DATE: 23/04/2013
CATEGORY: Blog, First Home Buyer, Home buying, Mortgages

buying your first home doesn’t have to be scary

“Where the heck do we start re planning to buy our first home?? We don’t know yet as we’re still renting. It’s scary! “

This email we received recently sums up how many first time home buyers feel. But buying your first home doesn’t have to be scary. We recommend starting with 4 smart steps:

1) Decide what kind of house you want. Clarify wants versus needs for your first home. Things to consider may include your preferred location, number of rooms, section or no section, house or apartment, garage and parking, proximity to public transport, sun levels and opportunity to add value. You may even decide you’d like a home and income property so someone can help pay the mortgage.

2) Get a feel for what your ideal house is likely to cost – www.Open2view.com and www.trademe.co.nz are good places to start.

3) To see if you can afford the home you want work out what the repayments are likely to be. Our mortgage repayment calculator will give you a good guide and is simple to use. Or work backwards to see how much your repayment budget will allow you to borrow to then arrive at how much you may be able to spend on a property.

4) Get saving. You’ll need to have saved a deposit of not less than 5% of the value of the property you plan to buy. We appreciate this can be hard when you’re already paying rent. Some people can fast-track things by tapping into family who may be willing to offer a guarantee. Just bear in mind that a guarantee would normally need to be for at least 10% of the purchase price.

Owning your own home is exciting and well-worth striving for. With planning and savvy professional advice you can take the stress out of buying property and buy not only a home you enjoy living in, but one which sets you up for the future.

For inspiration take a look here at how one young lady turned a classic kiwi “handyman’s dream” into a beautiful home then, after sub-dividing, created an architecturally designed investment property.

When you’re ready to buy your first home get in touch. We’ll show you how pre-approvals can give you the edge. Plus we’ll hold your hand every step of the way through the home buying process and help you buy smart.

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