My First Home Buyer Journey – podcast episode notes

In the “My First Home Buyer Journey” blog series, I wrote a series of blog posts explaining how I bought my first home. Along the way, I completed the “Your First Home Buyer Guide” course from Home Buyer Academy which describes a 10-step process for buying your first home with confidence. That course has been invaluable in structuring my property search. After buying my first home, I had the honour of being interviewed by Veronica and Meighan, the creators of the course, to talk about my journey of buying my first home and explain the process of saving for my first home, doing some research and successfully buying my first home via auction. That interview is now up as an episode of the “Your First Home Buyer Guide” podcast.

In this blog post, I will provide some details that I did not touch on in the podcast episode so that listeners can better understand my first home buyer journey. 

The benefits of doing the “Your First Home Buyer Guide” course (12:00 of the podcast)

As someone who likes following a structure, the “Your First Home Buyer Guide” course taught me the structure that I needed to buy my first home with confidence. I first heard about the course in mid-2023 while listening to one of Digital Finance Analytics’ livestreams where Martin North was talking to Veronica about the property market at the time. After doing some research, including doing a few free courses from Home Buyer Academy, I decided to pay the $990 to do the course.

The “Your First Home Buyer Guide” course gives you a 10-step process for buying your first home (or your subsequent home). Each step consists of three lessons that cover different aspects. Each lesson contains a video by Veronica and Meighan, some notes summarising the video and a number of documents and checklists to download. For instance, the second module on money focuses on how much you need to save towards your first home, government incentives and grants and how to budget and determine your borrowing capacity.

I took notes of each video, creating my own course notes that I referred to while navigating my first home buyer journey. I also downloaded the documents and checklists that I adapted to collect more information on the properties I was looking at. Together, the course helped me identify what I needed to consider when looking at and purchasing property, ensuring I was buying something that would be suitable for me in the long term.

In addition to lifetime access to the course, the course also includes:

1. A copy of Veronica’s book “Auction Ready” which complements what was taught in the course, plus a few useful tips on how to prepare for auctions. 
2. A 2-hour tutorial which teaches you how to decide where and what to buy given your budget.
3. Access to the Question board and live Q&A sessions (known as campfires) where Veronica and Meighan can answer students’ questions about the home buying process or evaluate the properties students were thinking of buying.

The third point in particular was invaluable in that I got feedback from Veronica and Meighan about the properties I was interested in and how to prepare for auctions. It was also a great opportunity to read or hear what other students were going through in their home buying journey. This exposed me to property markets in other parts of Australia and how other students were faring in their property search, particularly in how they were interacting with real estate agents. In return, I shared information on the properties I was looking at and how I was going in my home buying journey. These interactions helped teach me what I needed to consider when looking at property or dealing with agents. 

Overall, it was well worth paying the $990 to participate in the course. Not only have I bought my first home that I am very happy with, but I also have the foundations to confidently purchase future properties.

How I saved money towards my first home (5:57 of podcast)

Full disclosure: I saved enough money to cover a 20% deposit for my first home. However, via the Victorian Homebuyer Fund where the Victorian Government covered 25% of the purchase price, I was able to put in a 10% deposit for my home, leaving the bank to loan 65% of the purchase price. I also used the First Home Super Saver Scheme, saving money towards my first home through super. I neither had any credit cards or debts before and while looking for my first home, nor did my parents contribute money towards my first home.

Something I forgot to mention in the podcast is to recommend Max Phelps’ “Spending Fast and Slow” book. This is an excellent book that describes how people behave around money, and introduces the Fast and Slow system to control spending, allowing me to save towards my first home and other long-term goals. I explain this system in great detail in a previous blog post, but in summary I have a number of bank accounts spread over two banks (UBank and ING). UBank has all of my long-term savings accounts, including my home deposit, while ING has bank accounts for my daily expenses and fun stuff.

Using this system, I distribute my fortnightly salary according to the following proportions in UBank:

1. 50% towards my home deposit (as I was living with my parents, reducing my rent).
2. 10% towards my investments.
3. 10% towards my holidays.
4. 8% to cover my living expenses while staying with my parents (such as food, electricity and water).

To my ING accounts, I sent:

1. 5% per week to cover my daily expenses (such as groceries, medicines and eating out).
2. 7% to purchase fun things such as merchandise and tech, as well as attend fun events.

Importantly, I only have access to my ING bank accounts in my phone. This prevents me from quickly accessing money in my long-term savings accounts to fuel my impulse purchases. By only having access to money in my ING app, I can reduce my weekly spending while still having some money on the side to have some fun without feeling guilty about it.

After buying my first home, I retain a similar bank account structure, with some slight variations. Although I am still setting aside 50% of my salary towards the home loan, 40% goes to meeting the minimum repayments while 10% goes to building a financial buffer for myself (to cover any emergencies). Furthermore, I have moved all of my long-term saving accounts to offset accounts in another bank to reduce the amount of interest that I need to pay.

A stable income is also an important consideration when deciding whether to take out a home loan. As I alluded to in 13:18 of the podcast, at one stage I had to put my home buying journey on hold as I would not have enough money to cover my home loan repayments. Furthermore, I had to change jobs which resulted in income instability. Only after working full-time did I decide to start looking for homes again. 

The property research process (13:14 of podcast)

Even though I had to put my home buying process on hold in the middle of the year, I was still doing research on the suburbs I wanted to live in. I did a lot of walking around potential suburbs and streets I wanted to live in. I focused on places where I could easily access public transport, shops and restaurants, and streets that are wide, tree-lined and quiet. 

Once I decided which suburbs I wanted to live in, I conducted some property research by using realestate.com.au to look at recently sold listings. I looked at around 1,000 listings of 1- and 2-bedroom apartments and units, recording on a spreadsheet whether I would have bought the property and the reasons behind my decision. Doing this built a database that helped me set some criteria on properties that would be ideal to me (such as big living rooms and bedrooms and walking distance to public transport and shops) and ones to avoid (such as on main roads and high-rise apartments). This gave me an excellent starting point that I could adjust as I attended inspections and auctions, and helped rule out a lot of properties, leaving me with fewer properties to look at.

Inspecting different properties in-person also allowed me to refine the criteria for the property I wanted to buy. While I was at inspections, I took photos and video recordings which gave me an excellent reference for learning what was ideal or not ideal to me, and to later decide whether to buy the property or not. I also not only watched auctions to see how they were run, but I also kept track of auctions in the area to gauge how active the property market was. I have written a blog post describing how I kept track of auctions. 

Additional notes on the properties discussed in the podcast (18:01 of podcast)

I previously wrote a blog post where I described and compared the two properties I was looking at in my property search. The Hawthorn East property was advertised first, with the inspection happening a week later. Then the Ormond property was advertised only one day before the first inspection. The Ormond property piqued my interest as it was near a recently sold property that I would have bought. The Ormond property stood out as it had a big backyard where I could build a garden and deck. The trade-off was that the rooms were small, so I would quickly outgrow the property. Given it was under a private sale where the property could be sold at any time, I put most of my efforts over the week towards that property. I went to as many inspections of the property as possible, did some research on the property and the surrounding area and sought legal advice from the conveyancer. In contrast, as the Hawthorn East property was sold under auction, I took my time with due diligence. I inspected the property twice and slowly conducted my research and got the contract reviewed by a different conveyancer.

It was tricky deciding between the two properties, but in the end I decided to go for the Hawthorn East property. The deciding factor for me was something I learned from the course which was the future demand from buyers and renters. The Ormond property had small rooms which not only meant I would outgrow it quickly but it would be less attractive to future buyers and renters, making it harder to sell or rent the property. In contrast, the Hawthorn East property ticked a lot of boxes for me and future buyers and renters. Not only was it in a quiet street near the train station and shops, but it was located in a low-rise apartment building that will become rarer as more high-rise buildings are being built. This would attract plenty of demand from future buyers and renters, making it easier for me to sell or rent the property. 

Hence, I put all of my focus on preparing for the auction of the Hawthorn East property, thinking about what I was willing to pay. Thanks to the course and my efforts, the auction was a success, and so I was able to purchase the property.

Conclusion

I had a lot of fun talking about my home buying journey with Veronica and Meighan, summing up what I had experienced and how I used the 10-step process to structure my property research, select the properties that I wanted to inspect myself and end up with the property that I am living in right now.

Some people might find it hard to justify the $990 to purchase the “Your First Home Buyer Guide” course and associated resources. As I mentioned in 33:49 of the podcast, if you are unsure about whether to purchase the course, I would consider doing some research about the 10-step process, the course and how it is being delivered:

1. First, do the free mini-course “Become Educated & Buy Your First Home With The Right Amount Of Debt”. This course goes through the rationale behind the 10-step process and outlines the 10-step process. This course is great for gaining familiarity with the process and assessing whether the process is something that you would like to learn.
2. Second, do another free course “How to price a property” which goes through a process of accurately estimating a property’s price based on recent sales. This is not only a valuable skill that will help you in your home buying journey, but you can also look at their teaching style and see whether they are engaging to you.
3. If you want, listen to their podcast episodes where they touch on different aspects of the property market and see whether they are engaging to you.

Based on what you think about the courses and podcast, you can then decide whether to pay for the “Your First Home Buyer Guide” course. In my experience, doing the course was well worth the $990 that I paid. I not only purchased a first home that I am happy to live in for a long time, but also gave me an excellent framework to purchase future properties. It is something that I can recommend to someone who wants to buy their first home the correct way.

Financial disclosure

Anything that is posted on The Active Evaluator blog is for general informational purposes only. You should not interpret this information as formal financial advice. If you would like advice tailored to your personal situation, please seek an accredited professional. I am not responsible for any subsequent actions you take by reading my blog as well as any expenses, costs, losses, damages and injuries you or another person may incur in the process.