>Advice for new home buyers and the key questions to ask

Beginner buyer left a comment on a past post written by EH on his journey to successfully buyin a home a few weeks ago. Here was his comment and EH’s response:

Beginner buyer: “My partner and I are in our late 20’s and we are thinking about buying a house probably in the next 12-18 months. We have a set a plan so that our saving can get underway however the more I talk to people about buying a house the more things I hear. Is there an oracle for buying a house? A book that will help to explain all the ins and outs of buying a place? You mentioned building inspections etc but what else is there? Any other advice you could offer for a couple who have just decided that they want to buy a house would be great.”

(Response from EH) I think you are already doing the right things. You have a savings plan starting which is a key step. By sticking to a savings plan it will give the two of you a great idea as to how disciplined you both are. While a savings plan sounds great in theory, it is really hard to stick to and you have to work at it all the time. The impulse buys; especially around birthdays and Christmas when you think i’ve an extra few hundred dollars I can spend really kill a savings plan. It will also really let you both know what your repayments can be, and how you find your lifestyle under these conditions.

You may need to tweak your savings plan as you get used to it. One of your comments also is a great step. You are talking to people. The bad news is that there is no Oracle, though there is plenty of reading material out there. Buying a house is an emotive thing and everyone has their own perspective on what a “great” house is. What one person says is great about their place won’t necessarily fit with your ideals.

While there is no one location for all the answers, I can help with some of the questions I asked friends and relatives. I was told as a kid that age is a high price to pay for experience. I dismissed it at the time but now I understand how true that is. If you can leverage experience and knowledge off someone older without having to learn those lessons yourself, you save a lot of stress and time. So ask questions!

Firstly go into any fact finding with a sense of ruthlessness. If you do not, you could get caught up in the emotion of buying a house and find yourself with a house that does not really reflect what you had as your dream. Some of the questions below are a bit personal and you may have to choose your audience with regards to each question. I’ve tried to give some reasoning behind each question… there are plenty more that you will want to ask yourself. Try to document some of the key answers that are important to you. A positive and negative list for a suburb, type of house (2 story or single), and location in suburb is also a great help.

Why did you buy here? Pretty easy to start with and if a person has lived in a similar are that you want to live in, they will be able to give you real life experience on what makes that suburb good for them – no book can give you this!. Be careful most people will tell you they got a great deal or a great location. Most people do not want to make themselves look like they made an (sometimes costly) error.

What don’t you like about this area? Be specific, remember be ruthless, this could be a 20 year investment here, at least a 5 year one if you hope not to lose money. Press them on this one, their insight here means you do not make the same mistakes. A pub might be 1km away but on Friday and Saturday nights drunken patrons walk past this area to get to another. Or a sporting field is close by and people park out the front each night for training and on the weekends for games. Instead of being a retreat from the world, your ideal home affords you no peace.

Did they build a house or buy an existing one? This might be help if you are looking for land. Remember, it takes time or a lot of money to do landscaping. Picking out carpets and tiles, door handles, toilets, basins, kitchen appliances. The list goes on. Many of my friends and family who have built their own home are over it and frustrated by the end of it. This is not to say to build yourself isn’t rewarding, just that it is a stressful time.

What is it about the house that makes it good/bad ? Do they have a kitchen they love? Why? Is it the bathroom or just the general layout? Again pressing on these points helps you understand what you may like. A place may have a lovely open plan that looks great in a glossy magazine but living in it is a nightmare. If you want to heat or cool a living space you have to heat or cool 5 rooms instead of one. If you have kids, a TV on in one area can be heard in three other rooms. That being said, an open plan in a temperate climate may be the ideal choice.

If you had your time again what would you do differently? Again leveraging experience without having to pay the ‘fee’ of aging 5 years to get the knowledge. I love the answers I get from this question. Some people may close down and say nothing (yet may have updated the kitchen twice), others, it is a bit of creative freedom and you really get the feel for what they learnt along the way. My brother in law did up his kitchen, what was a wreck is now a lovely room. It almost invites you to come in a cook something. However, he has since had children. The cupboards he picked cannot be locked, the oven is on the floor so small hands can get burnt. The new tiles he had put in are scratched as plastic toys and bikes are run over it.

There is plenty more, one last item though that I would have factored in at the time (see even I am still learning and have a few ‘if only’s’) is the layout of the block and sun. The place we have (while we love it) is very cold in winter (we are behind a mountain), a factor I didn’t do enough research on. Summer I knew would be hot and the layout of the house is designed to keep things cool. However in winter for about 6-8 weeks of each year the sun does not hit the house, the house becomes very cold and heating bills are much higher. I am looking at putting in solar panels to address this!

Keep asking questions. Be patient with one another. If you do the hard yards, it is stressful, but worth it, just be aware of the stress it puts on people. A loving relationship can fall apart so communicate, give each other space and constructive criticism is helpful.

Best of luck to the two of you.
EH.

Related Post : l6rb9="0" ikcby="0">Tips on successfully buying a house