What do I need to know if I'm looking to buy a home?

So, you’re looking to buy a home in NSW? It’s a big decision that can be time consuming and stressful. Not to mention that there are a lot of complicated legal processes involved. That’s why we’ve split the process into 3 main sections: the money part, the fun part and the legal part.

The Money Part

The home-buying process starts before you start looking through open homes. The first step is determining your budget. You should check with banks and other lending institutions to determine the size of the loan you can receive. When making this decision, it’s important to consider:

1. Whether your income is high enough for you to confidently pay off your loan; and
2. Whether you have left enough money for the legal and administrative fees that come along with purchasing a house

Once you have your loan approved and you know how much you can spend, it’s time for the exciting part, looking for a home!

The Fun Part

Now that you have your budget, you can start searching for the place you want to buy. Once you’ve found the place, you’ll need to make an offer. The offer can be made verbally or in written form. Usually you’ll need to provide a 0.25% deposit to be paid upon your offer. This deposit does not create any binding obligations and will be refunded if your purchase doesn’t proceed.

The Legal Part

After making an offer, you should obtain a copy of the sale contract from the agent and order your inspection reports (e.g. pest inspection, building inspection and/or strata inspection). This is where the complicated legal stage begins. We highly recommend that you contact a solicitor or conveyancer to conduct a review of the contract of sale and obtain the inspection reports. Having a solicitor from this point on also ensures that no mistakes are made that could compromise your purchase.

By the time you’ve reviewed the contract, you’ll hopefully have heard whether your offer has been accepted. If it is, it’s time to exchange contracts. This involves signing and exchanging copies of the contracts of sale and then waiting approximately 6 weeks for the settlement day.

On the settlement day, the funds for the sale of the home will be exchanged. Once this is complete, you become the owner of your dream home!

If you have further questions, please contact us at frank@franklaw.com.au.

This is not legal advice.