Buying Prepare
PREPARE
As with many things in life, it’s all about the preparation. Getting your finances in place before you start looking at your first/next property means that when you do fall in love, you’re in pole position to secure your dream home – no more FOMO.
Buying: Pre-approval
Getting your finances approved before you do anything else can have a huge impact on whether you secure that dream. This stage of The Process represents a small fraction of the overall time spent when buying a property so getting it done first makes a lot of sense.
- Borrowing Capacity
Understand what you can borrow based on what you earn, what you spend and the length of time over which you want the loan to run.
- Buying Capacity
Adding into the equation the size of your deposit whether from savings, the equity in your current property or another source, tells you what you have to spend on your next property (including costs).
Buying Research
RESEARCH
This is where the real hard work starts. Whether buying, selling or both, don’t sit back and expect things to happen. Researching your next property has never been easier but with so much data, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. As a seller, the question is how to make your property stand out. How do I generate buyer interest.
Buying: House Hunting
Understanding what you want from a property – as well as what you don’t – will help you narrow the search. Some things may be non-negotiable ie number of bedrooms, close to a schools, etc but understanding where there’s room for compromise ie swimming pool, modern/older etc will help in the decision-making process.
- Research Market
There are dozens of websites that all want your attention. Picking what to use is all about personal preference. Some just want your contact details whist others are more educationally focused, helping the buyer navigate the market. Be open-minded when looking. We all know someone who bought a place that didn’t make the shortlist first time round.
If you want that personal touch and perhaps an inside line, buying agents are always a very genuine option.
- Inspect Properties
Online descriptions are designed to encourage people to view. You’ll soon work out which agents offer genuine property descriptions on their marketing material. Take a pragmatic approach when viewing any property – look past what’s currently there and think about what could be. Try to build a picture of the sellers. An offer based on an empathetic view of the sellers could secure the property.
Buying Negotiate
Negotiate
Now that you’ve found your dream next home, you need to secure it. You need to show the buyer that you are the best person for them to sell to; your finances have all been approved in advance – including any bridging loan if you’re buying first; that you can meet their settlement criteria but equally as important, you feel an emotional tie to their property and will look after it when they leave.
Buying: Offer/Auction
You’ve spent the last few months looking at properties and now want to start offering. Again, preparation at this stage will ensure you’re ahead of the game and in pole position as a buyer.
- Engage Conveyancer/Solicitor
In a competitive market, personal experience or recommendations are a great way of finding the right conveyancer or solicitor who will take your secured property to settlement.
Having a conveyancer in place when you come to make an offer means you continue to be best placed for any seller and shows your keenness to progress the sale.
- Make Offer
The hours of research you’ve put into this point now start to pay dividends. Balance the emotional tug of that dream property against the hard work you’ve done to date to establish what you can afford to buy under those market conditions. Remember, it’s all about balance.
Buying Settle
Settle
This is literally where things start to ‘settle’ down; or at least they should do. The dynamic nature of The Process to this point are now replaced with structure and due process and is about efficiency and security.
Buying: Sign Paperwork
Up to this point everything has been done by the rule book and followed best practice. Settlement ensures that all the necessary boxes are ticked and you secure that dream home.
- Sign Contract of Sale
At this point you’ve shown your commitment to the deal by paying a deposit, confirming your funding and signing all relevant paperwork.
All things being well, you can start to look forward to getting those keys and making ‘that house, your home’. If you’re buying a reno, you may want to engage an architect or builder or speak to the council about options.
- Inspections – Building/Pest Control
Before you do though, you need to ensure you not buying what you think you’re buying and not a property that’s going to cause issues and cost you money from the day you walk in through the front door.
Again, recommendations from family and friends are always useful but providing these inspections are carried out by people with the correct accreditations, these services are more transactional and less emotive than with other services you’ll employee during The Process.
