"It's perfect for me."
28-year-old first home buyer Stephanie had finance at the forefront of her mind when she bought an affordable home through HomeSeeker SA.
Stephanie moved into her new affordable home at Woodville West in early 2024, and she says it’s a great place in a nice community.
“It’s perfect for me. It’s modern, there isn’t too much to worry about in terms of cleaning and maintenance, and it has plenty of storage room,” says Stephanie.
“It’s a great little community. We have a group chat going, and it’s nice to have people around who you can bounce ideas off if you’re trying to sort something out.”
Stephanie says finance was her primary factor in buying a home.
“It was the No 1 thing I thought about – what I was and wasn’t able to afford – everything else was secondary. It was important for me to make sure I looked within my budget constraints so I wasn’t dreaming about things that couldn’t become a reality.”
She has also made some financial sacrifices to make sure she can afford her new home.
“I think you need to reduce the amount that you do socially. I don’t go out as much as I used to or would like to. Fortunately, I have family and friends who are quite willing to come over and hang out together – it doesn’t have to be extravagant,” she says.
“You definitely have to tighten your belt a bit and make some sacrifices.”
Stephanie says the HomeSeeker SA website was a great help after she made the decision to buy an affordable home.
“I had been looking for a while – I probably started thinking seriously about it during the past couple of years – and I came across HomeSeeker SA while I was checking the real estate websites,” she says.
“I subscribed to the email alerts from the HomeSeeker SA website, and I happened to be on my phone one day and an email came through highlighting the Woodville West home. It just felt like the right one, so I immediately went for it.”
The main lesson Stephanie learned during her homebuying journey was the speed with which things can happen.
“The biggest reality check for me – and people did warn me when I first started looking to buy a house – was that in the current housing market you just have to move quickly,” she says.
“If you like something you go for it. I learned that along the way. Being a first home buyer I was being quite cautious – am I making the right decisions? Do I really love this house? Do I want to make an offer?
“By the time you get to the point where you make an offer, the property is gone! Things can move very, very quickly.
“It was important that I learnt that lesson because when I bought my affordable home, I was the person that was first in for it by just six minutes. So, if I hadn’t learned that lesson, I wouldn’t be in the house that I’m in today.”
