In addition to the expenses already listed here, there are some more:

Expense: Property reports. There are a lot of reports available: recent house price sales per area, house history, information about suburbs, etc. Once you’ve decided on a house, you may want to check how many times it was sold in the past, when and for how much.

How to minimize it: Along with paid reports, there is loads of free information such as median prices per suburb or suburb profile. Don’t pay for what you can get for free, check in google first and then if you must buy that information, shop around and get the best value for money, because many companies provide similar reports for a range of prices.

Expense: Pre-purchase advice. Personally, I think that it is a must for any first-time home buyers, which is why I don’t recommend minimizing this expense. To me it was worth every cent and saved me from what could have been a “big oops”. If you have no idea what pre-purchase advice is, the explanation is here.

Expense: Building/Pest inspections. Once your offer has been accepted (if buying via private sale) or prior to the auction you may (and should) want to have the building and pest inspectors check the house.

How to minimize it: Again, I don’t suggest just skipping the inspections to minimize your costs because we’re talking about a major, maybe the biggest investment you will ever make in your life. The only way to minimize this expense is to ask the vendor/estate agents whether or not anyone else has already done the inspections and maybe they will show you the reports (not very likely, but worth a shot).

Expense: Cooling off fee. If so happens that you’ve signed an offer for a house, it was accepted by the vendor and you decide to cool off for whatever reason, there is a fee you’ll have to pay. In Victoria it is $100 or 0.2% of the purchase price, whichever is more.

How to minimize it: Don’t cool off What I really mean is be wise and take time to think about the offer you’re making, be completely sure that you can and want to buy that house.

Expense: Internet access. The Internet is an indispensable tool and will help a lot in the property research. Many people use the Internet only to check their emails and thus are happy with smaller download limits. However, looking for properties online involves going through a lot of pictures and that may cause your usage exceed the download limit.

How to minimize it: To avoid penalties for excessive downloads upgrade your package to a higher download limit. It will cost extra, but the penalty rates are usually more expensive.

Expense: a notebook or a folder to keep all your records and all the information regarding researched houses organized.

Expense: Literature. There are many books written about the house-buying process, including the negotiation of a price and you mat want to consider such book a good investment.

How to minimize it: I have written a pretty decent break-down of the house-buying process, try reading it first and then decide whether or not you’d need another book Start at part 1 and keep on reading, part 5 is the last one.

Have I missed any of the house-hunting expenses? Do you have anything to add to this list? I’d love to hear from you.

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