Planning to buy a house but not sure where to start. Any help is really appreciated.
My advice would be to find a good mortgage broker. They guide you through the process and can apply to multiple lenders simultaneously. Once you are pre approved you can start shopping. If you make an offer that is accepted on property you will need to engage the services of a conveyancer to sort property handover. Lots of paperwork to sign and from personal experiences it rarely goes smoothly. I would also advice engaging the services of a building/pest inspector prior to handover.
Second getting a broker - they’ll help determine if you’re being unreasonable with your budget and know all the ins and outs of the loans.
Plus, they don’t cost you anything.
Another really nice to do thing is using decent lawyers. There’s a real difference between dirt cheap Conveyancers and a law firm that does real estate. First time we went with the former, and things were missed, they were hard to contact, and we generally felt anxious the whole time. Second time, we went with a firm that the broker recommended and everything was smooth sailing, any queries we had were instantly answered and we generally felt less stressed. It wasn’t much more price wise, but really made a difference to the process.
A broker will cost you nothing as your lender will pay them once the loan is established. Another advantage of a broker is a couple of years down the track you can ask them to find you a better interest rate with minimal fuss. As for legal cost I’m not 100% what the going rate is these days. I would expect somewhere between $500-$2000. As the above comment said, a good legal firm is probably not going to be the cheapest. Definitely worth paying for expertise. It’s a small cost in the grand scheme.
