Buying Property For Dummies

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ISBN: 9780730375562 | 0730375560
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 9/19/2011

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Buying your first home is the biggest, most terrifying financial transaction most people ever make. When making such an important decision, you need reliable information to ensure you chose the best property for you. Buying Property For Dummies is the second edition of the best-selling Getting Started in Property For Dummies, and covers all the information first-home buyers need in one place. Learn about timing the market, working out how much you can afford, choosing the best location, getting the best finance and working with slippery real estate agents.

Introduction	p. 1
About This Book	p. 1
How to Use This Book	p. 2
Foolish Assumptions	p. 3
How This Book Is Organised	p. 3
The Great Australian Dream	p. 3
Finding Your Dream Home	p. 4
Borrowing For, Buying and Protecting Your Home	p. 5
The Part of Tens	p. 5
Icons Used in This Book	p. 5
Where to Go from Here	p. 6
The Great Australian Bream	p. 7
Assessing the Dream: Buying Property	p. 9
Looking at Whether You're Ready to Buy a Home	p. 10
Renting versus Buying	p. 11
Liking the advantages of renting	p. 12
Disliking the disadvantages of renting	p. 13
Understanding How Your Home Is an Investment	p. 14
Owning Your Home Is Tax-Friendly	p. 16
The Government's Leg-Up-the First Home Owner Grant	p. 17
Getting Ready to Scrimp and Save	p. 18
Agonising Over the Time to Buy	p. 19
Searching for Your Ideal Home	p. 20
Smartening Up Your Home	p. 21
Squeezing Your Foot onto the Property Ladder	p. 23
The Costs of Buying a Home	p. 24
Drumming up the deposit	p. 26
Begging to borrow	p. 27
Government slugs and sweeteners	p. 28
Paying off the lawyers	p. 30
Counting every last bit and bob	p. 30
Calculating Your Monthly Outgoings	p. 32
Home maintenance costs	p. 33
Rates, fees and insurance	p. 34
Regular living costs	p. 35
Plans for the future	p. 35
Looking at Funding Strategies	p. 35
First Home Savers Accounts	p. 36
Staying with the parents	p. 37
Doing it solo	p. 38
Getting together with friends	p. 38
Asking the parents to help out	p. 39
Investing in shares and managed funds	p. 41
The Position or the Property	p. 43
Dreaming Up Your Perfect Home	p. 44
Must Haves, Like to Haves and Mustn't Haves	p. 44
Trading Off Location against the Perfect Home	p. 49
Spotting up-and-coming suburbs	p. 50
Moving to the fringes	p. 51
Escaping to the country	p. 52
Going high rise	p. 53
Dealing with Property Professionals	p. 55
Working with Real Estate Agents	p. 55
Understanding a real estate agent's motivation	p. 56
Getting to the truth on property value	p. 57
Getting a real estate agent to help you find a property	p. 59
Putting In an Offer	p. 60
Dealing with Buyers' Agents	p. 60
Finding a competent buyers' agent-avoiding the pitfalls	p. 61
Counting the costs of using a buyers' agent	p. 63
Negotiating a purchase on your behalf	p. 64
Understanding What (Selling or Buyers') Agents Can and Can't Do	p. 64
Finding Hour bream Home	p. 67
The Search Is On	p. 69
Setting Up Your Search Strategy	p. 70
Keeping track of all the information	p. 70
Doing the research	p. 71
Narrowing Down the Search	p. 76
Paring down the properties	p. 76
Understanding real-estate speak	p. 77
Doing the drive-by	p. 78
Checking out trains, trams and buses	p. 79
Strolling to the corner shops	p. 79
Assessing the Properties on the Short List	p. 79
Attending an Open for Inspection	p. 81
Working out a schedule of visits	p. 81
What to look for during an inspection	p. 82
Taking a Critical Look at a Property	p. 84
Getting a Pre-Purchase Building Inspection Done	p. 85
Buying a Piece of History	p. 87
The Pros and Cons of Buying a Period Home	p. 88
Impressive pros	p. 88
Not-so-impressive cons	p. 89
Living with the idiosyncrasies of a period home	p. 89
Dealing with Heritage Restrictions	p. 90
Renovating your period home	p. 92
Restoring original features	p. 93
Architectural Periods and Styles	p. 94
Colonial style: 1788-1830s	p. 95
Georgian period: 1810s-1840s	p. 95
Victorian styles	p. 96
Federation or Edwardian style: 1901-16	p. 98
Queenslander: 1880s-1940	p. 99
Californian bungalow: 1916-1940s	p. 99
Early modern: 1915-1940s	p. 100
Modernist: 1945-70	p. 101
Renovator's Dream (or Nightmare)	p. 103
Tackling a Renovator's Delight	p. 104
Making the place livable	p. 104
Progressing from livable to lovable	p. 105
Planning the Job	p. 107
Obtaining the necessary permits	p. 107
Getting the work done	p. 110
Doing It Yourself	p. 110
Deciding whether you're up to the job	p. 110
Becoming an owner-builder	p. 113
Taking out home warranty insurance	p. 115
Calling in qualified tradespeople	p. 116
Acting as project manager	p. 117
Hiring Designers and Project Managers	p. 117
Resolving complex renovation situations	p. 118
Handing over the project management	p. 119
Hiring a Builder	p. 119
Getting a quote	p. 120
Signing the contract	p. 120
Living Through the Building Process	p. 121
Moving out until the dust settles	p. 122
Staying put during renovations	p. 122
Funding Your Renovation	p. 123
Nice and New	p. 125
Buying Into a Housing Estate	p. 126
Checking out an estate	p. 127
Studying the developer	p. 128
The House First or the Land?	p. 129
Getting the land first, then the house	p. 129
Taking the package	p. 130
Looking Behind the Facade of the Display Home	p. 131
Knowing about inclusions	p. 132
Deciding on some optional extras	p. 132
Upgrading to a better model	p. 133
Getting finance through the developer	p. 133
Your Dream Home: From Plans to Completion	p. 134
Project Building	p. 135
Buying 'Off the Plan'	p. 135
Imagining your home from a glossy brochure	p. 136
Finding out everything you can	p. 137
Building from Scratch	p. 139
Starting with a Block of Land	p. 140
Assessing a block of land	p. 141
Working with a less-than-great block of land	p. 142
Designing Your Dream Home	p. 142
Finding someone to turn your vision into reality	p. 143
Harnessing an architect's vision	p. 143
Deciding on a building designer	p. 145
Getting a draftsperson to draw your design	p. 145
Choosing an architect or building designer	p. 146
Moving from Concept to Contract	p. 148
Drawing up the concept plans	p. 148
Developing the design	p. 148
Finalising the plans	p. 148
Signing contracts and project managing	p. 149
Building a Home of Your Own	p. 149
The responsibilities of the owner-builder	p. 150
Looking at your options	p. 152
Taking a course for owner-builders	p. 153
Getting council approval	p. 153
Getting on with tradespeople	p. 154
Borrowing For, Buying and Protecting your Home	p. 155
Climbing Aboard the Mortgage Merry-Go-Round	p. 157
Understanding How a Mortgage Works	p. 158
Qualifying for a Loan	p. 159
Lending criteria	p. 159
Providing documents to your lender	p. 161
Choosing the Home Loan That Suits You and Your Hip Pocket	p. 162
To fix or not to fix	p. 162
Splitting the difference	p. 164
Introductory illusions	p. 165
No-frills variable	p. 165
Standard variable vanilla	p. 166
Line of credit loans	p. 167
Going professional	p. 167
Shopping Around for Your Lender	p. 168
Stand-alone mortgage	p. 168
The mortgage as the core of your finances	p. 169
Who's who of mortgage lenders	p. 171
Choosing the right mortgage broker for you	p. 172
Deciding to change your mortgage lender	p. 174
When You're Not the Standard Mould	p. 175
Accessing no-doc and low-doc loans	p. 176
Looking around when your credit is impaired	p. 177
Understanding Your Credit File and What to Do about a Bad One	p. 179
Bypassing the Banks Altogether	p. 180
Going, Going, Gone: Buying at Auction	p. 183
Assessing the Pros and Cons of Auctions	p. 184
Estimated Selling Prices and Other Half Truths	p. 185
Understanding Auction Day	p. 186
Introducing the property	p. 187
The bidding war	p. 187
Vendor bids	p. 187
Bidding rules and regulations	p. 188
On the market	p. 189
Passed in	p. 190
Tactics to beat the auctioneers at their own game	p. 190
You make the winning bid-now what?	p. 192
Making an Offer after a Property Is Passed In	p. 192
Making a Pre-Auction Offer	p. 193
Signing (After Reading) the Contract	p. 194
Making an Offer: Buying Through a Private Treaty Sale	p. 195
Checking Out a Private Treaty Sale	p. 195
Negotiating a price	p. 196
Beating down the price	p. 198
Making an offer	p. 199
Putting conditions on your offer	p. 202
Understanding what happens after the vendor agrees to your offer	p. 203
Avoiding being 'gazumped'	p. 204
Looking at Other Selling Methods	p. 205
Set sales	p. 205
Expressions of interest	p. 206
Sold to the Highest Bidder! Now What?	p. 207
Signing on the Dotted Line	p. 208
Knowing what to look for in a contract of sale	p. 208
Making special conditions on the contract	p. 209
Exchanging contracts and handing over the deposit	p. 210
Argh! We made a mistake: Enter, the cooling-off period	p. 211
Waiving your cooling-off period	p. 213
Securing Your Final Loan Approval	p. 213
Getting a Valuation Done	p. 214
Settling on Your Property	p. 215
Insuring Your Biggest Asset	p. 217
Insuring the building	p. 217
Calculating the costs of rebuilding your home	p. 218
Insuring your possessions	p. 220
Calculating the value of your possessions	p. 221
The Part of Tens	p. 223
Ten Things to Remember as a First Home Buyer	p. 225
Buy When You're Ready to Buy	p. 225
Think Outside the Square	p. 226
Look at Your First Purchase as a Springboard	p. 227
Borrow No More Than You Can Afford	p. 227
Another Property Is Always around the Corner	p. 228
Don't Pay Too Much for a Property	p. 228
Keep Your Emotions in Check When Looking at a Home	p. 229
Be Sceptical of Selling Agents	p. 229
Renovating Can Wait	p. 230
The Mortgage Does Go Down-Eventually	p. 230
Ten Areas (Almost!) to Check at Open Homes	p. 233
Kitchen	p. 233
Bathroom	p. 235
Lounge	p. 236
Dining Room	p. 237
Bedrooms	p. 237
Laundry	p. 238
Garage	p. 239
Backyard or Balcony	p. 240
Street Appeal	p. 241
Index	p. 243
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Buying Property For Dummies

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Buying Property For Dummies

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