Am I on the right track or can I purchase now?

Hi there, I'd love a bit of advice in regards to purchasing my first investment property and would love to know if I can buy now or I'm on the right track.

26 years old. $22k in savings. Interested in purchasing south east of Melbourne. Broker told me I could purchase a place up to 370k. Last time I met with my broker in Dec with 16k savings he told me I am just about ready to purchase and gave me the all clear. I'd like to know if I should be saving more at this stage or I am safe enough to purchase and handle my first property. I'd ideally like to spend around 350k.

I just signed a new contract at work guaranteeing me 36 hours per week so I now have a bit more of a steady income. I now earn average $750. My expenses currently are:

$150 Rent per week
$70 in gas and petrol per month (good on gas, only drive to and from work)
$29.90 phone bill per month
$50 internet bill per month
$100 give or take on groceries per week (trying to cut this down)

I try and put in around $250 per week in savings but will add more if I have left over money at the end of the week.

Car is paid off.
No credit card debt.
Kids are not planned for at least another year or two.

Thankyou in advance for your advice.

 

You would generally need at least 10 to 15% for deposits and costs so you don't seem to have enough.

Are you intending to get any stamp duty concessions and FHOG?

 

FHOG? I thought you could only get them on a property you were intending on living in? This is purely investment. Also, I always thought it wasn't enough but I want to understand why my broker would tell me I am ready to purchase if I have no where near enough money.

I have my parents going guarantor.

 

If you have a guarantor, you don't need a deposit at all. you are effectively borrowing the deposit from your parent property.

 

Ding!

 

A guarantee from your parent provides their equity to cover a portion of the purchase (generally up to 20% of the value of the purchase + any costs - but depends on individual lender policy as to the max) - this means you do not need to put in any cash funds to cover the purchase. We do this quite often for early investors who try to use it to leapfrog into their first investments - particularly if they can use their cash funds to instead renovate the property etc.

 

But you are going to live in it...........