Buying my first home!
Exciting, scary, expensive…prices seem to rise faster than anyone can save but there are still ways to get into your first home and make a start up the property ladder if you do your research, plan well and understand that your first home is unlikely to be your ‘dream home’.
Some tips:
If you want land or space to improve, try looking at emerging newer estates or subdivisions – further from the city centres but with potential to suit your lifestyle for many years into the future.
If you want to live close to the heart of town, look for a small property that can be rented out later as you build up some equity and savings and are able to leverage into a second, larger home. Proximity to shops, transport & lifestyle makes a property all the more appealing to tenants.
Pool resources with a friend or relative to get into your first home purchase, but always draw up a legally binding agreement to deal with issues such as what to do if one person wants to sell, if one partner stops paying their share of the mortgage or even how to deal with renovation issues.
Remember if one party defaults on their half of the loan, the other one will usually be liable for the entire repayment burden – seek legal advice before signing any contracts.
Make the entire process easier by getting yourself a reputable mortgage broker. Contact us today and we can help you get that first home.
Refinancing my existing loan
There are many good reasons to consider refinancing including shopping around for a better interest rate.
Maybe your financial circumstances have changed, you want to borrow from your home equity for renovations or you are just unhappy with your existing lender. Perhaps your current mortgage no longer suits your needs & another lender can offer features & benefits that your present lender can’t.
Switching loans or lenders (or both) could be the answer but as a general rule, refinancing can also be risky, plus takes time and costs money. Be clear about why you want to refinance. To help decide the type of loan you want, list the required features and let Haas Associates help you do your sums to make sure you won’t be worse off in the long-term.
Pre-Approval before purchasing
When you have your loan pre-approved you know how much you can potentially borrow and thus can offer on a property. Vendors prefer unconditional offers from pre-approved buyers rather than having to wait a few days for approval so being pre-approved can mean you are the successful purchaser if the other interested party doesn’t have their finance approved.
To buy at auction your loan MUST be pre-approved as in most cases, a cooling off period does not apply to properties bought at auction & a ‘subject to finance’ contract will not be an option.
Finance pre-approval can help streamline the property search process as you know exactly what price range you can afford.
For finance pre-approval, complete our Loan Enquiry form and we will contact you to help.
Renovating
If home buyers want to renovate as soon as they buy a property, it may be possible to borrow the necessary funds at settlement (with Mortgage Insurance if necessary) to cover the improvements, and then have the home revalued & loan reassessed when the works are completed – so that the debt to equity ratio returns to the level that no longer requires Mortgage Insurance.
Most home buyers prefer to live in a property for some time to better plan the renovations & optimise the use of space, so a second loan can be arranged for this OR a new loan which consolidates the original mortgage and improvement funds. When considering the cost of moving, including Government charges and selling costs, it often makes more sense to renovate and stay within the school zone and local community that suits your needs.
How much can you afford to spend? Contact us and we’ll do the numbers.
Renovating Tip:
Keep the cost of your renovations in proportion to your property’s market value. If you spend too much, your home may be worth substantially more than the average for your area or “over-capitalised”, and if you sell your property you may not recover all your money. When property prices are stable or falling it’s easy to over capitalise
Consolidating debt or freeing up equity
If you have a range of loans at different interest rates and are swamped in paperwork, maybe consolidating your debts into a single more manageable loan might work better for you, and save you both administrative time and money.
Perhaps you’ve paid off, or have built up significant equity in your home and would like to borrow against it for renovations, lifestyle or to help family members financially. If so, Haas Associates can guide you through the range of finance options available to make this plan a reality. With loans from over 20 different bank and non-bank lenders, they will make every effort to find the most suitable loan for you.
Selling and buying again
Buy or sell first? This is an eternal dilemma. If the sale of your present home is not settled on the same day as the purchase of your new one then you’ll need bridging finance to cover the new home purchase before your own funds are available, but if you sell and then can’t find your dream home within a few weeks you’ll be moving twice as you rent for a while before purchasing – which can be difficult to find a suitable rental property for less than 12 months. It’s important to know how much you can spend on your new property, to have funds for a deposit available when you find it and how to fund the dreaded bridging finance if it becomes necessary.
Haas Associates can help with information & loan pre-approval to make the transition into your new home worry free. Complete the enquiry form now and Derek at Haas Associates will contact you — by next business day.
Buying an investment property
If you have equity in your home and income from a source other than your proposed rental, ask us about borrowing for an investment property.
[box type=”info”] TIP: An investment property close to shops, transport, schools & other services will usually rent faster than a lifestyle property a bit “off the beaten track”[/box]