The following post is a guest post courtesy of IMB Ltd, one of Australia’s largest building societies.
Emigrating? Tips for buying a new home
Buying a house can be stressful enough. From finding the right home in the right neighbourhood, to finding a mortgage, to dealing with solicitors, real estate agents, conveyancers and lenders. It can be a demanding experience for even the most organised, relaxed person.
Buying a house in another country, however – perhaps a country you don’t know very well – is likely to be even more stressful. If you’re planning a move to another country, check out the following checklist for potential homebuyers.
Consider renting
If you don’t know the area you’re moving to it can be a good idea to rent before you buy. Each city or region has good areas and bad areas, and you are unlikely to know which areas to avoid unless you have spent some time there. Spend some time checking out different areas of town at different times of day, and find one that offers the atmosphere you’re looking for, and that suits your needs.
Renting can also take the pressure off, letting you take your time finding the right house to buy. Buying a house is a huge decision – one that shouldn’t be rushed.
Know your budget
Before you start looking for homes or home loans, you need to work out what you can afford. This can help you narrow the market and choose a home you can actually afford. Use a mortgage repayment calculator to work out a repayment schedule that fits within your budget, and use that information to work out how much you can afford to borrow overall.
Do your research
When you buy a house, there is a lot of research involved. When you buy overseas, there is even more research to be done. You will need to research neighbourhoods, mortgages, lenders, and real estate agents. You will need to find out how the house-buying process works in the country you’re moving to, and what you need to do to get things right.
Get pre-approval
Before you start looking at homes, it’s a good idea to get pre-approval on your home loan (if it’s available). This will let you work out a price range on houses, and it will give you the security to make an offer with confidence. If you’re moving to a new country, you may find it difficult to get a home loan without a credit history in that country. Find out which lenders are more likely to offer you a loan, and what you need to provide to convince them to lend to you.
Know what you want
Once you’ve done your research and got pre-approval, it’s time to decide what you want from your new house. Make a list of all the things that are important to you – the number of bedrooms, a yard, a garage, the location of the house, what facilities you would like nearby – to create a better idea of what you want and need.
Find a real estate agent
When you are buying a home in unfamiliar surroundings, it can be a good idea to employ the services of a real estate agent. While this is not essential, it can make life much easier. A real estate agent can give you advice, telling you what you can expect for your budget, letting you know what’s possible and what’s not, and making sure you do everything correctly for the sale.
Spot on advice, I think of renting as part of the research even, it might even help you better get to know what exactly do you want from an house or apartment/neighborhood.
Great guest post, thanks for sharing
I agree! Sometimes you never really know if living in a certain neighborhood or city is right for you until you actually do it.
Very good advise. The best advice would be to first live in a neighborhood by renting. Get a feel for everything and then later consider buying. For example, in America many neighborhoods are no longer appreciating in value as they did before. If you make a mistake the house can be worthless if it value drops below your mortgage. This is a very tricky decision and in most cases right now renting is a better option.
I find the tips very useful and right in the bull’s eye. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Here are the bes tips before buying new home these tips will help you… thanks for sharing such a nice Post. keep it up 🙂
I believe real estate agents are the best source fro buying new home. You just need to search for the reputed real estate agent and it is better if you contact two three different agents and then select one of them which understand your requirements.
I agree that you should do your research. I’m sure there’s realtors who may not have a presence online only because they are new. Despite that, they could be very proficient at what they do.
You’ve elaborated really helpful points . I guess the most important one is to set the budget. You can not move on if you haven’t decided the money you are ready to pay. Thumbs up for this great article..
It is always a little stressful to buy a new home. However, you have some great tips here to help take some stress out of the process. I really like your tips about doing your research, that is important. You had better know a lot about mortgages, rates, loaners, the home, the neighborhood, and everything else you said.
I wouldn’t have thought to consider renting to get a good idea of the city you are moving to. But this makes a lot of sense as you can learn which areas you like and learn more about the area. I also appreciated the tip being getting pre-approved for a loan while you are searching for homes.
Thanks for these great tips,
We started off with our final home, but it was more by accident than choice.
Different thing work for different people.
Still love investing in new properties though
Hello,
Nice Post!
Building your new home can be one of the biggest financial decisions anyone can make. It makes alot of sense to get a second or third opinion on building your new home. Getting info from different builders will surely be helpful.
Thanks for sharing these useful tips for buying a new home.
Keep up the good work.
Awesome tips! Buying a new home is definitely something that shouldn’t be rushed, so your advice to rent a place as you search as especially good advice. Thanks for sharing!
Hii,
My family planning for a home purchase. And some of the peoples suggest me that it’s risky to invest in real estate market.
But all those tips which you are mentioned in this article are really very effective and helped me a lot with my purchase.
Thank you so much 🙂
Keep sharing
Warm Regards,
Will Rolando
Absolutely agree with this post, all tips and suggestions are great
Well, If you are considering about buying a home or an apartment then you must Check the property is in good state to save you high maintenance costs.
Check your property specific in terms of sogginess and roof repairs. As a result, not only will a property that is in good state prove less trouble time-wise, but it’ll also be a lot helpful on your pocket.
Regards,
Will Rolando
Hii,
Great post!
I would like to say that If you buy a home, meaning the home has not started yet, you get the advantage of buying a home on the lot you want and the upgrades you want to place in a home. This has a great advantage if you are moving from out of state or have a lease. You will have about 4 -12 months of waiting time while the home is constructed. Plenty of time to end a lease or move from a different state.
With Regards
Jessica Williams
Karen, my husband and I would love to buy a home for our growing family. We’re starting to outgrow our apartment. I love your point about using a mortgage repayment calculator to find out how much you can afford when it comes to buying a house. You also make a great point about using a real estate agent to help make life easier when searching.
I like your tip to use a mortgage calculator to figure out your monthly payment. Houses are big investments worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Your payment will affect you for a long time.
My colleague is asking for my advice on buying a new home so as I’m researching on tips so I could help him I found your blog. These tips really make sense and I’ll definitely share this with him. To know your budget is something we should consider first for us to know what’s the right one to buy and what we could really possibly afford. Thanks!