Mrs Pip

Things You Should Know When Buying First House || Yeay, congratulations and welcome to the new comfort beautiful home own by yourself. It sounds so great, right?

Buying your first house is exciting. But, before you are able to own your new house, there are various thing that you need to consider when buying first house. No one want to make any unnecessary mistakes when it comes to house purchasing.

1. Determine How Much Can You Afford For A Home

When you decided to buy a house, first you must know how much can you afford to pay for the monthly installment.

You need to check for your monthly commitments and after deducting your salary / income with the monthly commitments, is there enough to pay for the house loan?

Generally, the advised from financial experts state that your monthly installments should not exceed one-third of your salary or combined income with your spouse / partner.

Apart of that, it is advisable to debt-free ensure your finances in order where you are up-to-date on your other loans such as car loan, study loan and forget not your credit card repayments as well.

Besides, having an emergency savings / fund of three to six months of expenses in place is good.

You can use Mortgage Calculator to figure out a mortgage range with monthly repayments you can afford, and you'll be able to see the chart of mortgage reduction over loan term and the breakdown of yearly capital & interest payment by using the above mortgage calculator.

2. Choose The Location / Begin Your Property Search

Location:

When buy a house in Malaysia, choose a neighborhood that you (and your family) feel good about it. But, never compromise with the quality of living as well. If you have children, consider a home that’s spacious enough for the kids to grow up.

Visit the location. See what it offers to you. Beautiful homes with a slice of serenity? A house is your sanctuary for you to get relax, hence it is importance to get a house nested in a locations that feels like home.

You need to get information on such as crime rates to know if the surround safe, to know who is your prospective neighborhood, is there any nice schools around the area for your kids, traffic conditions, your commute distance to your work location, public places, parks, hospital, police station and other facilities.

However, it is up to you to make the final decision about what kind of location do you prefer.

Type of house:

According to the Property Guru, the residential properties in Malaysia is protected by Housing Development Act (HDA) aiming to safeguard the interest of property buyers.

In Malaysia, we have different type of residential properties such as:-

Mansion vs Bungalow vs Zero Lot Bungalow vs Cluster vs Villa
Semi-Detached (Semi-D) House vs Detached House
Terrace vs Link vs Superlink - generally it is just the same, and what make it difference is only the sizes
Townhouse
Flat vs Apartment
Condominium vs Serviced Apartment vs Serviced Residence vs Serviced Suites
Penthouse vs Loft vs Duplex
Shop House

What's your preference for type of house as listed above? For me, I prefer landed house where I have enough space for my own garden to plant my own tree.

You can check for Affordable Housing Scheme in Malaysia under initiative by government finance like BSN Youth Housing Scheme, Home Ownership Campaign (HOC) , PR1MA (1 Malaysia Housing Program), My First Home Scheme . See if you are eligible or not to apply for the housing scheme.

3. The Down Payment & Other Miscellaneous Fees and Charges

The down payment is typically 10% of the property purchase price in Malaysia. And you can pay more upfront if you are afford to do so, it's within your means.

Extra money is required to pay for the stamp duties, agent fees, bank processing fees, legal fees for the SPA and loan agreement and property valuation fees if applicable.

To secure a home loan from the bank, ensure to pay the 10% down payment by yourself. And right after your Sales & Purchase (SPA) signed, immediately apply for withdrawals of EPF account 2 to redeem the down payment paid.

Here is the example of EPF Account 2 Withdrawal :-

SPA Price: RM250,000; Loan Amount (90%): RM225,000

Amount you can withdraw: (RM250,000 – RM225,000)+ (10% of RM250,000) = RM50,000

Note: However, withdrawals are limited to the savings amount in the Account 2.

4. Sourcing For A Good Home Loan

Getting a good home loan is very important, just like how important you choose your desire house. You need to make some research with the loan packages since different bank has its own different offers.

And if you need to know your Mortgage Qualification Based on Income , this Online Eligibility Calculator will give you the answer. And you can check how much loan you can get either you make individual loan or join application with your spouse.

Never afraid to make appointments with the bankers / loan officers. Take your time to choose which house loan is the best for you.

Check for the interest rate offered by the bank. Is it fixed or floating? Ask the banker for different calculation of fixed and floating interest rate.

Understand the base lending rate (BLR) pegged by Bank Negara Malaysia. If there is anything you do not understand, ask the banker for clarification.

But logically, choose banks offering the lowest interest rate. It helps to ease your financial burden in the long run.

Once you are satisfy with your comparison of loan package, submit your application and wait for the bank to notify regarding the status of the loan.

Your first home is a big purchase. So before you decide on your first home, do plenty of research on the costs, location, additional fees and the loans. And not to forget to track the developer's credibility as well to ensure you'll get your beautiful house as per your expectation.