Prepare.
The first tip is to prepare first, so that you are in the best position.
Pre-approval.
My next tip is to have a pre-approval in place, so that you know that you’re going to be eligible for a home loan and you’ll have that confidence when you’re searching for the property that you want to buy.
Deposit saving.
Work on finding out how much deposit you’re going to need to purchase the home that you want to buy, and then put in a plan to work towards saving towards that goal. A good guide can be 10% of the purchase price as a deposit.
Understand costs.
Learning and understanding the costs involved when purchasing your property, you need to understand things like stamp duty, lenders mortgage insurance (LMI), which could be payable, and then going on from that as well, also, understand the any first home owner’s concessions that you are eligible for.
Borrowing capacity.
Find out your borrowing capacity. This is going to let you know what sort of price range you can potentially look for in the market, and will give you the confidence that you can borrow up to that loan amount.
Your commitment.
The last tip would be to make sure that you’re going to be comfortable with the ongoing loan repayments, and to not overextend yourself, as you always want to be able to manage the ongoing financial commitments. If you have the option for a family member to assist in providing a security guarantee – that can have benefits like saving on a substantial lenders mortgage insurance fee, as well as the option of being able to complete the purchase with a reduced deposit or potentially even no deposit.
Wishing you all the best for your 1st homebuyer journey!