You’ve been house hunting for some time now and you’ve finally found THE one. The perfect home for you, your family and even the dog. But what do you do next?
Buying a home – whether it is your very first home or even if you’ve purchased property before – can be daunting. To make sure that you get the best deal on your dream home, our dream team of property buyers and home loan specialists have put together some tips on what to do now you’ve found ‘the one’.
1. Make an offer, don’t sign the contract
Any serious offer to buy a place should be in writing. But that doesn’t mean you have to sign the contract of sale just yet.
If the selling agent pushes you into signing the contract as soon as you’ve made an offer, be ready to hit the ‘pause’ button. There’s still a lot to do before you put your signature to a legally binding document.
2. Call our home loan team
Hopefully, our home loan team has helped you get pre-approval (smart move!), so give us a call straight away to let us know you’ve found the property you want to buy. This will get the ball rolling with unconditional approval for your home loan.
If you haven’t taken any steps to arrange a home loan, it’s even more important to get in touch with us as soon as possible. It is possible for your formal offer to include a ‘subject to finance’ clause, and it can be a wise move. Remember, it takes several weeks for a lender to process your loan application so don’t bow to pressure from the real estate agent to bypass the subject to finance clause or reduce the extra time required.
3. Get legal advice!
Thank goodness for email! It means you can fast forward a copy of the sale contract to our legal team.
This is an essential step. Our solicitor and conveyancer will make sure your contract covers you as the purchaser.
The contract should specify ‘chattels’ – in other words, those items that come with the place you are buying. Your legal rep can identify the ‘removable’ items such as the dishwasher, curtains, and even floor coverings. It’s an area where home buyers can easily be caught out.
Make sure that the settlement date works for you before you sign a contract of sale. Vendors are often reasonably flexible if you need an extended settlement period beyond the traditional six weeks.
4. Organise a deposit
When you submit a written offer on a property, the real estate agent may expect some sort of holding deposit of up to $100 at the time of making an offer which is held in a trust account.
This is not the same as a 10% deposit you may pay on the exchange of contracts or if you’re the highest bidder at auction. Rather, it’s a sign that your offer is genuine.
5. Get a building inspection
If you want to make your offer subject to a clean building and/or pest inspection, the real estate agent will usually have standard wording to be included on the contract or our legal team can help.
Read the wording they provide to be sure you’re happy with it. If not, ask for it to be altered to your requirements.
6. Get your finance approved
At this stage, you’ve made your offer and handed over a small down payment – maybe $1,000. You’ve made your offer subject to finance, with a finance clause spanning a couple of weeks, and the balance of your deposit is due the same date.
Now’s the time to meet with our home loan expert to get your home loan application underway and make the property your own.
Still looking?
If you’re still looking at properties and want to make sure you are in the best position to make an offer when the time comes, contact us to make an appointment to speak to one of our team. We offer you a range of services to help make buying your next home as easy as possible.
We can walk you through the buying process, home loan applications and help you organise your pre-approval so you can have confidence when making an offer.