Stories and Tips on Buying a House

We know it can be daunting when you’re a first home buyer, which is why we’ve spoken to some clients to get their top stories and tips on buying your first house. At Eckermanns, we work hard to ensure you enter the world of property armed with knowledge. Read on for our first home buyer tips and client success stories.

My parents were happy to act as guarantors. I met with my bank to work out what I could borrow. I’ve banked with the same bank all my life and I value loyalty so I went with them even though a lot of my friends have used mortgage brokers.”

Freya was serious about three places in the end. She ended up buying the more expensive of the three but she was happy with what it offered her in terms of layout and flexibility. She trusted her parents to advise her.

I knew they wouldn’t flatter me like the agent tried to and I realised the agent is acting for the seller so he’s going to do all he can to get the best price for them. You know, everyone can help and give you advice but at the end of the day you’re on your own. You own the place, not anyone else. I must say that it was all really confusing.”

Freya was a little lucky in that two of her friends also bought their first homes at about the same time. ”I learned the process from them.”

Once Freya’s offer was accepted, she said that things moved very quickly. “It’s like a runaway train with no chance to apply the brakes. There’s just no letting up.”

I wish I had contacted a conveyancer earlier. When I spoke to the first one, she sounded worried – like she wasn’t confident with my situation. That wasn’t what I needed. Then I lost confidence in myself. I mentioned that to a friend and she told me about Eckermanns. I knew they were a family business and even though they are Adelaide based they’re sizable, so they have enough people for me to be confident everything will happen when it should.

I had a colleague who is an agent and he told me not to look at realestate.com.au – he said that the places on there are the ones that have already sold or they can’t sell. He suggested I sign up for email alerts from individual agents. We had a set budget but it was the same price point as a whole lot of investors and first home owners. We signed up with four agents for alerts. We had to do private inspections because of COVID.”

Mel and Thomas signed up with Raine and Horne, Ray White, LJ Hooker and Sexton and Glover.

I really liked the agent we bought from. I trusted him. He wasn’t pushy. We decided on a one month settlement but that was pretty tight. I think I would do 60 days next time. Our Eckermanns conveyancer was great. I just felt total trust and the process felt easy. I felt totally comfortable that someone else was taking on the burden of the worry.”

Mel said she knew there were probably cheaper conveyancer options available but she was happy to pay for peace of mind.

He’s quite a meticulous planner and started off by listing out what he wanted in his first property and then filtered on that basis. What Matt said was that sometimes he found the agent’s website to be more complete than the listing on realestate.com.au or domain.com.au. We thought that was interesting.

Where did he get advice? One of Matt’s top tips on buying your first house is making time to speak to family and friends. Matt spoke to his boss and also just started being more aware of listening to the stories of people who had bought houses recently.

I was only looking for about a month and ended up buying a new build that had been completed in February. I signed my contract around July.”

Matt used Eckermanns’ connections service to connect his gas and electricity. For finance, he went to his usual bank. He didn’t see the need to shop around for finance but had a brief look online.

It’s more simple if I go to my usual bank. They know my record – they can see my history. The mobile banker came to see me. It was really convenient – he was happy to meet me anywhere. It was the mobile banker who first told me I’d need a conveyancer.”

Matt opted for a 60 day settlement and he had pre-approval from his banker, NAB, so things went quite smoothly.

Matt had to make a couple of offers before the deal was sealed and he has plans to buy again mid-term.
“I’ll sell this place off in 5-6 years and then I’ll look to upgrade.”

They had been looking at established places but couldn’t quite find what they wanted so decided to create a place themselves.

We knew where we wanted to buy and I set up search criteria so I would get notifications. I became a bit obsessed with Realestate.com.au! Initially we were looking for established houses but when the government grants for new houses came about they were very attractive so we started looking at blocks.”

From memory, the matter of needing a conveyancer was raised by both the building consultant and real estate agent and they both made their recommendations. I’m sure our original broker would have too if we hadn’t already engaged Eckermanns at that point. I got the impression most first home buyers don’t consider a conveyancer up until the point of signing the contract. The agent made her recommendation as opposed to explaining the role of a conveyancer and how to best choose the right conveyancer for you.”

Wendy and Steve ended up with quite a complex Form 1 because the home and land package they were buying was part of a subdivision.

At the offer stage, we pretty much paid the asking price. The agent called the owner and the deal was done over the phone. There was a lot of complication with the Form 1 – it had every kind of caveat on the property that you could imagine and it was for the whole block not just for our portion – it was the old title not the new one. It felt like a huge amount of pressure on us. It was awful.

Things like property development and Contract & Form 1 Preparation are incredibly complex, so Wendy was happy she stood her ground on her choice of conveyancer.

Wendy and Steve are now in the process of building their new home.

Buying a new home can be daunting, but at Eckermanns we make sure you are supported every step of the way and are across the processes and steps.

If you’ve been inspired by our client tips on buying your first house, contact us today via the form. Our team of experts have all the tips and tricks to make your first home purchase as smooth as possible.