AusFinance

Nothing I'll hasn't been covered in some way already. These are based on my personal experience, so might not reflect everyone's experience. It's also been a few years now, so the market might have changed.

As everyone else has said, a broker is a good first step to see what sort of budget you have to play with. I've always had good experiences with brokers, and they make the borrowing process easier as well.

Once you have a budget, start looking at places. I would recommend not to rush into it. The more you look, the better sense you will get for the market and what things are worth. Go to some auctions, see how they flow and the final prices. Eventually you should get a somewhat decent sense for what something will go for as soon as you look at it based on size, location, quality, etc.

Agents might underquote (advertise places for less than the vendor will actually sell for) to generate interest. Don't be all that surprised if the final price is higher

Obviously never spend more than you can afford. But the more important bit of advice I got was: don't pay more for a property than it's worth.

If they think they can, agents will push you to bump up your offer. They want you to get emotionally invested in a place before squeezing you for a higher price. They'll say things like "if you don't give your best offer, you'll miss out."

There'll be lots of places you like, but someone will offer more. It feels bad when it happens, but never let yourself get sucked into spending more than a place is really worth. You might be paying off that mortgage for 20-30 years and regretting it. Set yourself a price that you think is reasonable, and hold yourself to it. If the agent tries to get you higher just tell them it's more than you think it's worth and the other buyer can have it if they think it's worth more.