hey all, i know alot of you would of already been through the steps of buying a house, im looking at purchasing mid this year. Im very new to it all, been doing alot of research but keep getting told alot of different things.

What im curious about is in terms of the up front costs, settlement fees, broker fees etc. As you pay them upfront and they are not covered by the home loan, with regards to the stamp duty are you able to get that amount covered under the home loan? or is that an amount you have to cover yourself?? im prolly gonna wait til july anyway to see if they go ahead with plans to rid the stamp duty costs for first home buyers, im not going for the first home buyer grant as i wont be living in it for the first year at all, will be rented out.

am planning on sitting down with the bank soon to discuss it all in full, just wondering if someone could shed some light now, also if anyones got any other tips on first home buying?? maybe someone works in the industry??
and also anyone know any good areas round the 300k-350k mark for purchasing? any help appreciated

pfft.. dont even bother... can't get fuck all for that price in Perth atm... Save ur money, get a bigger deposit.. and re-assess the situation in 6 months time.. maybe things will have changed.

In relation to the first home buyers grant all you need to is say that you are living in it. If it ever gets questioned all you have to do is say that I tried to live there but I could not afford it and moved back out.

In relation to the costs.....Very similar to a car. You pay $350 for the house then on top stamp duty / conveyancing costs / stamp duty on the loan / title search fee / title lodgement fee / etc. Most banks will also charge you an application fee of around $500.

I used to do housing loans and people used to have a go at us about the fees but if you sit down and have a look the government is the one that picks up. All the fees are listed in the first couple of pages of your mortgage document. You do not have to pay anything to the agent as the purchaser. Only the seller has to do this.

Basically unless you have a 20% deposit AND all your fees then they will make you take out mortgage lenders insurance. Basically this means if everything turns south and the bank has to sell the property for less than what is owed the insurance company pays the bank. The insurance company then chases you for the shortfall.

The banks realise how hard it is to save up that much money now and have relaxed the rules somewhat. Some of them will let you borrow 100% of the house but you still have to stump up the fees.

I have also noticed some banks offering loans over 40 years. Go and have a look at some of the online calculators and see how much of your monthly repayment is principal (how much you borrowed) and how much interest there is. The absolute majority is interest. Play around with the term of the loan and you will see that it does not make much difference.

I would advise against going to a broker. Call me cynical but they will steer you towards the bank that is offering the most commission. They would be stupid not to line their own pockets. The other issue I had with brokers is that they do not care which product (type of loan) you got because their commssion was the same. I.e. they might give you the loan with a really low interest rate but it does not have the features that you really need. To be fair to them how could they know the ins and outs of every product? I would do my research (most of which can be done in front of the computer) and then go an visit a few banks. We used to get paid a salary so it was more important that the customer was happy and not coming back than how much money we wrote.

Also a little thing. Dont waste time trying the small branches in the suburbs. Go into town and have your interviews there. They send people to the small branches to learn and then when they get good enough to deal with the high end of town they get sent into the city.

If you have any other q's just give me a buzz.

Brendon

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Losing is worse than death. You have to live with losing....

I work in the industry so know a fair bit about the H/loan
application process.

Most major banks will only lend 100% of the value of the property
and any addition costs, Stamp Duty, Mortgage Insurance, etc would have to come from your own funds.
I know though that some of the Mortgage companies (Possibly Rams, Wizard etc) will lend for the fees aswell but am sure they would have to cover themselves in some way, maybe higher fees, interest rates etc.

A possible way if you have no funds of your own is to have your parents go Guarantor. The bank then uses their property as partial security against your purchase and that can avoid added costs like Mortgage Insurance and allow you to borrow a bit extra for some of the costs.
There are conditions that apply though in that generally the parents property (If there is a Mortgage on it) must be with the institution you are applying with and there has to be enough equity in it.

Best thing to do is sit down with a Home Finance Manager from the bank and go through your options with him/her.

--edited as urabus covered everything i touched upon in more detail.

I would however speak to a couple of brokers as they will present to you more options than a bank as well as other institutions that will lend you money besides banks.

Go with someone who comes recommended if your serious i can pass you the details of the guy I used.

fuck it man...just rent a docking spot in freo and put 20g into a big boat and live on that...thats my plan. a couple of grand a year gets you mains power and water...with ocean front views...think about how easy it would be to move suburbs...what next mmm maybe venice...
chicks dig it too.

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Ever stop to think...and forget to start again...

To quote Homer Simpson "Beer, the cause of and the solution of all our problems"

WRX - Stealth Spec - So stealth i cant even see it

Where are you going to park your nice sti? What about when the weather is crap?

then you go over to your mates

dont dockin spots cost as much as houses these days ?

There is a massive shortage of docks at the moment.

Makes my boss very unhappy.

yeah my dad is going as guarentour for me. Wont have to worry about mortgage insurance, n yeah like impresiv sed u dont find much under 350k, like i sed thou im not buyin right now, im prolly at least waiting til july to see if they abolish stamp duty for first home buyers. willl be sitting down wit the bank soon, and yes i have used those online calculators, getting rough ideas of payments etc.

i have planned to have the stamp duty covered through my own funds but if i could i would of preferred to have it covered by the home loan, just so i have funds available in my account.

but with the way prices are are atm for homes i am beginning to look at units to start with, mate bought one late last year and is makin good dough off it. Start on that n that way i can later down the track sell it, hopefully make something decent and then purchase a house.

Or another way i could look at it with expensive prices is just leave it all together for now and use the funds to buy an 03 STi how does that sound