Nobel Finance Sydney – Money Matters Newsfeed

January 2007
By Sarah Mills

Hollywood comedy Duplex, starring Ben Stiller and Drew Barrymore, is a modern-day fable about the potential horrors awaiting the unsuspecting first-home buyer.

Like many such movies over the years, it offers salutary lessons to property-market newcomers — lessons like: if it looks too good to be true, it probably is; don’t over extend; budget carefully, particularly if renovating; do your research; and beware the big bad wolves of the property market.

It is true that buying a first home can be fraught, confusing and stressful but there are many things you can do to improve your odds of making a successful choice.

Drawing up a wish list of desired features before you start searching for property, then sticking to it, is one. A wish list serves as a compass for the new-home buyer and it can help you resist the enticements, sales pressure and even well-meaning family advice that you are bound to encounter.

At the very least, it will ensure that you emerge from the process having achieved your basic requirements.

When creating your list, you might want to ask yourself the following questions and invent a few of your own:

• Do you want a townhouse, apartment or a house?
• Do you wish to live in the inner city, suburbs or country?
• How many rooms will you need?
• How many bedrooms do you want?
• Will the property accommodate your changing needs over time?
• Do you want a garden, if so how big?
• Do you prefer an old or modern residence?
• Are you happy to renovate or extend?
• How close do you wish to be to facilities such as schools, shops, childcare, parks, beaches and hospitals?
• How much you are willing to pay?