What Would You Want to Know Having Built/Bought Your First Home?

Lfirstpostbekind on 20/08/2019 - 22:27
Last edited 21/08/2019 - 10:06

My wife and I live in metropolitan NSW. We have enough for a deposit and are looking to purchase our home. Finances are OK (not unlimited but planning to live within our means).
Our options include
- buying an existing home to live in or knock down or
- buying an empty plot of land and building on it
We are leaning towards building a new home on an empty plot - probably through McDonald Jones or other

Does anyone have any sage advice around the process?
Is there anything that you learnt the hard way but wished you knew about at the start?

Thanks in advance

Addit:
Great thoughts so far, thanks!

More about us:
We are currently in a 1 br appartment but need more space (have rented houses before)
3br is the natural progression so family can visit/growth or expansion space for future kids

The rental market here is such that an appropriately sized house costs hundreds a week for rent. I know a mortgage will still be more than this - but it’s close to the point where it’s probably better to get into the market rather than keep renting. I have had my eye on realestate.com.au for over 12 months so it’s not a rash decision. We are being financially responsible and are independent from parents.

We’re not looking to make money necessarily - just need more space and a place for the next 5ish years. Hence not looking to build the nicest home but still a decent one

Financial

Comments

  • firstpostbekind on 20/08/2019 - 22:28

    …Long time lurker, first time poster :)

  • Quantumcat on 20/08/2019 - 22:37
    +2

    Test the rangehood in your presettlement inspection. I didn't and mine didn't work :(

    By the way what are you going to do with your username when you make your second post?

    • firstpostbekind on 20/08/2019 - 22:44
      +2

      It took 29 years to make this post, I’ll let you know on my 60th :p

      • iforgotmysocks on 21/08/2019 - 07:18

        Don't you mean 58th? 2 years is a long time, that's how long it's been since Linda left.

        • firstpostbekind on 21/08/2019 - 07:25

          Not sure if meme or needs lifeline
          131114 💔📞😭

    • GangGang on 20/08/2019 - 22:46

      I'm assuming existing home?

    • ssquid on 20/08/2019 - 23:19
      +2

      Also specify the house must be vacant during the final inspection. There's no point checking it over just for them to hide a fault under/behind heavy furniture or do new damage when they're moving out.
      Tell the REA you want it written into the contract when making an offer, so they can't "forget" when settlement gets close.

      • Quantumcat on 21/08/2019 - 06:20

        I guess I did it all wrong - I bought all the tenant's furniture that was in the house

  • scrimshaw on 20/08/2019 - 23:11
    +1

    Check if the insulation is in good shape… or if the home is even insulated at all. My first home was pretty old and during the summertime it got unbearably hot in the bedrooms upstairs, which necessitated turning on the air conditioning in order to sleep.

    If you're buying a home during the wintertime you might not notice just how hot the home get can get, some pay some attention to it's thermal design as well

  • altomic on 20/08/2019 - 23:37
    +1

    take something electrically simple (but hardy) to plug in to each power point to check that they work - e.g. clock radio, or desk lamp with LED globe.
    check out the floors for bounce (they should be firm)
    check the wall adjoining the backroom for leaks at the bottom.

    • dasher86 on 21/08/2019 - 10:16

      Hair dryer as it's small and can pull lots of watts.

  • garetz on 20/08/2019 - 23:58
    +2

    Dont build your own home till you have lived in a few and know exactly what you want, building your own home is fraught with perils and can lead to financial strains you wouldnt have considered, especially if the budget blows out.

    • firstpostbekind on 21/08/2019 - 07:19

      Good advice. I’ve been renting for the better part of 10 years so I’ve lived in a few houses now.

      If you can flick me an extra 500k I’ll definitely be able to build exactly what I want :p

  • 0FoxGiven on 21/08/2019 - 06:49
    +3

    Anything that can be done/installed easily enough after the build yourself or by a tradie/sparkie, do it after the build. Builders charge a nonsensical premium on "upgrades". This includes concreting driveways, bathroom fittings like toilet roll holders, ducted air conditioning (for single storey houses), etc.

  • slow on 21/08/2019 - 08:20
    +1

    Do your research. Check every word in your contract and drawings. Don't rely on anything the builder or their sales person says unless you see it in writing, however nice people they are. Get them to put everything in writing. Get your own independent building inspector

    • firstpostbekind on 21/08/2019 - 09:43

      I’ve read building inspection at every stage
      Slab
      Frames
      Fitout
      Handover

      Seems smart considering I know nothing about building

  • Youfah Mizzum on 21/08/2019 - 08:33

    My sage advice…find some land & build.
    Go around to every display home, find what you like, what you don't like. Don't look at the styling & decorating but rather the layout & if it "works" for you.
    What you'll find is there is no one house with everything just right & within budget (that's what I found anyway) so we designed our own house with all the features then asked about 10 local builders to quote. They put you in touch with draughtspeople to draw up plans for council submission etc.

    We've been through this process twice now & couldn't be happier.
    The advantage of designing stuff yourself is you have the room layout just right, even down to nitty gritty stuff like power point placement, lighting, kitchen design. Everything is your own preference.
    As the house is getting built, a smaller builder will (should) allow you access to the site so you can inspect (or even do). I did my own wall insulation on the first house. And checked every stage - not that I know what I'm looking at but there's plenty of information now on the internet to know what to check.
    Having naked walls without plasterboard will allow you (i.e. your licenced tradesperson) to run any cables (such as Cat 6) or conduit for whatever reasons or do other stuff behind the plaster. As an example, I knew where our TV would hang on the wall but didn't know if the bracket would line up with studs so I just filled in the whole area between a couple of studs with scrap frame timber. That way when the plasterboard was on I know for sure the TV bracket is getting secured into wood.
    It's those small enhancements which just make life in the house nicer.

    It's no more expensive than going with a project home builder as they bump up the price for every tiny variance.

    • Stone Monkey on 21/08/2019 - 08:53

      Where did you find the checklists/ information for what to check during the building process? Was it in forums or on YouTube?

    • ihbh on 21/08/2019 - 09:13
      +1

      Op this comment highlights that you should be clear on what your objective(s) is/are - e.g. enjoy your home immensely and have control over as many things as possible vs having a growing asset (you might even want both).

      If you emphasise the building, bear in mind that land appreciates and buildings depreciate. The last thing you want is to buy far out, spend heaps for the building on cheap land (for a fixed budget) to find that in 20 or so years that the value of your property hasn't changed much. The small appreciation of the land might be offset by the depreciation (real wear and tear) of the building. Or if you satisfice say by buying in a growing area an established home where everything is not to your liking, you might be able to achieve far more growth over the long term, which could help fund your retirement.

  • ihbh on 21/08/2019 - 08:48
    +2

    buying an existing home to live in or knock down or

    Unless it's selling for land value buy to knock down is expensive and wasteful in that someone else could have used the old house so you are paying for it. People generally only do this when they are more established financially and can afford to pay for the wastage.

    Buying an existing home to live in is a good option - less depreciation available so there will be less competition from investors. There might be maintenance issues after buying, which a building inspection might not reveal.

    buying an empty plot of land and building on it

    Considerations:

    • Lower stamp duty, but generally further out to be able to get new land.

    • Maybe consider rentvesting - brand new property has the most deductions available. also allows you to live closer to workplace if not otherwise.

    • Price in area will be stagnant for a while relative to older suburbs - as newness of properties wears off.

    • Check and be clear on warranty period and conditions after handover.

    • firstpostbekind on 21/08/2019 - 10:08

      A lot of cold old houses here. If we play our cards right we could build a new house for the same price as picking up an old weatherboard cottage

      • ihbh on 21/08/2019 - 10:26
        +2

        Make sure you allow for differences in land size. Newer blocks might be fair bit smaller.

  • entercoolusername on 21/08/2019 - 12:16
    +1

    Your post is missing a few things like
    -What is your budget?

    -How far do you want to live in the city/beach/countryside?

    -Does the property need to be close to public transport?

    -Are you planning to have kids, here in QLD if you are in certain suburbs you can send your child to good schools?

    -Again if you build far away from the city you can be eligible for first home owners grant (https://www.revenue.nsw.gov.au/grants-schemes/previous-schemes/first-home-owner-grant), again if your build goes over 750k you are not eligible, in this case, your house needs to be built to modest levels, like 3 bedrooms and in the outers suburbs/developing suburbs.

    -If you buy a property it needs to be under 600k for the new homeowner grant.

    -If you decide to build this is a good place to start doing some research https://forum.homeone.com.au/viewforum.php?f=31

  • savage bargain on 21/08/2019 - 12:54
    +5
    • Go as small as you can live with. The big home we built after seeing the spacious display home was amazing and everyone commented on it when they visited, but GAH the cleaning was a pain and we accumulated so much stuff. We ended up selling it because we were SO. SICK. OF. THE. MAINTENANCE. My current place is 20 years older and the maintenance is less because it's 1/3 of the size. We thought it was just us too until a number of mates over the years made the same mistake and then sold over time with the exact same complaint.
    • Smallest yard you can live with too. Again, I love gardening. But it was so big it because a maintenance thing than just growing veggies and doing things I liked. And no matter how bid and nice the yard is, kids ALWAYS want to go to the park. (I was guilty of that as a child too - every big home my parents had we did whatever we could to play somewhere that wasn't home).
    • Get as much stuff done during the house build as possible. Sure, I could paint, do flooring, hang fittings, do cupboards, landscaping, etc. myself and enjoy it. But doing it ALL after a house is finished rather than doing it as random weekend jobs over 3 years is completely different; it was not fun in that situation as working full time and spending months of weekends/week night building was exhausting. Just get it done up front.
    • If you want more changes than you can afford, focus on anything structural (walls, room sizes, etc) or anything in the walls/ground (cables, piping, etc). Door handles, doors, cabinets, taps, sinks, stoves, etc. can all be changed at any point in time and can work as-is for years even if you don't like the colour/layout/etc. But it's not cheap to move a toilet, redo a bathroom, extend a bedroom, raise a ceiling, etc.
    • Put conduits in to every single power point and wall switch. Makes it easy to add in new lights/fans/etc, replace cables with whatever the latest technology is 20 years down the track, increase power ratings for power points, etc.
    • Get recommendations from people currently building or just finished building in your area. Trades and construction managers do move around a lot so a recommendation from 2 years ago may not apply now. I used homeone.com.au for advice. Read through those forums for a couple of months before even starting to look at builders. The amount of advise takes a while to digest.
    • Don't go for the cheapest builder; we went on the lower side of mid-range and the changes we wanted were 1/3 of the price of friends who went with the cheapest, and then because their tradies weren't used to people actually paying for the changes, there were a bunch of stuff-ups, which they then also had to fight.
  • koplik8 on 27/08/2019 - 10:20
    +1

    If you end up buy a unit with a body corporate make sure you ask about the health of the sinking fund. This is the emergency money if a pipe bursts in the driveway or the elevator breaks down. Most people don't ask. Find out how much money they are paying into the fund too. We had to do a painting levy cause our fund didn't have enough money put away. Just before we started preparing to paint the complex we had 4 people sell their units. Your meant to paint every 10 years but we had to delay it by 4-5 years to reduce the levy. In the end I paid $1,600 out of pocket.
    Another one I was told was about buildings with elevators/lifts. If it break down and need major repairs there will be a vote before work starts. There are usually issues with the ground floor and level 1 not wanting to agree. They can get away with not using the lift. Another one to consider. repairs can be very costly!

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