Shaynna Blaze’s essential tips for buying a home

Hi, my name is Shaynna Blaze, host and designer on Buying Blind.

You've probably already seen me making people's homes and apartments beautiful, but something I don't often talk about is how to stay in love with your home once you're past the honeymoon period. So, if you're looking at buying, here are some essential things you need to know. 

When we're purchasing a property, we tend to let our heart rule our head, and we have to fall in love with our property, but it's also important to look at the budget, not just as the purchase price, but what you have to spend in the future. This is where a bit of pre-planning comes into play when you're purchasing a property.

It's so important to get the relevant reports before you sign on the dotted line. Your pest inspection, your building inspection, your survey. The money that you spend right at the beginning means money saved later on, when you pick up the mistakes.

Think of these reports as an essential investment. The building report is all about checking those elements to make sure that it's got the gas, the electricity and it's structurally sound. But all the things that you want personally in that house, it's up to you to double check. On your building report, it will say, 'electricity is connected', but you need to find how long ago it was actually wired. If something isn't earthed or it has to be rewired, it could cost you up to $20,000. Even more, depending on the size of the house. Building reports are usually only a few hundred dollars, so it actually is an investment, which means you can use it as a bargaining chip, if there's something wrong, to get a better price, or it might actually tell you to walk away from the property, because it's just too hard to fix.

A pest inspection is so important, because mostly they're looking for termites. The hardest thing about termites is they work from the inside, out. You can actually look at a building and think it's structurally sound, and if you poke your finger in a weatherboard your hand might go right through it. Or sometimes the frames look solid, but they're actually about to fall down. So, it's really important to see at what stage the termites are at, so really it is important to get it done because you actually buy a house you fall in love with, and it could fall down tomorrow. Don't think you're safe if you're buying a new build and it has a concrete floor and bricks, if there is timber framing in there, you can still be susceptible. It depends on the moisture in the air and the area that you live in.

As well as finding a place in the right location, if it's a 'forever' home or investment, it's so important to do your due diligence and get these checks done. What you do afterwards is up to you, but when it comes to the property game, when you're forewarned, you're forearmed.

In my next video, we'll be looking at how you can compromise when you're looking to buy, without giving up your dream home. If you found this helpful, visit suncorp.com.au for more tips and information.