Top 5 Tips For House Hunting

Buying a house or apartment is exciting, stressful, fun and challenging all at the same time. It’s one of the biggest financial investments you’ll make in your lifetime. At the same time it’s the place you’ll call home and want to retreat to enjoy time with family and friends. And we all know that financial decisions aren’t always (and shouldn’t be!) emotional, while finding a home is deeply personal. So how do you balance these two competing aspects of home buying? Here are my top five tips:

1. Decide what you want and write it down. Simply really? Well, no! If you’re anything like me, when you go and look at houses or flats ready for sale (that is, all renovated, clean and full of flowers) you fall in love with each one. And this seductiveness can lure you away from what you really want. And what about your husband, partner or kids? What do they need or want? Whether you’re a single or a family it pays to write a list – what’s essential? What’s desirable? Make sure you don’t mix them up and you’ll get the right house for you.

2. Get your finances sorted out beforehand. Making sure you understand how much you can spend. What this will mean for your lifestyle and other expenses is really important. Will you still be able to take holidays if you want to? Will you be eating only peanut butter sandwiches for the next five years? Most of all, will you be relaxed or stressed about what you owe? Work out what will happen if interest rates rise by 1,3 or 5% - can you still afford the mortgage? If finances aren’t your thing, get some good financial advice.

3. Buy the worst house in the best street. This is a favourite tip because it’s a great one!! You can get seduced by the beautiful fully renovated house – but, as my mum says, you can renovate a house but you can’t change the location – so make sure that the place you pick has all the things you need or the potential to include them when you can afford it.

4. Use domain.com.au It’s a great website for finding places. I love the map feature and street view so you can really have a good look online before you decide to inspect. And the inspection planner is brilliant – it organises all your inspections in order, includes the address and can even give you a map.

5. Don’t wait for perfection. Houses are like people – none are perfect but most are perfectly lovable so find one that ticks all your boxes and you’ll have yourself a home.