“There is nothing wrong with stomach butterflies, you just have to get them flying in formation.”

– Rob Gilbert

Article 4/6 in our First Home Foundations series.

When I was a pimply-faced, socially awkward teenager, I moved from Melbourne to Geelong and started at a new school.

I didn’t know anyone, I had no friends, and I lacked the skills to make new ones. Rather than sit by myself at recess and lunchtime, I would walk laps around the school. Not just any old laps, I would walk deliberately and with purpose like I had somewhere important to be, (oh my god, this is embarrassing to even remember).

One lunchtime whilst I was on my purposeful walk to nowhere, I got halfway across the large school quadrangle when a young boy from my year level, Joel, (to this day I remember Joel’s name), called out to me to come over. Secretly inside, I was over the moon that someone finally wanted to talk to me. In front of the whole school, I walked over to their group and when I got about 15 meters from them he yelled at me, ‘Now piss off’. In humiliation, I had to walk away with the entire school staring at me.

Gee whiz, kids can be cruel, but ultimately it made me a stronger person.

This story reminds me of the journey of a lot of First Home Buyers. They need more help than anyone else in the market, but they’re at the bottom of the real estate and finance totem pole.

No one is willing to help.

Most First Home Buyers don’t realise it, but an estimated 20% of all property sales happen off the market. Of all the banks in Australia, only 30% of those are part of the First Home Loan Deposit Scheme designed to assist aspiring first homeowners. It’s like there’s a big property party and First Home Buyers are not invited.

Most aspiring first homeowners are paying rent that is the equivalent of a mortgage, and all they want is a place that they can call their own.

The issue is trial and error in real estate takes decades. Those who are part of the big property party have spent years and often millions of dollars to get to the inner sanctum.

What first homeowners should be asking themselves is not how, but who?

Even if you could, why would you spend years and millions of dollars getting to the inner sanctum when you could just find someone else who has already done the work?

This is the fundamental principle behind the First Home Foundation — Network.

To get the network, you are going to have to hustle.

You’re going to need a broker, but not just any old broker. You need a broker who is a specialist in first-home lending and you need a broker who is committed to you. This may be hard work to find. A lot of brokers are just punching their tickets waiting for payday. They could help you, but mostly they can’t be bothered. I would Google a short list of brokers who claim that they specialise in First Home Buyers, and then I would call and interview them. Ask them the following questions:

• What’s your experience with First Home Buyers?
• What grants and financial assistance can you get me access to?
• Do you have low deposit options?
• Do you have house and land experience?
• What is your valuation process?
• What lenders do you have on your panel?
• Tell me about a time you had a client in my situation and what you did to get them into a property?

The answers to these questions are important but what is most important is the feeling you get for the person. If you don’t feel they will go the extra mile for you, find someone else.

Once you’ve got someone you trust, get yourself a budget for your land.

As a starting point, get on realestate.com.au and filter by land and your maximum price.

Cold call the agents on the list with a shopping list of what you are looking for. On the shopping list, you need to consider the following:

• Price
• Size
• Shape
• Registration date
• Track record of the developer meeting registration dates if the block is unregistered
• Contract conditions
• Deposit requirements

There is a lot more such as soil type, gradient, easements, flood overlays, and covenants but the above should get you started.

If they haven’t got what you want, give them your number and ask them to call you if anything comes up. Agents constantly have finance on deals falling over and would much rather give it to you than list it online and have to deal with 3700 phone calls before they sell the block.

Next is the builder.

Building and builders are fraught with risk for First Home Buyers. At a high level, what you are looking for is;

· High-quality inclusions as standard (not an upgrade)

· Fixed-price contract (the price cannot change)

· Full turnkey product (meaning everything is included, e.g. driveways, fences, landscaping, etc.)

For more on building, check our article on “First Home Foundation – Style”.

For a lot of people, they look at all of this and say, ‘This is too much to know and learn’.

Fair enough, it is too much.

It’s not about how – it’s about who.

Just as it takes a village to raise a person, it will take a small army to get you into your first home. Learning by trial and error takes too long. Find someone who has already made the mistakes so you don’t have to.

Choose wisely.