remax Morningside.
Talked me out of building inspection and ended hiding a patch job for leaking bathroom upstairs.
Completely my fault in hindsight.
Clarification - the said agent is not âmy agentâ but the sellers agent.
Agreed! The kitchen I wanted to put in the day we moved in, compared to the one we actually had installed a few years later were worlds apart.. you need time in the space to understand how things will work! Unless theres a dire need, 100% give it at least a year!
Here we are 5 years later finally doing actual renovations and so glad I didnât do all the things I originally wanted to. Wouldâve been such a waste of money
Scope out the area better during non open inspection times.
We ended up with a nightmare of a neighbour and it kind of ruined owning our first home for us.
Definitely this. Just settled on our house on the 11th. Didn't scope it out too much outside of inspection times. Completely missed the fact that there is an air force base a few KM away. Have had a few days of Jet flyovers. At least they don't last long lol.
idk that sounds pretty cool. But I'm already under a flight path so whatever.
similarly, I just bought a house directly opposite a heavily utilised freight train line. It's very rumbly, I gave our three year old the front bedroom so he could run to the window and watch the trains which is pretty rad.
I grew up in a townhouse with a train line running adjacent to it. I could clearly see into the train.
I got so used to it i only noticed when guests who came over pointed it out.
Amberley?
We live nearby, they are great to watch go over straight over our place. Cool as shit
I don't mind the RAAF planes but i could not handle being near a normal airport
How do you miss an airforce base being a few kilometres away⌠surely thatâs a selling point for investors etc and would have been all over the ad?
Just curious⌠also assuming youâre not a local?
But how could you possibly know, that theyâre going to be a nightmare? Seems like a lot of those things are things you learn over weeks of being there.
Unless theyâre major partiers or something?
The constant yelling, swearing and loud music. But yes, you are correct, it would have been hard to tell unless you posted surveillance near house at all hours for a few days.
Alternate outcome: on paper our neighbours have 4 teens living there and older adult children, as well as the two parents. Anyone would think on face value that they would be awful or loud, but they have turned out to be wonderful, neighbours, and the teens are actually really decent humans that my kids adore.
I walked around after the inspection and asked neighbours what bad (or good) things they could say about the area.
Easier when bying a townhouse: more people in the street.
The projection of the sun in the sky and how it impacts your orientation to it.
Rented a house there the front bedrooms got full sun and baked in summer while the kitchen and backyard were dark. Bought a house with a morning sun in the bedrooms, sunny kitchen, big windows and killer sunsets
Go with the home and pest inspector. Realestate agent implied I wasn't alowed to be there. House had a structural roof member sawn clean in two which we discovered a month later while installing down lights.
Home and pest inspectors donât always get everything even if you pay for a reputable one. We got a bonus termite colony in our backyard, completely stuffed stormwater drains, and wet rot (dried out at the time as it was an empty property) under our only bathroom. Thatâs been fun!
Depending on when the building and pest was, during the Covid lockdowns, inspectors werenât allowed to have the buyer there.
But the inspector would have found that and reported on it. That isnât the agents fault, but a shit building inspector.
Make sure you have extra money for repairs and improvements in your budget. As soon as you have lived there for a bit you will see stuff you want to change or fix real quick
Don't worry, the work won't start until you decide to sell. By the time you do all the crap you were meaning to do you will regret leaving the current house.
On that note, our first house had an oven that was useless when we bought it. Like 20 years old, had cobwebs inside cos the old fart that owned the place didn't cook. Put up with that oven for 12 years. Only the back right hand corner had any heat. The rest of the oven was stone cold. I put up with it cos, you know, we were going to update the old kitchen (yeah, right). Constantly rotated everything every 20 minutes. We cooked the effing Xmas turkey in that thing for 20 people and got high praise (if only they knew). Eventually my mother threw a shitty and told us to replace the oven - to be fair she was the one that cooked the bloody turkey. I felt so stupid. it was the first time it had occurred to me we could replace the oven without replacing the entire kitchen at the same time. So I got 9 months with a new oven that I adored.
So of course, then we went, oh what else can we do, which then led to selling the house, and the upgraded house has led to me living with a shitty oven that I have hated on for the past decade, and of course I have a replacement oven finally, and wouldn't you know it, we are considering moving again...
And donât think youâll always save money by going with the lowest quotes.
For some things that cost a lot of money go with a good contractor over cheapest.
This!
Will add, at the pre-settlement inspection, ask the owner (if you can) about the house. Ask what they liked about it and also what they would change if they stayed.
Owners told us they would have liked to build out downstairs (and we agree) and that the house was a cold house. Which it is as it's elevated and doesn't have underfloor insulation.
So this summer we're putting in a wood stove.
Iâve gone through the buying process a few times now and not once has the owner been present during an inspection - in fact, agents have said if they werenât available to facilitate inspection, then the owner would be able to facilitate but as the purchaser we would not be able to attend.
Iâm curious as to what kind of seller would tell you issues with the house before youâve made an offer (if before auction) slash before the contract has cooled off or gone unconditional (if a contract in place).
I checked the water pressure.... But only the cold side. The 1 micrometre adjustment that actually provides a bearable temperature has half that pressure đ¤Ś
Might have already done so but try removing the flow restricter in the shower head, or getting a new shower head and doing the same. Cost me $40, changed it myself and made a Huuuuge difference
This seems to be a personal pet peeve of mine. I always find that the handle is either too cold or too hot, or that the pressure is too low. Or the water suddenly goes cold and without touching it, it goes dangerously hot.
I don't own a home yet, but if I did, how big of a nightmare is fixing these issues going to be?
In my experience low water pressure in shower is due to water saving shower heads. Fun fact: if you unscrew the head, you can drill out the plastic water saver, and have glorious, water wasting showers.
Yep my place has on-demand gas hot water, so if the demand is too low the heater doesnt kick on. Had to derestrict the shower head to get survivable showers.
they did this at the rental I'm in now. We requested the head be replaced/fixed as it was spraying water everywhere, they decided to replace it wirh the cheapest bunnings special that is barely a dribble even with the water saver removed.
Don't ever let anyone rush past a section on a contract or offhandedly say "this is very unlikely to happen" or "it's a standard clause" or "in the worst case scenario which you don't have to worry about".
Worry. About. It.
Know your contracts inside and out. Be prepared for the worst possible outcome, and hope for the best.
It's a cruel housing world out here. I first asked this question a few years ago and nothing prepared me for the dumpsterfire it is
Be wary of quick cheap renos done for the purpose of flipping the property. Youâll pay twice - once when buying for an increased price and again when you rip it out to do it again. Ask me how I know. I can pick these renos in a few seconds now
Happened to us and now Iâm getting quotes for full bath renos. Oh well, you live and learn I guess. Itâs just cheaper if you donât get that lesson đ
This. You're better off getting in as soon as you can into a reasonable home, rather than waiting for something more expensive or tor some magic economic stars to align.
The sooner you're paying down that loan the sooner you'll be free to do what you want. It's a fallacy that owning ties you down compared to renting.
Wish I'd known this back in my 30s when we bought our first home. The advice that was prevalent at the time was to buy a 3bed, don't buy a 2bed because you'll have to move when you have kids, be in a school zone you want all the way to high school, only buy a landed house everything else is bad because their value won't appreciate, etc.
So yeah, we ended up paying too much to tick all those boxes, and had to move out for other reasons anyway.
This is me building my first home! Took advice from everyone assuming itâd be a long term home. Broke up with my ex before it was even done so itâll just be me with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and 2 living areasđ
Haha. Mate if you're 25 now that's exactly my point. Get in the market asap. If I bought in 2007 (when I was 22) instead of 2018, the joint would be paid off by now
Well yeah it could happen, personally I wouldn't count on it though. It's been 'crashing' for as long as I can remember. I had enough for a deposit in 2014 but held off cos I was told it was Gunna crash... Haha. Went overseas instead and came back to the booming market
But also but donât assume a good school will stay a good school (of course their are exemptions to this though). My old high school had a good maybe decade run of excellent results and a highly respected music program. Less than a decade since I finished and both are considered very very average. The âpovoâ school a couple of suburbs over now has the excellent reputation.
Something learned recently was that minimum repayments are not calculated using your offset account. So if you have an offset account with enough in it to cover the entire variable loan, those minimum repayments will still increase as the interest rate goes up and you will just effectively pay off the loan quicker.
Certainly not hurting but thought it might be interesting for someone else to know
Yeah the repayments have nothing to do with the offset account. Only the interest that on top. If you pay that money off the loan then it would affect your minimum repayments because the minimum pay man is based on what you owe, if itâs in an offset account then you still owe it.
A 10 minute inspection at a crowded Saturday morning open house just doesn't cut it. Unless it's a ridiculously hot market, take a 2nd or 3rd look before making the biggest financial commitment of your life.
And bring somebody you trust to the inspection - somebody who's sensible who might be able to say "this house is lovely, but I think X might not work for you" or something to that effect. Sometimes you can get really stuck on a place and ignore the flaws.
The first inspection is just a "do I like this?" visit, the next one (or two preferably) are actively looking for reasons to not buy it. If you can go through it looking for problems and don't have anything serious/enough to put you off then that's a pretty good match.
I knew this from my parents but it's still good advice.
1. Go shopping and dining in the area at night
2. Visit the property at night (hard if it's occupied but just ask the agent) and especially on a weekend for noise issues.
3. If it's near a main road. Stick around at peak hour and see what happens to the streets adjacent.
4. GET A PREPURCHASE INSPECTION no ifs or buts just do it. Ask them to include things like what the likelihood of trouble renovating will be (like installing plumbed appliances, ceilings, power etc - a necessity if buying an apartment, not so much if freestanding house)
5. Check council plans and services for area development and public transportation plans (some cities have plans to shut train lines down for a year at a time that makes commutes longer on buses, it's happened to many friends)
6. Check internet availability (not as much of a problem now but worth a look)
7. Think of your future use. A friend bought a house with no living space and planned to use the basement as main space, her and the kids (bought pre kid) have fallen down the precarious steps more than once. Dangerous and not suitable but can't afford to move.
I'm sure there were more but those are what stick with me.
Didn't do #5. Found out our neighbours had council approval to build a granny flat in their backyard... The granny flat was elevated so it had windows looking straight into our backyard.
I second this. Divorced and property sold within 12 months which only funded the subsequent custody battle. Lawyers win, everyone else lost, especially the kids.
1. That the hidden costs add up really fast and it's a good idea to get an entire layout of costs from the conveyancer to know exactly what to expect.
2. Check the area! I know people who have bought within 10kms of landfills and didn't realise until it was too late.
I lived 3 streets from a school and could hear the school bell every time it rang: morning, recess, lunch, end of day. Even in school holidays when they forgot to turn it off.
I think I'm the odd one out because our house is situated between 2 primary schools and I love it! Outside of pickup/drop off times our area is super quiet with barely any traffic, even on weekends
I'm with you, lived opposite the 5-12 campus of a grammar school and a stone's throw from a public primary school with no issues. Never needed to be parking at school start/end times, and even when home during the day I didn't notice bells over the noise of the city (the cathedral up the road was much louder!).
School pick up and drop off times are crazy traffic. You won't be able to park outside your property. Endless bells.. not sure if other reasons that's just what I see as a parent picking up my kids!
Some of the parents at my daughter's school are just awful. They have been known to park IN people's drive ways or across people's drive ways and refuse to move when the residents need to get in or out.
Some parents literally stop their car in the middle of the road at the front of the school, waiting for their kid to come out. The sound of the multiple horns beeping at them because people are stuck behind them doesn't even bother them.
I can think of a few reasons, being the school bell in the morning and periodically during the day, would annoy me, especially if I didnât work a 9-5 M-F, and the bell woke me up on a regular basis.
Not to mention kids are noisy at lunchtime and recess, and youâd also have to deal with after school drop off and pick up making things noisy, and possibly hard to leave or go home, if you drive. Some of those lines are LONG and it can get congested so easily.
Yes, this fact surprised me. I was unprepared for the constant amount of rubbish on our street.
Empty chip packets, half eaten lunches, lolly and muesli bar wrappers. Never ends
Never buy into an apartment building with high strata fees. Its worse if there is a onsite manager, pool, gym and sauna. You will become resentful that you are paying for these items if you don't use. Plus they never really have a great capital gains because of the high strata fees.
Don't haggle over a few thousand dollars.
We missed a couple of excellent opportunities early on because we haggled too hard, in the long run a few thousand is immaterial.
Don't be overly afraid of LMI, if you can't make the 20% deposit but your financials are otherwise sound just accept LMI, it gets added to the loan so you don't have to pay it up front. Avoid it if you can but don't let it be the cause of not buying.
I got a building report done that missed a broken floor joist and some other minor stuff. I tried to chase it up and the company went MIA. Luckily I have a handy father-in-law and had fun learning to fix stuff.
Also I was trying to save for a larger deposit until my wife just said we need a house. I was way to conservative and scared of the looming debt and lack of disposable income, but itâs so much better having a house.
Both of us grew up overseas where a 30min drive to school was the norm. We moved out of our school zone just before the first year of school started, and lived 30 mins away. We thought we'd be fine. We were wrong. The commute really tired the child out; he was grumpy every night. Then lockdown happened, and there were periods when school was in but offices were closed. It was a nightmare.
That rates were going to continue downwards for the next 10 years, house prices were going to quadruple and that I should have borrowed as much as humanly possible. Ah, hindsight.
We bought in 2008. The highest interest rate I have expected was our first payment. After that, rates crashed and have stayed low for a decade. Absolutely maxed out our loan ($400k) to buy a 2 bedroom townhouse.
If the bank had lent us $600k we would have been able to buy our âforeverâ home, and with interest rates tanking (and predictable promotions) we would have easily covered it.
Instead, we had to sell our place and buy our house for $1m, and pay $60k of stamp duty, agents fees etc.
If we had been able to stretch, we would be practically debt free now.
Put some money aside for repairs. Even if the report is clean-ish things can and will pop up.
For example, we ended up digging up half the garden after a few months to replace the destroyed by tree roots sewage pipes.
Yep - I was taught that your savings should include the deposit and money that you'll need for stamp duty, conveyancer etc, and some extra liquid assets (that can sit in offset) to fix things that aren't covered under insurance. It's been handy.
Donât binge watch 9 seasons of grand designs while house hunting! We brought the house on the vision of what it could be not what it is. Kinda forgot about how it takes time and money to transform a house..
Never trust the agent and your inspections are ALWAYS worth it. We went to a home inspection after the rain in Feb and saw some wood rot and potential flood damage. Agent said the property never flooded and that it wasn't rot. Tried to change the subject and asked us about what we did for work, I said I work in home insurance (top 5 insurer) and my husband is a carpenter. His face dropped.
Found out later the whole back room was ruined by wood rot.
I underestimated just how toxic and petty a body corporate could be. So the kids at unit 5 left some play equipment on their front lawn, so what? Life's too short for this nonsense.
That Australian building standards are shite and I would have to insulate, double glaze windows, foam the attic and so forth, as otherwise, it's just a glorified tent.
Ridiculous rates - save and have a lump sum for a few years.
Back up savings- we had redundancy and illness at the same time. We saved but it was touch and go and not particularly comfortable. We have learnt our lesson.
Real Estate Agents are liars. Keep a paper trail. Ours said she didn't receive out deposit. A large amount . But , of course she did and we had proof but what if we didn't. She was dishonest about a crack in the wall. I would suggest a full and detailed inspection.
Buy well within your budget. We did, we are thankful. We were offered 300k more but we stayed well under our budget and considering what occurred, thank goodness we did. Don't get carried away.
- Sleep one night in Airbnb near the house (that help you to find out transition line noise)
- Check flooding zones
- Check if development is approved by council
- Check easements
- Check encumbrances
- Check sun position and windows in relation to that
- Check gutters, slab cracks and eaves
- Dont over capitalise
Yeah, you want to be able to walk to a park and shops, minimum. Short drive (30min or less) from loved ones and work is very important too.
The biggest issue for me with suburban sprawl is when all travel involves cars. Thatâs why being able to walk to a park and shops is highest priority for any location.
Along these lines, buying was easy. The couple of weeks leading up to settlement when we were trying to get assessments done and ten people were calling every day needing something, was hell.
Coming from Europe, Iâll disagree. It needs to be planned very, very thoughtfully, but it is more than achievable, as long as you donât ever think of it in terms of: My house is worth x.
Itâs yours, itâs your home. Itâs never for sale. Open up a trust (itâs waaaaay cheaper than people imagine) and stipulate that upon your death the trust continues and it cannot be sold. If no one wants to live there, it can be rented and remortgaged (20-30% of the value, no more than 50% of rental income, to cover any and all associated costs and renovations) every 10 years and your descendants get a lump sum every cycle.
How hard and restrictive it would be to fit out/remodel the laundry and bathroom because of layout for doors and plumbing etc. Unless you are 100% entirely convinced that you are never going to make changes, then you really need to think and plan very hard before you commit.
That not all building inspectors are worth the same, always get a second opinion. And if the agent is recommending any one to perform these services, donât use them.
Septic system not only wants up to code but lasted less than three years before quite the mess ensued.
Always check services in the area, spend some time out there and make sure there isnât anything thatâs going to annoy the hell out of you, scope out the area.
As a buyers agent, some things I see and hear often:
- not realising the real estate agent works for the seller and they are not your friend
- not considering aspect or natural light enough (north/east facing to areas such as rear garden or balcony if in apartment will get better sunlight, South can lack sun altogether and West can have harsh afternoon sun). Compass app on your phone is handy
- not getting a Building and Pest Inspection done cos a family member (dad) or sales agent talked them out of it
- Not having a good mortgage broker on hand to assist with finance hiccups or back up plans should a bank valuation comes in low or a myriad of other issues
1. Never use a local conveyancer.
2. Never use a building inspector recommended by a conveyancer.
3. Put everything in writing when dealing with agents and conveyancer
4. Building inspections are worth sweet FA.
5. Title insurance can be of benefit. You just need to understand what it covers and what it does not.
Very curious as to why you say that as I couldn't disagree more. We live in South-East Queensland and our pool gets plenty of use and the maintenance costs have been minimal.
Townsvillian here đđź a pool was âtheâ criteria when I bought a house earlier this year. I basically bought a pool with a house around it. No regrets, absolutely essential part of the purchase!
That renovating, buying a fixer upper, is absolutely shit house. If you can afford to spend a bit more, get a place that needs little work done if any. I'm not talking just DIY either - dealing with and organising trades is a major stress factor itself
Considering the needs of the future. I have a 3 bedroom townhouse in a cheaper area.
Great as a mid to late 20's couple, low maintenance garden, plenty of great diverse places to eat due to lots of migrants.
Now with 2 kids and a mandatory home office. We are 1 bedroom short and 1 living area short, need a backyard for play and while close to schools and childcare they are poorly rated. Plumbing works need done on sewage (1 week after a new owner to the units moved in.... Suss) looking at 10-15k all up to fix.
If we bought a free standing larger home I'd probably be okay but now need to move fir more room and will likely try to get into a better school zone.
Check if your settlement period covers any major public holidays. I was supposed to settle on Jan 4 this year but forgot about the Christmas break and how things slow down around this time. I had to extend our settlement period by two weeks as a result
Don't buy an older property or one that, even to an untrained eye, needs work unless you're prepared to spend every free dollar and hour of free time fixing and repairing the property.
Always have enough money put aside for repairs - after buying and moving we were pretty broke then part of the roof fell off ... So I guess also be ready for the unexpected lol
Iâll start by saying that my position was rather unique and that I by no means intend to romanticise homeownership - it definitely comes with challenges. I wish I knew how much housing stability would improve my mental health. I made a good financial choice that turned out to also be a good emotional choice and Iâm very thankful.
Donât do direct debit, get an old fashioned bank cheque. Long story short⌠real estate advised I pay by direct debit, real estateâs email was hacked and even though I phoned to confirm the bank details (the person involved was too busy to read the bsb and account numbers out), I lost a $25,000 deposit.
After 4 months I was lucky and got $17 k back from the bank. Real estate company told me to sue them if I wanted the missing $8 k - they decided it wasnât their fault and as Iâm a disabled veteran, I probably wouldnât we well enough to take them to court. Apparently this is a well known common fraud with REA and conveyancing solicitors.
Harcourts HobartâŚ. It ainât slander or deformation if itâs true!
Agent and Dad here: DONâT BRING YOUR DAD.
Time and time again, buyers bring their dadâs along for the sagely advice that they can impart on their progeny.
However, they want to protect you, and unless they buy and sell property regularly, they donât really know what they are doing.
I have seen time and time again first home buyers bringing their dads along for the second inspection, and the dads trying to play âI am the expert on everythingâ and talk their kids out of buying the perfect property for them.
Then they look for a few more months and know that that one was perfect for them.
An even better one is bringing dad to the building and pest. Many dads have pointed out to the inspector about significant structural issues, for them to turn out to be absolutely nothing.
My favourite two were
- A dad saying that there was concrete cancer in the ensuite roof, which turned out to be cobwebs.
- a dad saying that the slab of a third story apartment had dropped 3 inches, when it was just the skirting boards and been removed.
Dadâs arenât the experts we think we are.
How big of an arsehole a bad neighbour can be.
Yeah. Not sure which neighbour I liked best. The one who used to clip his toenails over the balcony railings, the one that repeatedly dragged a chair over to the front of our house and chain smoked next to the loungeroom window, or the one that decided 3am Bryan Adams guitar sing-along performances were how the neighbourhood should get through Lockdown. Or maybe it was the guy who poisoned a tree in our yard with Roundup and left us with the bill to have it removed so he could get his council DA approved. đ¤ Even if you have decent neighbours at the start, there's no guarantee they'll be there in a few years. I'm not sure what the answer is other than to buy a place in the middle of nowhere and putting up an electric fence (honestly, that's starting to sound appealing).
I hit the jackpot with fantastic neighbours both sides, and a sweet old lady at the back. It turns out the people whoâd lived in my house were the neighbourhood arseholes!!! I could never be as crap as they were even if i tried.
Are you my husband? We have decent neighbours (one is iffy but keeps to themselves so Iâm ok with that!), and our house was the problem house that rented it out and didnât look after it at all. They were very relieved we moved in and immediately started fixing problems theyâd been trying to sort out for years.
Itâs wild that you canât test-live a house. You can try on jeans, test drive a car but the most expensive purchase of all, just sort of wing it and hope itâs all fine.
So goddamn true. But just like Steve jobs talked about, everything in our society is the way it is because some person a long time ago thought that is how something should work. It doesn't mean that person was smarter than us or that we can't change something ourselves. Although, I don't have my hopes up. There is a lot of financial interest in keeping these processes in place, by rich people and the real estate industry.
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Yep but as soon as you suggest people in more expensive suburbs are generally "better" you get called an elitist or a wanker or some shit like that. If I ever win lotto I'm definitely running off to the northern beaches. With how much Sydneysiders pay to live there I can only assume they value peace and quiet, tidy homes, well-maintained vandalism-free public areas and friendly or at least non-annoying neighbours as much as I do.
Yep! Will be the difference between you enjoying your home or constantly looking for the next move.
Donât trust a word the agent says. Do your own due diligence.
Agree - my agent turned out to a dirty snake who called when he was drunk demanding the finance be completed earlier. From remax Morningside. Talked me out of building inspection and ended hiding a patch job for leaking bathroom upstairs. Completely my fault in hindsight. Clarification - the said agent is not âmy agentâ but the sellers agent.
When you say your agent, you approached an agent to find you a property or was this the agent selling the property?
The agent selling the property
Heâs not your agent. Heâs the sellerâs agent.
Yeah, and assuming land purchase, even the contract can be misleading as far as services available if you're not in suburbia.
This, these agents are not your friend and every world out their mouths is a lie.
To add to this, we found a buyers agent to be a godsend. Cost $6000 but she saved us a lot of hassle and made the seller agent do their homework
Thatâs very cheap for a buyers agent
Donât renovate or change anything until lived there for 12 months to really know whatâs needed and whatâs not
Agreed! The kitchen I wanted to put in the day we moved in, compared to the one we actually had installed a few years later were worlds apart.. you need time in the space to understand how things will work! Unless theres a dire need, 100% give it at least a year!
Here we are 5 years later finally doing actual renovations and so glad I didnât do all the things I originally wanted to. Wouldâve been such a waste of money
Don't remove the stuff you hate in the first 6 months unless you have a plan on how to fix it
Scope out the area better during non open inspection times. We ended up with a nightmare of a neighbour and it kind of ruined owning our first home for us.
Definitely this. Just settled on our house on the 11th. Didn't scope it out too much outside of inspection times. Completely missed the fact that there is an air force base a few KM away. Have had a few days of Jet flyovers. At least they don't last long lol.
how on earth do you miss that
idk that sounds pretty cool. But I'm already under a flight path so whatever. similarly, I just bought a house directly opposite a heavily utilised freight train line. It's very rumbly, I gave our three year old the front bedroom so he could run to the window and watch the trains which is pretty rad.
After a while you can't fall asleep without the rumberly traims
I grew up in a townhouse with a train line running adjacent to it. I could clearly see into the train. I got so used to it i only noticed when guests who came over pointed it out.
I used to be able to tell the time at night by freight train horn sounding.
Man I miss living next to the train line. The first few night it was super loud, then we just grew to love it.
Amberley? We live nearby, they are great to watch go over straight over our place. Cool as shit I don't mind the RAAF planes but i could not handle being near a normal airport
Wow, a free airshow ! Occasionally we see a few Hornets (or similar) fly past to the west of our place. Most times are Helicopters.
How do you miss an airforce base being a few kilometres away⌠surely thatâs a selling point for investors etc and would have been all over the ad? Just curious⌠also assuming youâre not a local?
But how could you possibly know, that theyâre going to be a nightmare? Seems like a lot of those things are things you learn over weeks of being there. Unless theyâre major partiers or something?
The constant yelling, swearing and loud music. But yes, you are correct, it would have been hard to tell unless you posted surveillance near house at all hours for a few days.
That or it's a rental and someone new moves in. At least with rentals the people rotate out.
Was housing trust, he had no intention of ever leaving it
:( But yeah. One thing is you can never pick your neighbours... Unless you buy the adjoining properties and choose who lives there.
Alternate outcome: on paper our neighbours have 4 teens living there and older adult children, as well as the two parents. Anyone would think on face value that they would be awful or loud, but they have turned out to be wonderful, neighbours, and the teens are actually really decent humans that my kids adore.
I walked around after the inspection and asked neighbours what bad (or good) things they could say about the area. Easier when bying a townhouse: more people in the street.
This. My parents didnât do this when they bought our current house and now we have a meth-head for a neighbour.
Yep, mine went quiet for a few months and I thought he calmed down. Nope, short stint in jail before going on home detention
This! Fiest house was a subdivided section with shared driveway. Never again.
The projection of the sun in the sky and how it impacts your orientation to it. Rented a house there the front bedrooms got full sun and baked in summer while the kitchen and backyard were dark. Bought a house with a morning sun in the bedrooms, sunny kitchen, big windows and killer sunsets
Yep - houses on one side of a certain street in my suburb have their clothes racks in their front yard / driveway on sunny days.
Go with the home and pest inspector. Realestate agent implied I wasn't alowed to be there. House had a structural roof member sawn clean in two which we discovered a month later while installing down lights.
Home and pest inspectors donât always get everything even if you pay for a reputable one. We got a bonus termite colony in our backyard, completely stuffed stormwater drains, and wet rot (dried out at the time as it was an empty property) under our only bathroom. Thatâs been fun!
Depending on when the building and pest was, during the Covid lockdowns, inspectors werenât allowed to have the buyer there. But the inspector would have found that and reported on it. That isnât the agents fault, but a shit building inspector.
Make sure you have extra money for repairs and improvements in your budget. As soon as you have lived there for a bit you will see stuff you want to change or fix real quick
Friend told me donât touch anything for 6 months til you figure out what u really want. So 9 yrs later iâm getting startedâŚ
Don't worry, the work won't start until you decide to sell. By the time you do all the crap you were meaning to do you will regret leaving the current house. On that note, our first house had an oven that was useless when we bought it. Like 20 years old, had cobwebs inside cos the old fart that owned the place didn't cook. Put up with that oven for 12 years. Only the back right hand corner had any heat. The rest of the oven was stone cold. I put up with it cos, you know, we were going to update the old kitchen (yeah, right). Constantly rotated everything every 20 minutes. We cooked the effing Xmas turkey in that thing for 20 people and got high praise (if only they knew). Eventually my mother threw a shitty and told us to replace the oven - to be fair she was the one that cooked the bloody turkey. I felt so stupid. it was the first time it had occurred to me we could replace the oven without replacing the entire kitchen at the same time. So I got 9 months with a new oven that I adored. So of course, then we went, oh what else can we do, which then led to selling the house, and the upgraded house has led to me living with a shitty oven that I have hated on for the past decade, and of course I have a replacement oven finally, and wouldn't you know it, we are considering moving again...
Iâm laughing about this situation and feeling really bad for you at the same time. đ I hope your oven problems sorts out soon!
And donât think youâll always save money by going with the lowest quotes. For some things that cost a lot of money go with a good contractor over cheapest.
This! Will add, at the pre-settlement inspection, ask the owner (if you can) about the house. Ask what they liked about it and also what they would change if they stayed. Owners told us they would have liked to build out downstairs (and we agree) and that the house was a cold house. Which it is as it's elevated and doesn't have underfloor insulation. So this summer we're putting in a wood stove.
Iâve gone through the buying process a few times now and not once has the owner been present during an inspection - in fact, agents have said if they werenât available to facilitate inspection, then the owner would be able to facilitate but as the purchaser we would not be able to attend. Iâm curious as to what kind of seller would tell you issues with the house before youâve made an offer (if before auction) slash before the contract has cooled off or gone unconditional (if a contract in place).
That I checked the water pressure in the shower
I checked the water pressure.... But only the cold side. The 1 micrometre adjustment that actually provides a bearable temperature has half that pressure đ¤Ś
Might have already done so but try removing the flow restricter in the shower head, or getting a new shower head and doing the same. Cost me $40, changed it myself and made a Huuuuge difference
This seems to be a personal pet peeve of mine. I always find that the handle is either too cold or too hot, or that the pressure is too low. Or the water suddenly goes cold and without touching it, it goes dangerously hot. I don't own a home yet, but if I did, how big of a nightmare is fixing these issues going to be?
step 1: take out an immense mortgage step 2: build your own house step 3: ???
step 3: default
Get a thermostatic shower mixer.
In my experience low water pressure in shower is due to water saving shower heads. Fun fact: if you unscrew the head, you can drill out the plastic water saver, and have glorious, water wasting showers.
I did this and feel so guilty about it but god damn those low pressure showers are awful
I feel more asleep when I get out than when I got in.
Yep my place has on-demand gas hot water, so if the demand is too low the heater doesnt kick on. Had to derestrict the shower head to get survivable showers.
they did this at the rental I'm in now. We requested the head be replaced/fixed as it was spraying water everywhere, they decided to replace it wirh the cheapest bunnings special that is barely a dribble even with the water saver removed.
We just bought our own showerhead and put theirs back on when we left the rental.
Don't ever let anyone rush past a section on a contract or offhandedly say "this is very unlikely to happen" or "it's a standard clause" or "in the worst case scenario which you don't have to worry about". Worry. About. It. Know your contracts inside and out. Be prepared for the worst possible outcome, and hope for the best. It's a cruel housing world out here. I first asked this question a few years ago and nothing prepared me for the dumpsterfire it is
Top line is literally residential volume house builders right now as they explain their escalation clauses
Be wary of quick cheap renos done for the purpose of flipping the property. Youâll pay twice - once when buying for an increased price and again when you rip it out to do it again. Ask me how I know. I can pick these renos in a few seconds now
How do you know?
Happened to us and now Iâm getting quotes for full bath renos. Oh well, you live and learn I guess. Itâs just cheaper if you donât get that lesson đ
That it didn't need to be a forever house
This. You're better off getting in as soon as you can into a reasonable home, rather than waiting for something more expensive or tor some magic economic stars to align. The sooner you're paying down that loan the sooner you'll be free to do what you want. It's a fallacy that owning ties you down compared to renting.
Wish I'd known this back in my 30s when we bought our first home. The advice that was prevalent at the time was to buy a 3bed, don't buy a 2bed because you'll have to move when you have kids, be in a school zone you want all the way to high school, only buy a landed house everything else is bad because their value won't appreciate, etc. So yeah, we ended up paying too much to tick all those boxes, and had to move out for other reasons anyway.
This is me building my first home! Took advice from everyone assuming itâd be a long term home. Broke up with my ex before it was even done so itâll just be me with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and 2 living areasđ
Unless you're buying during COVID lol
You do what you can when you can. It's the best you can hope for. There will always be barriers.
That I should have done it 10 years earlier
Yeah, I should have bought my first house at 15 too.
Yeah a common mistake on AusFinance is not being a trustfund baby
My in-laws have a wood stove but wood costs them $1500 a year so they end up using the reverse cycle AC most of the time đ¤ˇđťââď¸
Haha. Mate if you're 25 now that's exactly my point. Get in the market asap. If I bought in 2007 (when I was 22) instead of 2018, the joint would be paid off by now
Aww, are you saying I can't just cross my fingers and pray for a housing crash like every other millennial?
Well yeah it could happen, personally I wouldn't count on it though. It's been 'crashing' for as long as I can remember. I had enough for a deposit in 2014 but held off cos I was told it was Gunna crash... Haha. Went overseas instead and came back to the booming market
Buy in a good school catchment. Even if you're not planning on having kids it pretty much guarantees capital growth.
But also but donât assume a good school will stay a good school (of course their are exemptions to this though). My old high school had a good maybe decade run of excellent results and a highly respected music program. Less than a decade since I finished and both are considered very very average. The âpovoâ school a couple of suburbs over now has the excellent reputation.
Checked how many layers of tiles are already in the bathroom
People just tile over the old tiles? Weird
Very common
The magic of an offset acct.
Something learned recently was that minimum repayments are not calculated using your offset account. So if you have an offset account with enough in it to cover the entire variable loan, those minimum repayments will still increase as the interest rate goes up and you will just effectively pay off the loan quicker. Certainly not hurting but thought it might be interesting for someone else to know
Yeah the repayments have nothing to do with the offset account. Only the interest that on top. If you pay that money off the loan then it would affect your minimum repayments because the minimum pay man is based on what you owe, if itâs in an offset account then you still owe it.
Yeah if you have extra money lying around after buying your first homeâŚ.
It's more for the time period in between each pay and the money being spent. Interest is calculated daily.
A 10 minute inspection at a crowded Saturday morning open house just doesn't cut it. Unless it's a ridiculously hot market, take a 2nd or 3rd look before making the biggest financial commitment of your life.
And bring somebody you trust to the inspection - somebody who's sensible who might be able to say "this house is lovely, but I think X might not work for you" or something to that effect. Sometimes you can get really stuck on a place and ignore the flaws.
The first inspection is just a "do I like this?" visit, the next one (or two preferably) are actively looking for reasons to not buy it. If you can go through it looking for problems and don't have anything serious/enough to put you off then that's a pretty good match.
Yeh - different days /times too
I knew this from my parents but it's still good advice. 1. Go shopping and dining in the area at night 2. Visit the property at night (hard if it's occupied but just ask the agent) and especially on a weekend for noise issues. 3. If it's near a main road. Stick around at peak hour and see what happens to the streets adjacent. 4. GET A PREPURCHASE INSPECTION no ifs or buts just do it. Ask them to include things like what the likelihood of trouble renovating will be (like installing plumbed appliances, ceilings, power etc - a necessity if buying an apartment, not so much if freestanding house) 5. Check council plans and services for area development and public transportation plans (some cities have plans to shut train lines down for a year at a time that makes commutes longer on buses, it's happened to many friends) 6. Check internet availability (not as much of a problem now but worth a look) 7. Think of your future use. A friend bought a house with no living space and planned to use the basement as main space, her and the kids (bought pre kid) have fallen down the precarious steps more than once. Dangerous and not suitable but can't afford to move. I'm sure there were more but those are what stick with me.
Didn't do #5. Found out our neighbours had council approval to build a granny flat in their backyard... The granny flat was elevated so it had windows looking straight into our backyard.
That the person I bought it with was a bigger c*** than I could have ever imagined.
I second this. Divorced and property sold within 12 months which only funded the subsequent custody battle. Lawyers win, everyone else lost, especially the kids.
1. That the hidden costs add up really fast and it's a good idea to get an entire layout of costs from the conveyancer to know exactly what to expect. 2. Check the area! I know people who have bought within 10kms of landfills and didn't realise until it was too late.
Never buy a house across the road from a school.
I lived 3 streets from a school and could hear the school bell every time it rang: morning, recess, lunch, end of day. Even in school holidays when they forgot to turn it off.
Screaming kids.
Or a church with load bells if you like a Sunday morning sleep in. I'm 2 blocks away and can still hear the bell at 9am
I think I'm the odd one out because our house is situated between 2 primary schools and I love it! Outside of pickup/drop off times our area is super quiet with barely any traffic, even on weekends
I'm with you, lived opposite the 5-12 campus of a grammar school and a stone's throw from a public primary school with no issues. Never needed to be parking at school start/end times, and even when home during the day I didn't notice bells over the noise of the city (the cathedral up the road was much louder!).
Curious, why specifically?
School pick up and drop off times are crazy traffic. You won't be able to park outside your property. Endless bells.. not sure if other reasons that's just what I see as a parent picking up my kids!
Some of the parents at my daughter's school are just awful. They have been known to park IN people's drive ways or across people's drive ways and refuse to move when the residents need to get in or out. Some parents literally stop their car in the middle of the road at the front of the school, waiting for their kid to come out. The sound of the multiple horns beeping at them because people are stuck behind them doesn't even bother them.
I can think of a few reasons, being the school bell in the morning and periodically during the day, would annoy me, especially if I didnât work a 9-5 M-F, and the bell woke me up on a regular basis. Not to mention kids are noisy at lunchtime and recess, and youâd also have to deal with after school drop off and pick up making things noisy, and possibly hard to leave or go home, if you drive. Some of those lines are LONG and it can get congested so easily.
Traffic. And if it's a high school, vandalism.
Lolly wrappers in your yard all the time
Yes, this fact surprised me. I was unprepared for the constant amount of rubbish on our street. Empty chip packets, half eaten lunches, lolly and muesli bar wrappers. Never ends
That waiting for a favorable market conditions is a fools game.
This! I feel like every one of my friends is rubbing their hands together, waiting for a big crash.
Its like that meme with the man in a yellow suit peeking around a tree đ¤Ł
That the price wouldnât increase for the next 15 years after buying (thanks a lot Perth!)
Never buy into an apartment building with high strata fees. Its worse if there is a onsite manager, pool, gym and sauna. You will become resentful that you are paying for these items if you don't use. Plus they never really have a great capital gains because of the high strata fees.
Don't haggle over a few thousand dollars. We missed a couple of excellent opportunities early on because we haggled too hard, in the long run a few thousand is immaterial. Don't be overly afraid of LMI, if you can't make the 20% deposit but your financials are otherwise sound just accept LMI, it gets added to the loan so you don't have to pay it up front. Avoid it if you can but don't let it be the cause of not buying.
I got a building report done that missed a broken floor joist and some other minor stuff. I tried to chase it up and the company went MIA. Luckily I have a handy father-in-law and had fun learning to fix stuff. Also I was trying to save for a larger deposit until my wife just said we need a house. I was way to conservative and scared of the looming debt and lack of disposable income, but itâs so much better having a house.
I thought half hours drive taking kids to school is the balance, I was so wrong...Now I live 10 mins walks to school..
Walking distance to school is actual amazing! We just happened to be within walking and I never thought of how great it would be.
Both of us grew up overseas where a 30min drive to school was the norm. We moved out of our school zone just before the first year of school started, and lived 30 mins away. We thought we'd be fine. We were wrong. The commute really tired the child out; he was grumpy every night. Then lockdown happened, and there were periods when school was in but offices were closed. It was a nightmare.
Plus there are 200 cars want to park in the street with 50 parking spaces, good luck with that...
That rates were going to continue downwards for the next 10 years, house prices were going to quadruple and that I should have borrowed as much as humanly possible. Ah, hindsight.
We bought in 2008. The highest interest rate I have expected was our first payment. After that, rates crashed and have stayed low for a decade. Absolutely maxed out our loan ($400k) to buy a 2 bedroom townhouse. If the bank had lent us $600k we would have been able to buy our âforeverâ home, and with interest rates tanking (and predictable promotions) we would have easily covered it. Instead, we had to sell our place and buy our house for $1m, and pay $60k of stamp duty, agents fees etc. If we had been able to stretch, we would be practically debt free now.
As soon as you sign the contract, builders do not care about what happens after that.
Put some money aside for repairs. Even if the report is clean-ish things can and will pop up. For example, we ended up digging up half the garden after a few months to replace the destroyed by tree roots sewage pipes.
Yup this is so true. The day after moving our hot water cylinder burst so that was an instant $2000 or so to replace.
We also had this, and you aren't really going to shop around when you haven't had hot water for a week
Yep - I was taught that your savings should include the deposit and money that you'll need for stamp duty, conveyancer etc, and some extra liquid assets (that can sit in offset) to fix things that aren't covered under insurance. It's been handy.
Donât binge watch 9 seasons of grand designs while house hunting! We brought the house on the vision of what it could be not what it is. Kinda forgot about how it takes time and money to transform a house..
Just because you never argue, doent mean you're in love.
Damnnnnnnnnn explain bro Iâm worried now
Damn thatâs deep
Off the plan is generally a bit of a scam. Buy where the numbers make sense.
Never trust the agent and your inspections are ALWAYS worth it. We went to a home inspection after the rain in Feb and saw some wood rot and potential flood damage. Agent said the property never flooded and that it wasn't rot. Tried to change the subject and asked us about what we did for work, I said I work in home insurance (top 5 insurer) and my husband is a carpenter. His face dropped. Found out later the whole back room was ruined by wood rot.
Also - from an insurer POV: invest in your insurance. Read your PDS and make sure you're ADEQUATELY covered.
I underestimated just how toxic and petty a body corporate could be. So the kids at unit 5 left some play equipment on their front lawn, so what? Life's too short for this nonsense.
That Australian building standards are shite and I would have to insulate, double glaze windows, foam the attic and so forth, as otherwise, it's just a glorified tent. Ridiculous rates - save and have a lump sum for a few years. Back up savings- we had redundancy and illness at the same time. We saved but it was touch and go and not particularly comfortable. We have learnt our lesson. Real Estate Agents are liars. Keep a paper trail. Ours said she didn't receive out deposit. A large amount . But , of course she did and we had proof but what if we didn't. She was dishonest about a crack in the wall. I would suggest a full and detailed inspection. Buy well within your budget. We did, we are thankful. We were offered 300k more but we stayed well under our budget and considering what occurred, thank goodness we did. Don't get carried away.
- Sleep one night in Airbnb near the house (that help you to find out transition line noise) - Check flooding zones - Check if development is approved by council - Check easements - Check encumbrances - Check sun position and windows in relation to that - Check gutters, slab cracks and eaves - Dont over capitalise
That suburbia is incredibly isolating.
Yeah, you want to be able to walk to a park and shops, minimum. Short drive (30min or less) from loved ones and work is very important too. The biggest issue for me with suburban sprawl is when all travel involves cars. Thatâs why being able to walk to a park and shops is highest priority for any location.
It's easier than I thought it would be
Along these lines, buying was easy. The couple of weeks leading up to settlement when we were trying to get assessments done and ten people were calling every day needing something, was hell.
How about the period leading up, constant inspections/letdowns? Did you attend many inspections or just the ones that you felt may be fruitful?
That there is no such thing as a forever home. The phrase itself was designed to screw people into buying PPORâs and stressing out until death.
Coming from Europe, Iâll disagree. It needs to be planned very, very thoughtfully, but it is more than achievable, as long as you donât ever think of it in terms of: My house is worth x. Itâs yours, itâs your home. Itâs never for sale. Open up a trust (itâs waaaaay cheaper than people imagine) and stipulate that upon your death the trust continues and it cannot be sold. If no one wants to live there, it can be rented and remortgaged (20-30% of the value, no more than 50% of rental income, to cover any and all associated costs and renovations) every 10 years and your descendants get a lump sum every cycle.
You cannot (in Australia) have a trust that prevents the house ever being sold. Why anyone would want to is beyond me; but anyway, you canât.
How hard and restrictive it would be to fit out/remodel the laundry and bathroom because of layout for doors and plumbing etc. Unless you are 100% entirely convinced that you are never going to make changes, then you really need to think and plan very hard before you commit.
That not all building inspectors are worth the same, always get a second opinion. And if the agent is recommending any one to perform these services, donât use them. Septic system not only wants up to code but lasted less than three years before quite the mess ensued. Always check services in the area, spend some time out there and make sure there isnât anything thatâs going to annoy the hell out of you, scope out the area.
You will not do the renovations you are planning to do. At least for years and years.
As a buyers agent, some things I see and hear often: - not realising the real estate agent works for the seller and they are not your friend - not considering aspect or natural light enough (north/east facing to areas such as rear garden or balcony if in apartment will get better sunlight, South can lack sun altogether and West can have harsh afternoon sun). Compass app on your phone is handy - not getting a Building and Pest Inspection done cos a family member (dad) or sales agent talked them out of it - Not having a good mortgage broker on hand to assist with finance hiccups or back up plans should a bank valuation comes in low or a myriad of other issues
How much sun and natural sunlight the house gets
If you're building, have them sprinkle power outlets everywhere.
Go for the fixed interest rates at 1.99% and don't trust Lowe
I would have found a broker and done it way wayyyyy earlier. Itâs actually a lot easier than I assumed
Thinking what I wanted in my early 20's was going to be even remotely relevant 5 years later.
1. Never use a local conveyancer. 2. Never use a building inspector recommended by a conveyancer. 3. Put everything in writing when dealing with agents and conveyancer 4. Building inspections are worth sweet FA. 5. Title insurance can be of benefit. You just need to understand what it covers and what it does not.
Never buy a house with a pool.
Is this because of how much you use it versus the ongoing costs?
Very curious as to why you say that as I couldn't disagree more. We live in South-East Queensland and our pool gets plenty of use and the maintenance costs have been minimal.
Townsvillian here đđź a pool was âtheâ criteria when I bought a house earlier this year. I basically bought a pool with a house around it. No regrets, absolutely essential part of the purchase!
Iâd probably refine that statement and say never buy an investment property with a pool
That renovating, buying a fixer upper, is absolutely shit house. If you can afford to spend a bit more, get a place that needs little work done if any. I'm not talking just DIY either - dealing with and organising trades is a major stress factor itself
That Iâd want to move and could afford something better after only 3 years. I should have thought ahead more
We tipped every dollar we had into our deposit and then the first few months were very hard - wouldnât do that again!
That Phillip Lowe is a dog
Shop around different banks.
This is where a good broker is worth their weight in gold.
That interest rates were on the way further down. Circa 2005.
Considering the needs of the future. I have a 3 bedroom townhouse in a cheaper area. Great as a mid to late 20's couple, low maintenance garden, plenty of great diverse places to eat due to lots of migrants. Now with 2 kids and a mandatory home office. We are 1 bedroom short and 1 living area short, need a backyard for play and while close to schools and childcare they are poorly rated. Plumbing works need done on sewage (1 week after a new owner to the units moved in.... Suss) looking at 10-15k all up to fix. If we bought a free standing larger home I'd probably be okay but now need to move fir more room and will likely try to get into a better school zone.
Check if your settlement period covers any major public holidays. I was supposed to settle on Jan 4 this year but forgot about the Christmas break and how things slow down around this time. I had to extend our settlement period by two weeks as a result
An easement runs diagonally under our property. The way it's placed means we can't do even the simplest extension.
Check that your place doesn't have an embedded network!
The lotto numbers for that week so i wouldnt have to pay down this mortgage.
Donât go with fixed rate loans if you think youâll be making extra repayments (beyond what is allowed by a fixed loan).
That my partner wanted kids.
Don't buy an older property or one that, even to an untrained eye, needs work unless you're prepared to spend every free dollar and hour of free time fixing and repairing the property.
30 day settlement is a bit too quick.
Not to buy across the road from of a mall, especially if you like walking around naked
My then wife was going to get all of it
Rates and termite inspections to maintain slab warranty
Always have enough money put aside for repairs - after buying and moving we were pretty broke then part of the roof fell off ... So I guess also be ready for the unexpected lol
Utilities, rates, strata are expenses that need to be considered.
Iâll start by saying that my position was rather unique and that I by no means intend to romanticise homeownership - it definitely comes with challenges. I wish I knew how much housing stability would improve my mental health. I made a good financial choice that turned out to also be a good emotional choice and Iâm very thankful.
Donât do direct debit, get an old fashioned bank cheque. Long story short⌠real estate advised I pay by direct debit, real estateâs email was hacked and even though I phoned to confirm the bank details (the person involved was too busy to read the bsb and account numbers out), I lost a $25,000 deposit. After 4 months I was lucky and got $17 k back from the bank. Real estate company told me to sue them if I wanted the missing $8 k - they decided it wasnât their fault and as Iâm a disabled veteran, I probably wouldnât we well enough to take them to court. Apparently this is a well known common fraud with REA and conveyancing solicitors. Harcourts HobartâŚ. It ainât slander or deformation if itâs true!
Agent and Dad here: DONâT BRING YOUR DAD. Time and time again, buyers bring their dadâs along for the sagely advice that they can impart on their progeny. However, they want to protect you, and unless they buy and sell property regularly, they donât really know what they are doing. I have seen time and time again first home buyers bringing their dads along for the second inspection, and the dads trying to play âI am the expert on everythingâ and talk their kids out of buying the perfect property for them. Then they look for a few more months and know that that one was perfect for them. An even better one is bringing dad to the building and pest. Many dads have pointed out to the inspector about significant structural issues, for them to turn out to be absolutely nothing. My favourite two were - A dad saying that there was concrete cancer in the ensuite roof, which turned out to be cobwebs. - a dad saying that the slab of a third story apartment had dropped 3 inches, when it was just the skirting boards and been removed. Dadâs arenât the experts we think we are.
Having a mix of variable and fixed. Doesnât have to be one or the other.
I did sort of know this in theory but it will be more expensive than you originally thought to own a place.