Welcome to Home Building Like a Boss, the podcast dedicated to helping first home buyers in Perth  build their dream home with ease and excitement.  I'm Jaimi, your host and go to building broker.  Are you ready to feel empowered, in control and excited about your building journey? I'll help guide you with expert advice, insider tips and tricks and real life stories to help you navigate the confusing world of home building.

Let's go. Tune in as I take you on the journey to building your home like a boss.  Hello, 

and we are back for the first episode of 2024. Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and Happy New Year. Let's dive straight into it. So today I'm going to kick it off by giving you five tips to navigate the building process as a first home buyer.  You know, starting off the year, I've had a lot of inquiries, a lot of first home buyers wanting to know how to navigate or how to start the process.

So I thought this would be a really good episode to kick it off. By giving you those tips on how to navigate it. Now, these are in no particular order either. So, first off, number one, is take your time throughout the whole process, you know, with changes, looking at your plans. Making decisions, you know, make sure you sit with that.

Take your time. Are you happy with the decision? And you know, do you like the block of land? Do you like the area? Don't rush into anything.  It's a big decision. It's a big, one of the biggest investments you'll make, probably the biggest investment that you'll make. Take your time and make sure you're making the right decision for you.

This also is hard sometimes when you have, you know, lots of friends and family. And everyone's giving you their opinion. It's also comes back to stop and sit back and take your time to think about what you want. How does your lifestyle, where do you want to live? What do you want included? What's your non negotiables?

Take your time to really nut out.  That kind of stuff for what you want, not for what your builder wants, what your rep wants, what family and friends want. Take your time to really go through what you want. And this also comes down to, you know, are you being rushed through the sales process? Making decisions, doing this, doing that.

Take your time. You know, if you get your changes back, it's a fine line. You want to find a happy medium with this, because if you get your sketch or your quote back and you want to take your time to go over it, you know, take a couple of days and say, Hey, I'm going to get back to you in 24, 48 hours, three days, whatever it is.

So your consultant or your broker or whoever you're working with knows. How long you want to think about it and go over it and take your time to go over those things. And it's that fine line between you don't want to take three weeks to get changes back to them because then it's going to go back into drafting, back into estimating, come back out again, then another three weeks, you know, you're really dragging out the process.

You want that Happy medium of efficiency through pre-construction because it also comes down to the time of moving through pre-construction also comes down to how long you take to make decisions, get back, sign forms, sign papers, and things like that. So it's that happy medium of taking your time, making sure you're happy with the decision, but being efficient.

Number two, understand your budget. And create a non negotiable list. You always, always, always, before you start anything, you want to know what your budget is. What am I eligible for? What's my deposit? And then what's my non negotiable list? And non negotiable list comes in handy with this because it will help you when you come back to it.

Dreams and reality are at one end and the other end. So, you know, it's about compromising. That's where your non negotiable list comes in. So how long is a piece of string? Of course I want skylights and rake ceilings and this and that and everything, but my budget is here. So what are my non negotiables?

And you have to bring those two together. So  they come together and you've got to compromise. It doesn't matter if you have a budget of 500, 000 or a budget of a million dollars. I can guarantee you your list and your dreams will still be over that budget and realities at the other end. So it's about finding again, that happy medium of.

Okay. I've got my non negotiables. This is my budget. This is what I'm willing to compromise on. Is it your land? Is it your design? Is it your inclusions? There's lots of different things and that comes back to what's most important to you. So using that, understanding your budget, what you're eligible for and what you're comfortable for and creating that non negotiable list so you can come back to it.

Even when you go through pre-start, I'm over my budget. What's, let me refer back to my non negotiable list. So, I'm going to be doing a video on how to make a budget list of what's important to me and where does my budget sit with that. Number 3, ask lots and lots of questions. Do not be afraid to ask your consultant, your builder, your broker, whoever you're working with.

Questions. If you have a question or you're unsure about something, ask.  If you don't ask, you don't get. If you don't ask, you don't know. And you need to know things going through the building process. You don't want to go through this process being unsure of questions or things or lingo or what plans mean.

You need to ask questions. And you need to be comfortable with whoever you're working with, asking those questions. If you're not comfortable asking those questions, it's going to be a very awkward, long process. You know, you're with your builder, your rep, your consultant, your broker for 12  to 18 months.

You need to be comfortable with asking questions when you don't know something because that's when things, you're going to make mistakes or things are going to get missed or you're not going to understand something. It could cost money. It could be a mistake, all those things. You need to ask questions, ask lots and lots and lots of questions.

I have my clients in WhatsApp all day asking me so many questions, but I love it. It means, you know, they're engaged. They're excited. They want to be a part of the process. They want to learn and I'm ready to give that information so that they fully understand exactly what's happening. If they're unsure, I always tell them, ask, ask, ask.

Number four, trust your gut. If you're getting a bad vibe off Builder, Broker, Consultant, Rep, anyone, trust your gut, you know, if you're saying, oh, this might be a little bit of a red flag, I'm unsure about this, get a second opinion, you know, if you're being told to pay money to see a design in a sketch, but that doesn't sit right with you.

Go ask somebody else and they might be like, you know, the process doesn't really work like that. Everyone has different processes. The process of building is generally the same, but especially in the sales process, there's a lot of tricks of the trade that people use and different things. So if there's red flags or something's not sitting right with you.

Or pricing, or pre-start stuff, whatever it is, trust your gut and ask a question, come back to that. It comes back to number three, ask lots of questions, if it's not sitting right, get a second opinion, ask someone else, chat to family and friends, and trust your gut.  Number five, get independent advice. Same thing.

If you're unsure or you don't know, get independent advice because that advice is going to be tailored to you. You know, a broker versus a builder, different information. The broker is working for you, for the client, rather than for the builder, sales consultant and the builder work for the builder. So, get independent advice and know all your options, you know, get your options laid out for you.

Get second advice if you need it or another opinion and get chat to somebody independent who's going to have your best interest at heart to help you navigate through that process. So that is quick five tips to help you navigate through the building process as a first time buyer, first time builder.  So that wraps us up for the five tips to navigate the building process as a first time buyer.

I hope that helps, you know, if you have any questions or you're unsure, or you need a bit of help navigating the process, head to the show notes, there'll be a link to click on a discovery call and book in a discovery call, super casual chat, and I can help answer any questions that you have. and see where you're at, understand that budget and give you some guidance. 

Thank you so much for tuning in to the Home Building Like a Boss podcast.  I hope you enjoyed today's episode and learned something new. Remember, you've got this and I've got your back. Until next time, stay inspired, stay informed and stay confident on your building journey. I can't wait to chat with you on the next episode. 

Don't forget to check out the show notes for more information. and free resources. If you haven't already, hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode of the Home Building Like a Boss podcast.