Buying Your First Home
Do you remember the excitement of renting for the first time? Being independent, organising a budget to live by, furniture, making a house a home.
Buying your first home takes that one step further. It is almost impossible to describe the feeling of turning the key in the lock of your very first home.
Paying rent gives you a place to live, but you are always “buying” someone else’s home. It’s not until you pay your very first mortgage that you truly experience how good that feels. It is your home and with every payment you own just a little bit more.
It is important to plan for your first home and here at Ask Alan Mortgage Brokers, we’re happy to help. Here are some of the steps we will go through with you;
- Establish what size loan (and hence house price) that you are comfortable with. This is often referred to as your borrowing power.
- Work out the best option for raising your deposit – which at a minimum must be 5% (plus the various other costs)
- If we are working off minimum, that 5% must be saved over at least three months – so start a regular plan now. The other costs – which include mortgage insurance usually amount to another 5% – so 10% in total.
- We have completely different options if you can raise a 10% or 20% deposit.
- There are also options if you have parents who are happy for you to rely on using a property of theirs as additional security – this option is sometimes called a family guarantee.
No matter what your circumstances, we are here to assist you, one step at a time. We are dedicated to always ensuring that you fully understand the process and that your end result works into your bigger picture and long-term goals. With over 25 years of experience helping Australian families across the country own their own homes, you can rely on us to guide you safely through.
The Queensland First Home Owners’ Grant is a state government initiative to help first home owners to get their new first home sooner.
Depending on the date of your contract, you’ll get $15,000 or $20,000 towards buying or building your new house, unit or townhouse (valued at less than $750,000).
We understand that as first Home Buyers, every cent counts- we can help explain eligibility for the grant and the application process.
Try this link to see if you are eligible
https://www.treasury.qld.gov.
Stamp Duty is calculated by the value of the property and the state the property is situated in.
On a $500,000 house, first home buyers won’t pay any stamp duty in Queensland. Contact me for information relevant to other states
If your first home is over $500,000 then you will pay some stamp duty. Ask Alan to work that out for you.
Traditionally, lenders require borrowers to have at least a 20% deposit for a standard loan. However, by charging an insurance premium called LMI, lenders are able to offer lower deposit home loans. LMI protects the lender if a borrower is unable to meet their mortgage repayments and the property has to be sold.
LMI acts as a security to the lender, who considers borrowers with less than a 20% deposit as riskier than those with a 20% (or higher) deposit.
This premium is in most cases added to the loan. The amount of premium depend on several factors like the particular mortgage insurer and the amount of deposit the borrower has.