First Home Buyer Series: The Research Process

Erica Sachse

How did you guys go about figuring out your finances and kind of understanding what your budget even was?

Andrew Guest

Well we got a mortgage broker who basically told us we were in a great position. Neither of us had any debt, neither of us has a credit card-

Ashlea

No, neither of us, still don’t own a credit card, so-

Andrew

As soon as our mortgage broker found that out she sort of said this is going to be easy

Ashlea

Yeah. So we had a little bit saved up

And we moved in with my mum so we ended up paying like no rent and lived there and it was really helpful because when the house was being built we didn’t have to worry about rent and wasting any money with that kind of thing.

It’s just living with mum. <laughs>

Erica

Who did you speak to, who kind of helped you make these, these early decisions around the location, like budget and how to go about that whole process.

Andrew

Look, it was really a discussion between ourselves. We did a lot of research ourselves and as soon as – we didn’t really have a great idea of what financial position we were in. I mean, I’m pretty ignorant with the finances to be honest

Ashlea

Yeah.

Andrew

When the mortgage broker got involved that she sort of put our mind at ease and made us feel really confident that we can do it.

Erica

And how did you research?

Andrew

Just talking to friends who.

Andrew

Who had gone through the process, looking on the internet and that sort of thing. Seeing what new homes were costing and what house and land packages are we going for

Ashlea

Yeah.

Andrew

And that sort of thing.

Ashlea

Looking at display homes and things like that, yeah.

Andrew

Also, having a small look into what we were spending and making in the previous years and seeing if it was viable for us.

Erica

Did you know anything about land, block sizes or frontages or anything.

Andrew

Absolutely nothing.

Ashlea

Nothing at all, absolutely nothing at all.

Andrew

Talking to friends they sort of throw terminology and then you’re just like ah yeah the fall

Ashlea

Yeah!

Andrew

That cost how much? But yeah, it was.

Erica

<laughs>

Andrew

You learn pretty quickly.

Ashlea

You do.

Andrew

When you get thrown to the building process so.

Erica

And so how did you educate yourself about this terminology. Was it just through talking to friends or do you kind of do online research?

Andrew

Asking a lot of questions.

Ashlea

Yeah, asking a lot of questions to people.

My stepdad is an engineer so he knew a little bit about that sort of thing and land and how it works. And he’s a civil engineer so he does a lot of like stuff with I don’t know, pipes and stuff and so he knew a lot of the terminologies so he was pretty helpful with things and planning.

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