Buying your next home is even harder
First-home buyers get plenty of sympathy, but getting onto the second rung of the ladder is harder. Katie Newton reports.
This is not a whinge. Anyone who owns any home is fortunate, and anyone who’s in a position to upgrade it is even more so. But while we often hear about how difficult it is for first-home buyers to get on the property ladder, we hardly hear about how difficult it is to take the next step.
And, from experience, it can be a lot more difficult.
Timing is everything
Working out which order to buy and sell is tricky. Sell first and you might not find a new home in time. But buying first will mean enduring plenty of loud sighs and furrowed brows from your banking consultant as you attempt to secure expensive bridging finance.
Mortgage broker Scott Miller, owner of Advanced Mortgage Solutions, said buying the second time is ‘‘definitely’’ more complicated. ‘‘Most people can’t afford to service two mortgages at once so bridging is not available to them. And getting an offer accepted on the condition that you sell your current home is tough.’’
Miller says that while the ‘‘ideal scenario’’ is to settle on both properties on the same day, in some instances, banks will bridge for a short time when presented with unconditional offers to buy each property.
But this again relies on the stars to align – and can drain your bank account quick-smart.
Selling is stressful
Buying a house can be an emotional roller coaster but if you’re clear about what you want and can afford it, it can also be quite straightforward.
Plus, if you miss out, there’s always another house to buy.
Selling, on the other hand, will often involve a massive spruce-up and decluttering operation on your current home and then days and weeks of keeping it in tip-top shape for open homes and other inspections. You only get one chance to sell your biggest asset, and it can be a very tense process.
You’re tied to a location
Many first-home buyers don’t have to be as choosy with location.
We had a list of eight possible suburbs to choose from when we started out and had no real community ties. Now, with local friends, sports clubs and a child at school with a very strict zone, we’re not just limited to looking at one suburb but half of one suburb.
You can count on one hand the number of suitable houses that have come up in the past year.
Several real estate agents have told us to just move out of the school zone and not own up. But here I am, writing about it for the world to see, so that option is out the window.
‘‘Several real estate agents have told us to just move out of the school zone and not own up.’’ Katie Newton, above
You’re much fussier
As first-home buyers, we were just keen to buy a house, any house.
After years of living in grubby flats and dossing with my mum (hi Mum), anything that we could call our own was going to be paradise.
We accepted that we’d have to make compromises and we couldn’t afford to be precious about garaging or indoor-outdoor flow.
But now, five years, two kids and a dog have happened, and we’re a lot pickier than we were back then.
Three bedrooms is a must. A fenced section is a must. Warmer and drier and bigger than our current little box are musts.
The debt is scarier
Signing up for your first home loan is daunting when you’ve previously only had a credit card and some library fines.
But with a bit of equity built up and possibly a bit more earning power, you’re out of the riskiest category of borrowers and into the juiciest – and the amounts the banks are willing to loan can become absurd.
Committing to a huge weekly payment until the day you retire, or just keel over, is a frightening prospect.
You secretly want your forever home
At this point, you’re tired. Kids, work and some semblance of a social life means this life stage is busy and the thought of moving house is exhausting. You try to be realistic but can’t help but think that maybe, you’ll find a house so perfect that you’ll never have to do it again. And that adds another layer of pressure to the hunt.