Hi everyone,
My husband and I have decided to build our first house but I have absolutely no idea where to start and where to go to find out. So I have a few questions if anyone can answer one or all it would be the such a help!
We have saved $10000 as a deposit. We are hoping to save another $5000 at least by the time we go to buy. We were thinking we would buy our land first (Approx $135000).
Do you pay LMI on land loan if it is below 20% deposit?
Is there any advantage to waiting and saving the entire deposit and getting a loan for land and construction at the same time? I don't feel that we could save up a 20% deposit for the entire build so we were hoping that if we buy land first, pay the loan down a fair bit, get it revalued and use any equity to avoid LMI on the construction loan. Is this possible and if so how long would we need to wait for the bank to consider the value and not purchase price.
Once we apply for the construction loan, does the bank use the total property value or the land purchase price + construction costs to determine LVR?
Do we pay our deposit to the builder/seller or to the bank? We think we will build with McDonald Jones Homes who require a $3000 deposit. Is this in addition to the deposit required for the loan or included?
What other expenses at each stage should we be saving for? We were told we wouldn't pay stamp duty on the land as there is $5000 grant but would we need to pay it on the construction later if we did things separately?
This last question might be better suited to a different part of the forums but what are the stages of the entire process? Who do we contact first and who is best to ask advice from. Bank? Builder? Someone else. I guess we will be stepped through the whole process but at this stage it just all seems so overwhelming!
Absolutely any info and advice would be appreciated!
Oh and we are not eligible for FHOG. My husband owned a property briefly before we met.