Buying your first home is an exciting time, but it can also be challenging if you don’t know where to start.
Here at Forte, we’re big believers in working smarter, not harder. Working smarter saves precious time and energy for the things that matter, and we believe that same thinking can apply to owning your own home too, and it all starts with the Homebuyers Centre.
Having helped over 40,000 first home buyers build their dream home, Homebuyers Centre is committed to making the process easy, exciting and most importantly, affordable. With over 60 new home designs to choose from, including townhouses, Homebuyers Centre also provides the services of their in-house financial experts, Resolve Finance, to take the hard work out of finding the right home loan for you. Using a three-step process of Finance, Land and Home, it means a smooth and hassle-free process to get you into your new home.
‘Smarter, not harder’, remember?
We’ve compiled this brief guide to show you just how easy the process can be when it comes to buying your first home.
Work out your budget and what you can afford
When you want to buy your first home, the place to start is working out what you can afford and as a first-home buyer, your budget will be based on your earnings, your deposit and how much money you can borrow.
For this stage of the process, it’s a good idea to engage a Mortgage Broker to ensure you don’t overextend yourself and to get clear on what you can afford.
As part of the Homebuyers Centre’s offering, they have an in-house Finance team of Mortgage Brokers and Finance Coaches from Resolve Finance to help you through this process, making it that much easier. They can calculate a maximum loan amount based on your income, savings, assets, expenses and credit history and then help you find a loan that works for you.
Know what grants are available to you
Eligible first-home buyers can take advantage of state government grants and discounts to help first-time homeowners dip their toes in the market.
The major one is the new HomeBuilder Grant. Aimed at supporting the construction industry post-COVID-19, the HomeBuilder Grant provides eligible owner-occupiers, including first home buyers, with $25,000 cash (tax-free) to build a new home.
While the grant is pretty sweet on its own, it can be combined with existing State and Territory First Home Owner Grant programs (with $20,000 for regional Victorians and $10,000 for metro Melbourne first home owners), stamp duty concessions and other grants. There are also other incentives to take advantage of, like the Commonwealth’s First Home Loan Deposit Scheme and First Home Super Saver Scheme – and you’re likely eligible for more than one.
The legends at Homebuyers Centre are also throwing their own sweet offer to help Australians get into their first home. They’re currently running a competition, ‘Win a Year’s Worth of Rent’, where one budding homebuilder can go rent-free for an entire year in their first year. That’s a $20,000 discount.
Choose where you want to live
This is surely one of the best parts of becoming a first-time home owner – especially when you’ve got all the beauty of regional Victoria to choose from.
If you have an idea of where you want to live, keep in mind things like easy access to any necessary amenities, schools, public transport, shopping, medical facilities, and some great dining and entertainment options, because you deserve to have it all! If you’re buying in a brand-new area, make sure to find out what’s going to be made available in the future.
You can put in the leg work yourself or if you have a rough idea of what you’re looking for, you can let the good people at Homebuyers Centre do the hard work for you. They have New Homes Consultants on hand to help you select your perfect block of land in your area of choice – taking into consideration things like zoning allowances and lay of the land. They will work with Victoria’s Leading Land Developers to obtain the best blocks of land, in the best locations to create the most affordable house and land packages – exclusive to Homebuyers Centre customers.
Choose your home
After determining your budget and where you want to live, it’s time to select a Home Design to suit your needs, which means checking out display homes, deciding on the number of rooms you want and looking at a whole lot of floor plans. Choosing a home design is all about the lifestyle you want to lead. Make sure you keep your eye out for the features you want in your kitchen, living area, outdoor area and bedrooms – do you need a double garage? Do you prefer a master suite away from the other bedrooms in your home? There’s a lot to think about.
If you need help finding the right floorplan for you, Homebuyers Consultants can help you to personalise your home from the standard design options alongside ensuring your home complies with developer guidelines and/or council requirements associated with your block of land.
Now it starts to get real
When satisfied with your floor plan, you’ll sign a Preliminary Works Contract and pay an initial deposit.
From there, you’ll finalise your colour scheme, specifications and electrical items, you’ll sign your building contract, you’ll obtain the necessary building permits (Homebuyers can help with it all, don’t stress), and then you’ll be ready for the construction phase, where your appointed site manager will manage all trades and suppliers to ensure construction is completed to a high standard.
Homebuyers will help you every step of the way, so you don’t need to worry about being caught out with any of those last-minute stressors you might have if you went at it on your own.
Completion, final handover and you’ve got a house!
Once the home is complete, it will be presented to you by your Site Manager. There are usually a few things you’ll need to tie up – like final payments, lender inspections and the like, but once it’s all approved and finalised, you’ll be given your keys.
How easy is that?
While a simple process like this, albeit abridged, there’s never been a better time to stop giving those landlords your hard-earned cash and start putting it into your own home… also a clever long-term investment strategy which can be a massive financial asset in the long run.
Find out more about Homebuyers Centre and enter their giveaway to ‘Win your First Year’s rent’ here.
Competition ends at 11.59pm on 30 November 2020. Eligibility criteria apply. See full Terms & Conditions here.
