Eight lessons I learnt from buying my first home

After nine months of scouring Domain and realestate.com.au on a daily basis and countless Saturday's spent darting from one open home to the next, my partner and I have bought a home and are about to move in.

It's been a journey to say the least - a journey that has often been frustrating and, at times, downright dispiriting. But at the end of the day, we're fortunate enough to have found a place of our own.

Like all journeys, I've learnt a lot, including a few things that - as someone who writes about property and finance for a living - I thought I already knew.

So with that in mind, here are a some of the things that I wish I knew as a first home buyer going into the process and a few others that surprised me along the way.

1. Nail down your non-negotiables

When we first started our property hunt we didn't have a firm idea about what we wanted in a home, beyond it being located in one of the 10-15 suburbs we had already identified. At that point, anything could have been a potential winner.

But as we got more inspections under our belt we realised that this wasn't going to be the case. Some suburbs weren't, in fact, where we wanted to live. Nor did we really want to buy a fixer-upper, or a home on a main road - no matter how nice it was.

Perhaps the biggest realisation was how crucial natural light was for both of us. It ended up being the most important factor, and one that lead us crossing off a few otherwise excellent options off our list.

The point is, the quicker you work out what your non-negotiables are, the sooner you'll be able to narrow down your search to homes that you actually want to buy.

2. You've got to be realistic 

Nailing down your non-negotiables is obviously important - after all, this is a home you're going to want to be happy living in. But so is being realistic about what you can actually afford.

We had this happen in a few suburbs that we really loved, but where the properties that were coming up in our price range were few and far between and hotly fought over. So if you're having difficulty finding a property in your desired area that ticks enough boxes, you have two options.

The first is to keep waiting to see if something eventually pops up. Perhaps prices in the area will drop, giving you more options. The problem is, the opposite could also happen, leaving things even less affordable than they already were.

The second option is to face the facts and adjust to the reality of the situation. Perhaps that means  looking for a two bedroom apartment instead of a three-bedder, or expanding your search to the next suburb over.

It can be tough to be realistic when properties are advertised at a certain price and then end up selling for a far higher price though. I got some good advice from a buyers' agent on this point though.

She suggested that prospective buyers should go into whichever property portals they prefer to use and look at three months' worth of sales history for the type of property and suburb they're looking in to get a truer sense of what they can expect to pay.

3. Selling agents aren't your friends

Now don't get me wrong, I met some lovely sales agents throughout our nine months of searching, including the agent who eventually sold us our home.

But there were plenty of dubious operators too. Some who were clearly underquoting and others whose only interest seemed to be getting us to turn up at auction to boost their numbers - no matter our actual interest in the property.

So in my experience, it was about striking a balance between being honest about what we were looking for without giving too much away about our price ceiling, or what we might pay for a particular property.

It is worth getting on the databases of local agents though, because not every property ends up on the likes of Domain or realestate.com.au. That way you'll be notified as soon as one of their new properties hits the market, potentially giving you the opportunity to get in the door before the competition.

At the end of the day selling agents are there to represent the seller and sell the property, which means you shouldn't ever expect them to be in your corner. So if you want someone on your side then employ a buyers' agent.

4. It's easy to get carried away at auction

Auctions are, by design, perfectly set up to play on the emotions of buyers. You're surrounded by your competition. You've got an auctioneer in front of you whose job it is to squeeze as much money out as you as possible. And you know that if you're successful in outbidding everyone, the home will be yours.

The problem is that the auction environment and the emotions at play can make it far easier to push your budget that little bit higher than you wanted. I never thought that was going to be the case personally, but wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what happened at one auction.

Just as we'd reached our limit my partner - who is usually very measured - leant over and whispered in my ear that I should raise our paddle again and up our bid by $5000... and then another $5000.

Luckily for us - in some ways - that wasn't nearly enough because the eventual winner ended up paying well above our final bid, so we didn't get burned by our rashness. But it was a good lesson to take away and a mistake we didn't repeat again.

5. Cooling-off and settlement aren't the same

Now, cooling-off and settlement are two terms that I knew about before our property search got underway and, to be honest, they're easily understood with a quick search.

For whatever reason though, I constantly got them mixed up throughout the process. So, to get things straight, here's when both can come into play.

The cooling-off period applies immediately after contracts are exchanged for properties sold via private treaty, though not for auction sales which tend not to have cooling-off periods.

It's basically the last chance buyers have to pull out of the deal, though they may still lose their deposit or face a financial penalty if they do so. And while it varies from state to state, the cooling-off period typically lasts between two to five businesses days.

On the other hand, the settlement period applies to all home sales during which time the remaining financial and legal work is sorted out by the buyers' and sellers' legal representatives. Settlement begins once the contracts are exchanged and generally lasts from 30 and 60 days, though it can be longer.

Then there's settlement day itself. This is when the buyers' legal representative will exchange the final documents with the representative of the seller and liaise with the buyers' lender to have the funds released and the mortgage registered. Assuming all things go well the buyer will then be able to pick up the keys to their new home that day.

6. You may need to organise home insurance quickly

If you've just won at auction or sealed the deal on a private treaty purchase, chances are you're going to be more interested in popping the champagne than getting in contact with your insurer. But depending on the part of the country you live in, you might want to.

This is something I found out myself. Having been told that we'd secured our property late one Friday afternoon, I spent Saturday morning comparing home insurance offers and then signing up for a policy to make sure we had cover for the new home.

That's because in some states and territories, any damage that occurs during the settlement period is actually the responsibility of the buyer, even if the seller is still living there. As a result, the onus is on the buyer to have home insurance in place, should they want it.

That's the case in the Australian Capital Territory, South Australia and Tasmania, while in Queensland the responsibility kicks in from 5pm on the next business day after the contracts are signed. In New South Wales and Victoria though, new owners are responsible from the day the property settles.

So rather than being caught out at the last minute, it could pay to be organised and to compare a few policies in the lead up to closing on a property.

7. Make the most of the final inspection

Some buyers might not appreciate that they'll be given a final inspection before settlement date in order to ensure that the property is still in the same condition they bought it in. It's something that came as a surprise to me, at least.

So what do you want to look out for when conducting the inspection? Well, for one, you'll want to make sure that there aren't any signs of new damage that has occurred since the property was purchased.

You may also want to ensure that any fixtures or appliances that you had agreed would stay in the home - a dishwasher or dryer, for instance - are still there. Plus you'll want to ensure that the lights work and that any heating or cooling systems in the home are actually operational.

Hopefully there won't be any issues, but to be on the safe side, it's worth scheduling the inspection at least a few days before settlement so that any problems can be sorted out to before you move in.

8. Your first repayment won't come out straight away

In the week leading up to settlement date I kept checking in on my banking app to see if our home loan account had been added. That's because I had assumed that our first mortgage repayment would be taken out of the day of settlement.

The good news is that I was wrong and worrying over nothing. In our case, I found out that the bank would take out the first repayment one month anniversary of settlement.

This seems to be typical of most banks who begin charging their mortgage customers one month after the date of settlement, but that can vary for borrowers who have opted for more frequent repayments.

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