What Are the True Costs of Consolidating Debt Into Your Home Loan?
Consolidating credit card and personal debt into your home loan can genuinely reduce your monthly repayments - sometimes by hundreds of dollars -...
Once you’ve sourced the ideal property, you need to have a professional building inspector examine the property before you put pen to paper and sign on the dotted line. There’s still the potential for something to go wrong with the purchase.
There may be issues hiding away that you can’t see for yourself…
Think of the property inspection fee as an investment into your own peace of mind. If the inspection turns up no issues, you can move ahead with confidence.
If it does find an issue, you’ve just saved yourself thousands of dollars in repair fees that you’d have to pay once you bought the property. You might even be able to use it as a negotiation tool to get a lower price, I did with my first property!
A building inspection gives you that peace of mind. It shows you that the structure is sound.
It also highlights any safety issues that will affect your purchase.
That’s why it’s always good to talk to people who understand your position and can provide great advice.
First and foremost, there is money on the table
There’s over $60,000 if you’re eligible that the banks and government are going to give you access to and it means that you can actually get into your first property sooner at a lower price than you ever thought. And you may be able to do that with just a 5% deposit.
Episode 4 of The First Home Buyers Show – Getting the Deposit
Knowing what you can afford. And what can you afford? Well get a mortgage broker to go and find out what your income and expenses look like so they can understand what lenders will lend you.
Once you understand that then we take into account your deposit because you could be limited by what you can afford to buy, or you could be limited by your deposit. Usually people are limited by one of those things.
Understand where your limitations are so that you can work on it. If your limitations are servicing now let’s talk about how to increase your income.
How do you increase your income? Well maybe ask for a pay rise, maybe do some extra shifts, maybe find some extra work, maybe get paid for things that you’re really, really good at and you’re just giving away.
You know find out, maybe on clarity.fm, maybe on Airtasker where you can actually make some extra bucks that can go into your deposit as well.
Get your income up and reduce your expenses!
How can you reduce your expenses? Work out what you’re actually spending your money on. So get a book and write it down for the next two weeks, I’m sure you’ll be surprised. And look at where you’re spending your money.
Look at the marketing that is going on every single day. Maybe you’re picking up that extra chocolate when you’re at the petrol station. You know maybe you’re going out for dinner with your friends and family. Let’s bring back the progressive dinner or the potluck dinner, you know?
Let’s bring it back and save some money. Maybe get rid of that Netflix subscription, maybe get rid of the gym subscription. There are so many great gyms, and even on YouTube, really great workouts you can do. But check out the Nike one, it’s a great free app with great workouts on it.
There are ways you can reduce your expenses as well. That’s going to affect your borrowing capacity and if you would like us to do that for you at Investors Choice Mortgages, more than happy to, we will do that assessment for you, and if you make an appointment with the link that I have, which is investorschoice.com.au/bookings, I will get to you that course worth $495 for our first home buyers.
There are over 30 modules in it, lots of exercises, as I’ve said I’ve had that on the market for $495, I’m only giving it to my first time buyers that I’m working with here at the moment.
You know you don’t have to pay for education too. You can actually come up with a really good way of actually getting it for free. So look at what you can get for free, there’s free activities happening all the time in the city.
Understand where you’re spending your money and see what the alternative could be. Rather than buying a book go to the library. You can actually download with the apps all of the electronic books, you don’t even have to go to the library these days, except to join. And then look at your savings.
If you are saving money put it in a savings account, don’t just leave it in your wallet because you’re going to spend it. Increasing your savings is actually really easy when you put your mind to it. But first and foremost, you have to know how much you need to save.
That’s a speedy recap, there is money on the table, increase your income, reduce your expenses, increase your deposit, and you can be one of the people can get into your first home even sooner than you thought for even less than you even thought possible.
You’ll catch us every Wednesday If you’d like to type REMIND on the Facebook FHB Show episode, we’ll send you a copy of The Guide to FHB Grants.
https://www.investorschoice.com.au/FHBSEp5
If you would like to make a time to have a discussion about your borrowing capacity or how much you need in savings then click here https://investorschoice.com.au/bookings and I will also get you access to my First Home Buyers Course (valued at $495) after you have had your call.
And remember to join the Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/firsthomefirstinvestment/ and download the Show Notes from past episodes
Websites mentioned in the Show:
https://investorschoice.com.au/portfolio-calculator
www.airtasker.com.au
www.clarity.fm
https://www.nike.com/au/en_gb/c/nike-plus/training-app
Click here to see all the episodes > First Home Buyer Show Playlist
Have you found your potential first property? Good for you! When you visit the property, be sure to use our checklist, and pay special attention to the following:
Make note of the time of your visit, the age of the property, and its address. The age and location are especially important as these will help you research the local market.
Look for anything that stands out, good or bad. Does the property have an interesting design feature? How is the curb appeal, does it look good as you drive up the street?
Closely examine every room and make a note of the key features, and things that might need fixing. You might even try to put a cost on each of these improvements.
Ask yourself are there fixtures or fittings that add to the appeal?
Is there any work that you’d need to do to make the property more attractive?
Check out the neighbourhood. Spend a little time driving around to make sure all of the roads are in good shape.
Examine the nearby properties and record how long it takes to reach local schools and transportation links.
Finally, book a professional building inspection. Don’t rely on your inspection alone. There may be structural issues that you can’t see.
There are so many things to know – but you are not Robinson Crusoe there are many who have been through this before and there is a step by step way to make sure you don’t miss things you should be aware of.
If you would like to learn more about the step by step process visit our Facebook Group where we teach each of the steps to get you to Your Property Success. https://www.facebook.com/groups/firsthomefirstinvestment/
Negotiation is the key to success in buying a property at market value or below.
Understanding what you’re up against is half the battle. Real Estate agents are out there every single day negotiating and they are Masters of Human Psychology.
Episode 3 of The First Home Buyers Show – Negotiation
They know exactly what to say and when to say it. So don’t think that they’re giving you a little bit of information on the inside, because an actual fact is part of a very strategic sales mechanism that they have been taught, year in and year out, and probably practiced every single week through case studies and live in the market.
Scott Aggett from Hello Haus is a master negotiator an ex-real estate agent who’s decided to leave the dark side and come over and help people negotiate. He sheds some incredible tips and tricks about what the differences are between the auction process and the private treaty process.
What agents will say to you and I have heard some of the statements that he’s made today I now cringe because I heard them and believed them. Why the agents are saying them and what they actually mean. At the end of the day, you want to be the one that’s in charge of the entire situation. And the situation is you negotiating to a market value or below.
The agent is out there to negotiate on the vendors behalf. Not on your behalf. So, know that, understand the importance in knowing the numbers, understanding the importance of doing your own research and understanding the importance of not giving up and just paying what is being asked.
Understand that price guides are just guides, but you should probably forget them. Do your own comparable sales and work out what you think the property is worth. Understand that although you might want to put in an offer at prior to auction, that could just be used as ammunition for the agent to go back to the vendor and say, “Here I am a clever person If you put in an offer , then if it’s in the lower part of the price guide.” And Scott said, that could actually be something the agent doesn’t want to see.
They may not be encouraging you to do that because they then need to change the price guide if it’s a little bit higher to what they may have been suggesting to the market. There’s so many things going into play there the agents getting a full-blown market campaign for their company and for their brand, and so they very much go and encourage people going to auction.
They want to have people there on the day. I want you to go back, if you’re listening to the full episode, go back and check out what agents say, the day before auction, to get you to auction. You are going to hear this time and time again. And Scott’s insights were absolutely priceless. So head over to The First House Buyer Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/firsthomefirstinvestment/
Scott’s going to be in there to answer your questions. He’s one of our supporters and admin to assist you in your negotiation questions. If you want to talk to him about engaged in Hello Haus, I’d suggest you really take him up on that offer because I’ve tested him with my best friend and some of our mentoring students and he’s done an incredible job negotiating on their behalf.
So this is what you need to remember:
Real estate agents are master negotiators. And if this is your first negotiation, you’ll probably want to have an expert on your side. As always, here guys are to Your Property Success, you’ll catch us every Wednesday If you’d like to type REMIND on the Facebook FHB Show episode, we’ll send you a copy of The Guide to FHB Grants.
https://www.investorschoice.com.au/FHBSEp4
We go live again at 12:30, eastern standard daylight savings time, every single Wednesday. And if you’d like to be a guest and have my one on one assistance in helping you through your struggles where you are, I’d love to have you as a guest on the show.
Click here to see all the episodes > First Home Buyer Show Playlist
Many first-time buyers see something that looks perfect and rush into the purchase without proper inspections.
The gorgeous house in the quiet suburb of Buderim seemed absolutely perfect from the outside.
It attracted more than a few admiring potential buyers. But the house eventually got sold to a family with two children.
They hoped to renovate and turn it into the home they’d always dreamed about.
Unfortunately, the property had a problem.
It was absolutely infested with termites.
The problem was so extensive that no insurance company would insure it.
Worse yet, the couple hadn’t skipped anything during the buying process.
They’d paid for both building and pest inspections, so they thought that everything was okay.
Now, they’re left with a property that they can’t insure and thousands of lost dollars. While they’ve put it on the market, their real estate agent has it listed at land value only.
Make sure you don’t make this mistake when you’re sourcing your property. Research any inspector that you consider working with to ensure they have a great track record.
And if you’re not completely certain, consider having a second inspection carried out.
Consolidating credit card and personal debt into your home loan can genuinely reduce your monthly repayments - sometimes by hundreds of dollars -...
Government schemes like the First Home Guarantee and the First Home Owner Grant are genuinely game-changing for eligible buyers. But here is the...