Preparing to buy your first home - Part 2: Reducing the conditions

Buying your first home involves taking a lot of steps before you even make an offer on a house.

We’ve put together some tips on reducing the conditions before making an offer to make the process a little more simple.

Before you make the offer tick off as many minor issues as possible with regards to the house you want to make offer on.

  1. Get the bank to confirm the house is okay – if you are pre-approved you can send the bank the property address and they will confirm they have no issues with it (some houses are on blacklists), so you can offer with confidence. If you are not pre-approved you have to take the risk, so a condition on the offer is necessary.

  2. Have your lawyer to check the title. This is quick and removes the need for a condition, and if there is an issue you can save yourself time by not making an offer. Your lawyer will be able to analyse this for you and let you know.

  3. Confirm you can get house insurance – this is a very real issue in Wellington and Christchurch but it’s important for everyone to know you can get house insurance, as it’s a requirement of your mortgage. The DUX team sort this for all our clients before they make an offer or you need to ring your insurer to make sure. Not all insurers are offering cover at the moment, so make sure ahead of time.

These three tips will help make you more confident when it’s time to make an offer and to reduce the conditions you may need to have.

Keep checking our blog for more tips and advice for first home buyers.

 
Alan Borthwick