Property Buyer's Blueprint™Auto-saves to this device
Property Buyer's Blueprint™Know exactly what you can comfortably spend — before you fall in love with a property you can't afford.
This is where reality meets ambition. Most buyers start inspecting properties before they truly know their numbers — and that leads to wasted weekends, emotional decisions, and heartbreak. Get your borrowing power, true budget and every hidden cost clear first, and you'll act with confidence when the right property appears.
Stage 1 · READY · Step 2 — Finances
Finances sit in the READY stage because you need to know your realistic purchasing power before you research areas or inspect properties. Skip it and you risk looking at homes outside your budget, wasting weekends on opens you can't afford, and getting emotionally attached only to face disappointment. Getting sorted early gives you confidence and saves enormous time.
Pre-approval is not a guarantee — but it gives you a clear, honest budget range to work within.
Stamp duty (often tens of thousands in NSW), legal / conveyancing fees, building & pest inspections, removalist and moving costs, and ongoing rates, insurance, maintenance and strata levies. Build in a 5–10% contingency buffer.
Fill in what you know. This is your honest starting point — the foundation everything else is built on.
| Item | Amount | Notes |
|---|
Record your broker's figures, then use the repayment calculator to see what a loan actually costs each month. Banks lend on serviceability — your ability to repay — not just your deposit.
| Question | Your answer | Notes |
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The number most buyers underestimate. Enter a purchase price and your deposit, and this works out the real cash you need at settlement — including NSW stamp duty.
Stamp duty uses NSW transfer duty rates for 2025–26 (Revenue NSW, current at 29 May 2026), including premium duty above $3,721,000. First-home concession between $800k–$1m is indicative only. LMI is a rough estimate and varies by lender. Confirm exact figures with your conveyancer and broker — or the official Revenue NSW calculator.
Owning is more than the mortgage. Add these up to see your true monthly commitment. The mortgage figure carries over from your repayment calculator above.
| Expense | Monthly amount | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Total monthly ownership cost | $0 |
If rates rose, could you still sleep at night? This re-runs your repayment at higher rates. A buffer here is what separates a confident buyer from a stressed one.
15 questions. Pass mark is 80% (12 / 15). The 12 multiple-choice and true/false questions are auto-marked; the 3 short-answer questions reveal model answers to self-check.