Buying a house
 

Hiya,

Can anyone help please. We want to buy our first ever house, not just in this country! We're not really sure of the process, whether we need to put down a big deposit, how much mortgage insurance is....ummmm... when we need to start approaching the banks, how long the process takes? Anything else you can think of would be great to know as well Im sure.

Thanks

Na

Re: Buying a house
 

Hi there

we were in the same boat as you and had never bought a property ever anywhere, just make sure you get a good broker and they should keep you right. I can only speak for SA but if you don't have a 20% deposit to put down you will be liable for mortgage insurance (which on a $430000 house worked out to be about $8000) if you do have 20% deposit you will not have to pay this.

You can get a broker to arrange pre-approval prior to finding the house you want so that when you do find what you are looking for you are already halfway there. We started looking, found the house we wanted, called the broker and he arranged it within a couple of days which was all that was required. We just made our offer subject to finance and a building inspection.

Hope this helps.

nikki

Re: Buying a house
 

These guys will do a much better loan deal than any broker.
http://www.pmgonline.com.au/index.html

Re: Buying a house
 

We put an offer on a place last Sat (in QLD) and signed the contract subject to finance and pest/building instruction. We paid the deposit on Sun and signed all that had to be signed. Told that we had 5 days cooling off and 7 days before it went 'unconditional' but if needs be, that period could be extended by another 7 days.
Meanwhile, our lawyer told us that if we backed out during the cooling off period, we would have to pay a penalty (.25% of full price of house)...the agent said nothing about this, she said we would get our deposit back. Then our bank told us yesterday that we should have had house insurance sorted from last Monday. As soon as those papers are signed, we need to insure the house!
We really want the house but are a bit miffed that we weren't told all these things by the real estate agent.
So walk in with your eyes wide open and not like us.

Re: Buying a house
 

The real estate agent is only there to sell the property.... they aren't there to give you legal advice on the contract contents, or to give you advice on the conveyancing process. I don't think that you have any reason to be unhappy with the RE agent.

Re: Buying a house
 

Houses are overpriced and first home buyers are driving the market.
Brisbane Bound, what percentage of the asking price did the seller accept?

Right now I think you could get 60% easily if you found the seller who has to sell.

Re: Buying a house
 

Our solicitor told us all this. Talk to your solicitor as soon as you offer, preferably before hand.

Re: Buying a house
 

Doesn't matter what percentage of the asking price they got. It won't tell you whether they got a good deal or not.

Re: Buying a house
 

Not necessarily, but it will tell us whether the sellers are starting to face the reality of the market.

Re: Buying a house
 

Have a look at this site and it will give you info on conveyancing in QLD.

Its best to make sure you understand before signing anything

http://www.lawyersconveyancing.com.a...58_cooling.asp

As someone said real estate agents act for the vendor and the higher the price they can get the more they get paid.

Re: Buying a house
 

I disagree... it will only tell us that the seller has accepted an offer of x% of the asking price.

Re: Buying a house
 

Their main motivation is to seal the deal. The difference in commission between a $630k sale and a $670k sale is pretty small, in comparison to the difference between a $630k sale and zero sale. :)

Re: Buying a house
 

Well, if we get the information you can ignore it and I will look at it and consider it.

In the end the house is worth exactly what was paid for it, no more, no less, so the value of the house is irrelevant. What I'm interested in is how much the seller came down from the original asking price. One datum is not of great value, of course, we'll need a few more data to make any assumptions.

Re: Buying a house
 

House went on for $675000 and they accepted $652000. We still aren't sure if out timing is right but the house is just fabulous.

Re: Buying a house
 

It's well worth getting an independent valuation too. Ours cost 595, but put my mind at rest to know that we didn't over buy.