Getting Started in Property for Dummies: Australian Edition by Karin Derkley

Getting Started for Dummies
Karin DERKLEY
Paperback

Description

Reduce the headaches when getting started in property  

Confused and intimidated by the world of real estate? Feel like you're missing out on the profits? Relax! Getting Started in Property For Dummies is your practical guide to all aspects of buying property, from buying a piece of history to building from scratch. Discover how to minimise the hassles, maximise the profits and come out ahead!

Discover how to:

• Choose the best location
• Time the market
• Deal with property professionals
• Find the right finance
• Negotiate a great deal

Karin Derkley is former deputy editor of Personal Investor Magazine, and continues to write for The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald. She has also lived through the pleasures and pitfalls of purchasing and renovating her own home.

More Info:

Introduction
About this book
How to use this book
Foolish assumptions
How this book is organised –
Part I: The Great Australian Dream
Part II: Finding your dream home
Part III: Borrowing for, buying and protecting you home
Part IV: The part of tens
Icons used in this book
Where to go from here

Part II: The Great Australian Dream

Chapter 1: Assessing the dream: Aspects of buying, selling and investing in property
Looking at whether you’re ready to buy a home
Renting versus buying
Liking the advantages of renting
Disliking the disadvantages of renting
Understanding how your home is an investment
Owning your home is Tax-Friendly
The Government’s let up – the first home owner grant
Getting ready to scrimp and save
Agonising over the time to buy
Searching for your ideal home
Smartening up your home

Chapter 2: Squeezing your foot onto the property ladder
The costs of buying a home
Drumming up the deposit
Begging to borrow
Coughing up for Stamp Duty and other Government slugs
Paying off the lawyers
Counting every last bit and bob
Calculating your monthly outgoings
Home maintenance costs
Council rates
Regular living costs
Plans for the future
Looking at funding strategies
Staying with the parents
Doing it solo
Getting together with friends
Asking the parents to help out
Investing in shares and managed funds

Chapter 3: The position or the property
Dreaming up your perfect home
Must haves, like to haves and mustn’t haves
Trading off location against the perfect home
Spotting up-and-coming suburbs
Moving to the fringes
Escaping to the country
Going high rise

Chapter 4: Dealing with property professionals
Working with real estate agents
Understanding a real estate agent’s motivation
Getting to the truth on property value
Getting a real estate agent to help you find a property
Putting in an offer
Dealing with buyers’ agents
Finding a competent buyers’ agent – avoiding the pitfalls
Counting the costs of using a buyers’ agent
Negotiating a sale on your behalf
Understanding what (sellers’ or buyers’) agents can and can’t do

Part II: Finding Your dream Home

Chapter 5: The search is on
Setting up your search strategy
Keeping track of all the information
Doing the research
Narrowing down the search
Paring down the properties
Understanding real-estate speak
Doing the drive-by
Checking out trains, trams and buses
Strolling to the corner shops
Assessing the properties on the short list
Attending an open for inspection
Working out a schedule of visits
What to look for during an inspection
Taking a critical look at a property
Getting a pre-purchase building inspection done

Chapter 6: Buying a piece of history
The pros and cons of buying a period home
Impressive pros
Not-so-impressive cons
Living with the idiosyncrasies of a period home
Dealing with heritage restrictions
Renovating your period home
Restoring original features
Architectural periods and styles
Colonial style: 1820s -1830s
Georgian period: 1830s -1860s
Victorian styles
Federation or Edwardian style: 1901-1916
Queenslander: 1880s-1940
Californian bungalow: 1916-1940s
Early modern: 1915-1940’s
Modernist: 1945-1970

Chapter 7: Renovator’s dream (or nightmare)
Tackling a renovator’s delight
Making the place liveable
Progressing from liveable to loveable
Planning the job
Obtaining the necessary permits
Getting the work done
Doing it yourself
Deciding whether you’re up to the job
Becoming and owner-builder
Taking out home warranty insurance
Calling in qualified tradespeople
Acting as project manager
Hiring designers and project managers
Resolving complex renovation situations
Handing over the project management
Hiring a builder
Getting a quote
Signing the contract
Living through the building process
Moving out until the dust settles
Staying put during renovations
Funding your renovation

Chapter 8: Nice and New
Buying into a housing estate
Checking out an estate
Studying the developer
The house first or the land?
Getting the land first, then the house
Taking the package
Looking behind the façade of the display home
Knowing about inclusions
Deciding on some optional extras
Upgrading to a better model
Getting finance through he developer
Your dream home: from plans to completion
Project building
Buying ‘off the plan’
Imagining your home from a glossy brochure
Finding out everything you can

Chapter 9: Building from scratch
Starting with a block of land
Assessing a block of land
Working with a less-than-great block of land
Designing your dream home
Finding someone to turn your vision into a reality
Harnessing an architect’s vision
Deciding on a building designer
Getting a draftsperson to draw your design
Choosing an architect or building or designer
Moving from concept to contract
Drawing up the concept plans
Developing the design
Finalising the plans
Signing contracts and project managing
Building a home of your own
The responsibilities of the owner-builder
Looking at your options
Taking a course for owner-builders
Getting council approval
Getting on with tradespeople

Part III: Borrowing for, Buying and Protecting Your Home

Chapter 10: Climbing aboard the mortgage merry-go-round
Understanding how a mortgage works
Qualifying for a loan
Lending criteria
Providing documents to your lender
Choosing the home loan that suits you and your hip pocket
To fix or not to fix
Splitting the difference
Introductory illusions
No-frills variable
Standard variable vanilla
Line of credit loans
Going professional
Shopping around for your lender
Stand-alone mortgage
The mortgage as the core of your finance
Who’s who of mortgage lenders
Choosing the right mortgage broker for you
Non-conforming loans: when you’re not the standard mould
Accessing non-doc and low-doc loans
Looking around when your credit is impaired
Taking a no-deposit loan
Understanding your credit file and what to do
About a bad one

Chapter 11: Going, going, gone: buying at auction
Assessing the pros and cons of auctions
Estimated selling prices
Understanding auction day
Introducing the property
The bidder war
Vendor bids
On the market
Passed in
Tactics to beat the auctioneers at their own game
Making an offer after a property is passed in
Making a pre-auction offer
Signing (after reading) the contract

Chapter 12: making an offer: buying through a private treaty sale
Checking out a private treaty sale
Negotiating a price
Beating down the price
Making an offer
Putting conditions on your offer
Understanding what happens after the vendor agrees to your offer
Looking at other selling methods
Set sales
Expressions of interest

Chapter 13: Sold to the highest bidder! Now What?
Signing on the dotted line
Knowing what to look for in a contract of sale
Making special conditions on the contract
Exchanging contracts and handing over the deposit
Argh! We made a mistake: Enter, the cooling-off period
Waiving your cooling off period
Securing your final loan approval
Getting a valuation done
Settling on your property
Insuring your biggest asset
Insuring the building
Calculating the costs of rebuilding your home
Insuring your possessions
Calculating the value of your possessions

Part IV: The part of tens
Chapter 14: ten things to remember as a First Home Buyer
Buy when you’re ready to buy
Think outside the square
Look at your first purchase as a springboard
Borrow no more than you can afford
Another property is always around the corner
Don’t pay too much for a property
Keep your emotions in check when looking at a home
Be sceptical of selling agents
Renovating can wait
The mortgage does goes down – eventually