What you can sell your home for will have a big impact on how much you can afford for a new one. We can provide you with a property value report from one of the leading property analysis companies in Australia. This report will estimate a marketing value and give you a list of similar properties recently sold in the area.
From the sale of price of your home subtract what you owe on the home loan and yoru selling costs (e.g. real estate, legal and bank fees)
Start with the amount you’d like to pay for your home Calculate stamp duty using our Stamp Duty Calculator Add stamp duty to the purchase price and add at least another $1,000 to allow for other costs (e.g. legal fees)
List all sources of money you have for the purchase including:
List all sources of taxed and untaxed income List credit card limits List monthly finance (e.g. lease, personal loans) repayment Put these numbers into our home loan calculator “How much can I borrow?”
If you are borrowing more than 80% of the purchase price then you’ll be charged mortgage insurance. The exact amount will vary between banks and depend upon the size and percentage of your loan. The amount could vary from a few hundred dollars to around 3% of the loan amount. Call or email us to get a more exact figure
Calculate whether the money you have plus the loan (less mortgage insurance) enough to pay for the total cost of the home (purchase price plus all costs). This is just a check to see if you’re dreams are close reality so don’t worry if you are a little short of money because we may be able to help you close the gap.
Your new home may not settle on the same day as your old home. This means you need to plan for what happens between the two settlements – eg. will you need more money to bridge the gap?
Some loans allow you to temporarily borrow for both homes, other allow you to keep the loan open even after you sold your own home. You’ll need to go through the option with us.
Decide what type of property you want to (e.g. existing home, buy land and build house, off-the-plan purchase, inner city apartment, rural property) Discuss with us how these different types of property may affect your costs and how much you can borrow.
So far you have been working with rough estimates. Every bank or non-bank lender has their own home loan calculator and their own rules about how they calculate income, expenses and your available. As we have the calculator and rules of all our banks and lenders we can find you the one which will lend you the most
Don’t forget about the features of your loan. There are pros and cons of various features like interest only vs principal and interest loans; or fixed vs variable rate; or basic vs fully feature loans. Your choice will depend on your circumstances and preferences. Talk through these choices with us.
Once you have a short list of loans you can review interest rates, costs and conditions to see which is best for you. You can then choose whether you keep the same loan you’ve been using or change to a better one.
Before you go shopping for your new home be sure your selected bank/lender will lend you the money by obtaining a pre-approved loan for the amount you want. The bank will want an application form and various supporting documents to verify your identity, income, savings, some expenses, current borrowing limits, current home value.
Now you know how much you have to spend on a home you can go looking and make sure you stick to your spending limits.
To make sure you don’t pay too much for your home we can provide you with a property value report from one of the leading property analysis companies in Australia. This report will estimate a marketing value and give you a list of similar properties recently sold in the area.
Depending upon your strategy you might do this earlier. Until you have an unconditional contract of sale on your own home you will not be able to obtain a full loan approval on your new home, unless you don’t need the money from the sale of the old one to buy the new.
Select an experienced property lawyer to advise you on the contracts for the sale and purchase. The lawyer will arrange all the legal requirements of settling the sale of your property.
When you sign your Contract of Sale for your home you will not have unconditional approval on your loan so make sure you have a condition on your contract that if you can’t get your loan the contract is cancelled. You’ll likely have a similar condition on the sale of your old home so take this into account with your timing.
Give us the signed contract for your new home and we will arrange for the bank to do a valuation. If the bank valuation is lower than your purchase price the bank is likely to reduce the amount they will lend to you. This means that you’d need to put in more money.
Once the valuation is complete you will receive a full approval from the bank and you can confirm your sale with the seller.
Once the loan is fully approved you will be given loan contracts to sign. Each bank does this differently and there can be quite a lot of paperwork. You’ll need these documents explained to you by an experienced professional advisor. Give the contracts back to the bank/lender.
Arrange insurance for your property. Most lenders will not approval loan to settle until you show them proof that the property is insured. Even if they didn’t you should have it anyway.
Make sure the loans area of the bank has your signed documents, they have checked them, and they are happy that everything is correct and complete. Be patient and pro-active here. Don’t assume everything is done and be prepared for more than one phone call to get confirmation.
Your lawyer will arrange settlement documentation and timing with the seller and your bank. Find out how much you’ll need to pay at settlement and make sure you get it to your lawyer ready for settlement.
You won’t usually attend the settlement. You’ll usually get a call from your lawyer to say it’s done. Sometimes a last minute issue can delay settlement. Make sure it isn’t you who causes the delay because there can be late payment penalties in your Contract of Sale.
Congratulations, you own a new home.
Make sure you know how your loan repayments are being paid. Usually this is a direct debit to a bank account. Make sure you have enough money in the account. Payment defaults can lead to substantial late fees.
There are various strategies for reducing your low costs. Hopefully you’ve arranged a loan which has the features to implement these. It’s best to talk through this with us before you decide on your loan but now is the time to implement your strategy.
Three (3) more Home Loan ToDo Lists
Here are three (3) more Home Loan ToDo Lists that you or your friends can use