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Visiting houses for sale every weekend can become expensive.
IT doesn’t cost anything to look, does it?
Well actually yes it does when it comes to looking for a new property.
According to figures from finder.com.au house hunters can spend more than $20,000 in expenses before they even buy a property.
They’ve factored in all the little added extras that aren’t normally budgeted for, from grabbing a takeaway coffee on the way to filling the car’s petrol tank.
It reckons a typical buyer could spend as much as $20,880 if their house hunt takes 12 months.
While that figure would involve actively searching and visiting properties every week, which few house hunters would do, and doing things such as taking a day off without pay and hiring babysitters, it does shows that there are plenty of extra costs involved with looking for a new home.
The costs of house hunting can add up.Source:Supplied
Finder.com.au factored a spend of $1800 a year on researching the market, to access property reports and suburb profiles.
Professional advice through an accountant or financial planner could cost about $600 a year for three sessions.
Petrol and road tolls add up quickly when you are driving backward and forward to inspect properties. The research factored in inspecting three separate properties in a month at $63 a day which was equivalent to $2268 a year for petrol and tolls.
Coffee is something many house hunters say they can’t do without. The research factored in a cost of $252 a year.
And if you are rushing around looking for a new home, you probably end up having the odd lunch out, which it costed at $1080 a year.
Time off work. You may need to take the occasional day off to inspect a property.
Finder.com.au factored in a very generous one day a month, which it said could cost you and your partner $8400 a year.
Mobile data can be expensive and three dedicated days of property searching could use up to $90 of mobile data a month adding up to $1080 a year.
Childcare is another cost it took into account. Sometimes it’s easer to search without the kids around but that could set you back up $5400 a year.