Late to the Table

Hi folks,

Really hoping for some advice or guidance for buying a first home.
Recently moved from Perth to Melbourne currently renting in Vermont, a bit of a rushed decision as temporary accommodation was pretty painful with 2 bubs.

Family of 4 and will plan to rent in the area we want to buy for a 12 month period. So looking at buying in 12-24 months, will rent as soon as lease is up here. We are both mid 30’s. I’m a school teacher hubby is a youth worker, 3 year old and a 4 month old.

Nice area (like the leafiness and schools are good) but by all accounts we won’t have the budget to buy here.

Budget will be around €6-700k. Priority is a non bogan suburb- that is really important.
Must be a house on an approx 500sqm plot.
Happy with an older house.
Not on a main road.
Near to a park
Near to a cafe or 2 and some shops.
Distance to city not hugely important, public transport not important, beach not important. School zone not hugely important as will most likely go private, probably Catholic for primary and secondary. (Unless the local primary is very good)

Thought Boronia might be an option, drove out there. It’s now off my radar. Husband working in Parkville. I’ll be looking for a school once mat leave ends mid year.

Please share your thoughts for consideration. Every time I try research it I just go down a rabbit hole and don’t know how to go about this. I am an over thinker and am not an impulse buyer. Took 9 years renting in Perth to realize we wanted to live in Melbourne please help!!

 

What is that budget based on?

 

Based on an amount we were pre-approved for with our deposit and that I am happy to make repayments on. I’ve really no interest in getting a million dollar mortgage even if I could afford the repayments

 

Ye look I definitely don’t want to dis anyone’s surrounds but I just know it’s not for me. The whole methodone clinic thing put me off too. At least in Perth I knew which areas were bogan centric. New playing field here and it is one of the most important factors for us.

 

because you just want a place to live and dont care about future gains? Or you just dont like debt? How will your kids buy homes if melbourne keeps going up?

just exploring your risk profile.

 

Not sure if I missed the point of this comment, is it that my budget would be do-able if converting 6-700k from €’s to $? Or that we are in fact European? Irish as it happens!

 

check what you typed in the first post.

 

Ah ok- mainly don’t like debt or more so don’t like big repayments, left Ireland mid crash in 2010 and terrified the life out of me, hence being 35 and just deciding on where to buy!

Yes defo want kids to afford to buy, never considered that aspect-god I’ve so much homework to do here!

 

My bad

 

try to keep an open mind. There Is a lot you can learn, and saying you dont like debt really closes a lot of doors. It might seem safe but may have other consequences. Think about how things would be if someone bought a house in melb 30 years ago and gave it to you now.

Understand the trauma of experiencing the irish crash, but as you know its had a good bounceback lately. Perth hasnt been great for the past couple of years either. But melb has had a pretty good run without a major hiccup for a long time.

 

Thanks Trainee, sound advice re keeping an open mind. I’m really not afraid of debt if I think about it. Just don’t want to be in a position where I’m only working to pay bills, I’ve/we’ve been used to a nice discretionary income on fairly average wages for a long time due to keeping debt costs down, cheap rent bla bla bla. But that was when location & longer term prospects weren’t the main priority. I am keen to research as much as possible and was so glad to find this forum, such excellent advice.

 

Short term dont want to work to pay the mortgage. Noone does.

but..

what if some struggling now meant you could upgrade to a better house, have more in retirement, help the kids with deposits? Not saying its for everyone and there are risks.
But at least make a decision that considers the long term.

 

Yes that’s definitely worth considering, especially the retirement/helping kids aspect. We’ve done so much moving over the last 15 years, counties, countries and continents, I’m hoping that we will buy the ‘forever home’ now, that’s probably wishful thinking!

Right now I think if I can focus on finding the right location then I can think about the strategy to consider for the short/long term outcomes. Will do some research on suburbs listed by The Y Man and see how they go.

Thanks Trainee.

 

Welcome @Sulon

 

After a couple of discussions with friends who have been there done that, it seems if my priority is location (ie not wanting to be in a ‘bogan’ suburb) then in fact Trainee your point hit the nail on the head. We may need to cough up the big bucks on a 900k mortgage seeing as we are in Melbourne and the fact is that it is expensive here. It seems that price point is the norm here for what we want, I look around my suburb and surrounding suburbs and it’s not like it’s full of super rich people, the people around here seem normal....Maybe Vermont is attainable for us if we wait for the right house to come along, I don’t even mind renting in the interim as at least we know the location is right. Off to scour the forum now for what to look out for when looking for houses