Mortgage broking · Australia-wide
Everything lenders check before approving a first home buyer, in one simple checklist
Stop wondering what you've missed. The exact steps from "just looking" to keys in hand (deposit, credit prep, the grants and stamp duty relief in your state, pre-approval) in the order lenders actually care about.
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Inside your checklist
- The 5 things to fix in your bank statements before you apply
- How lenders count your HECS, car loan and credit card limits
- Grants & stamp duty relief: what you can claim in your state
- Buy with a smaller deposit and skip LMI: the Government scheme rules
- The pre-approval step most buyers do in the wrong order
Three things you can fix this week
Here's some of it up front. No form, no catch. These three come up in almost every first home buyer conversation we have.
Your credit card limit counts, not your balance
Lenders assess the full limit of every card as if it were spent. A $10,000 card you never touch can knock tens of thousands off what you're able to borrow. Reducing the limit, or closing cards you don't use, is often the fastest single improvement you can make, and you can do it this week.
Lenders read your last three months of statements
Not just the balance, the pattern. Frequent buy-now-pay-later use, gambling transactions and repeated overdrawn fees all get noticed and can weaken an application. The fix is simple but it needs a run-up: tidy your spending three or more months before you apply, not the week you do.
Get pre-approval before you shop, not after you fall in love
Plenty of first home buyers find the place first and scramble for finance second, then lose it to a buyer who was ready. Pre-approval tells you your real budget, and it lets you make an offer with confidence instead of crossed fingers.
That's three of them. The full checklist has the rest, including the grants and stamp duty concessions in your state that most first home buyers don't realise they qualify for, and the deposit schemes that can get you in with far less saved than you'd think.
What's in the full checklist
Not a 40-page ebook. One skimmable checklist, in the order that gets first home buyers approved.
Credit score, statements, and the debts that quietly shrink your borrowing power.
Deposit targets, LMI and how to avoid it, plus hidden costs: stamp duty, conveyancing, inspections.
First home buyer grants and stamp duty relief in your state, the First Home Guarantee, and using super to build your deposit.
Pre-approval, auction vs private treaty, inspections, and what to check on settlement day.
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Who's behind the checklist
I'm Tristian Low, a licensed mortgage broker working with first home buyers across Australia. I put this checklist together because first home buyers kept arriving at my desk having done things in an order that cost them money: closing the wrong accounts, applying before their statements were clean, or missing a grant they qualified for. It's everything I'd tell you in a first meeting, written down so you can use it whether or not we ever speak.
The stuff people worry about
Let's clear it up before you hand over an email address.
Like most Australian brokers, we're paid by the lender you choose. You pay the same or less than going direct to a bank.
Downloading the checklist or having a chat doesn't touch your credit file. Nothing is lodged until you decide to apply.
Use the checklist on your own if you like. If you want help, we're here. 12 months out is not too early to talk.
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