5 Pro Tips to be Buyer Ready

Making the decision to buy a home is often cause for huge excitement and trepidation. As one of the largest purchases you’re ever likely to make, you want to be sure to get it right. There are a tonne of things to prepare, and it can feel overwhelming. But this handy checklist helps guide you in the right direction.

1. Get your finances in order

No number is potentially more important that your credit score. This number determines your credit worthiness and helps lenders make a decision on:

• whether to offer you a loan;
• how much they are prepared to lend you;
• what interest rate they offer you.

For those with a low credit score, improving it will take at least six months – so get started ASAP.

2. Shop around for a mortgage lender

The next stop is to find a mortgage lender. Definitely do some homework here – there are a huge number of home loans available and it can be a bewildering process. Arming yourself with some general knowledge about the loan process is important, as is shopping around. The lending industry has become increasingly competitive, so remember, what a lender offers first isn’t necessarily their best deal. Making it clear you are shopping around will often provide enough pressure to draw the lender into revealing a better offer, sooner.

3. Get pre-approval on finance.

Once you’ve chosen a lender, identified your budget and raised your deposit, be sure to secure loan pre-approval. Conditional pre-approval doesn’t guarantee you will receive final loan approval, but you can be fairly confident you will. There are some big benefits to pre-approval – you know your exact budget while house-hunting, plus you can move fast when you find your dream home. With the ability to act quickly, you can beat the sometimes-fierce competition, plus it gives you extra bargaining power. Sellers often give preference to a buyer who has finance ready to go over those don’t, even if they have offered a larger sale price.

4. Contact a local agent – Anthony Oddo

Once you’ve found a mortgage lender, have your pre-approval and deposit ready to go, let the house hunt begin! This is a great time to call Anthony, introduce yourself and give him your brief. Anthony has extensive market knowledge and can intricately understand your needs and help you find the best property.

It’s also a good idea to subscribe to newsletter for a sneak peek on the latest listings (and secret listings!) before anyone else knows about them. We bring many properties to our website and newsletter subscribers first – so for serious buyers, it’s definitely worth contacting Anthony and subscribing to our newsletter.

5 . Have your support team ready.

Once you find the perfect property, you need a support team on standby. Building and Pest inspection firms are often booked up in advance so if you want one of these know who you will choose.
With a solicitor or conveyancer – as with most professionals the best referral is often through people you know. Be sure to hire a conveyancing solicitor who charges a flat fee.