Most of these cost real money. A few cost the property itself. All of them are avoidable with a little sequencing — which is the whole point of this list.
1. House-hunting before pre-approval
Falling in love with a place and then finding out what you can borrow is doing it backwards — and bidding at auction without pre-approval is gambling your deposit, because auction contracts are unconditional. Pre-approval first, inspections second.
2. Borrowing the absolute maximum
The bank’s ceiling is not a recommendation. Repayments that feel fine at today’s rate need to survive a couple of rate rises, a rent-free partner becoming a dependent, or a job change. I’d rather you buy $50k under your maximum and sleep.
3. Spraying applications across lenders
Every application is a hard enquiry on your credit file, and several in quick succession makes lenders nervous. Pick the right lender once — that’s literally what I’m for — instead of letting three banks each leave a mark.
4. Budgeting for the deposit but not the costs
Stamp duty (if any), legals, building and pest, lender fees, adjustments, moving — call it 2–5% on top of the price. My stamp duty guide covers the biggest line; the calculator gives your exact figure.
5. Leaving government help unclaimed
Every month I meet buyers who didn’t know they qualified for the Home Guarantee Scheme, the duty exemption, or the grant — or who used one and missed the others. They stack. Check the full NSW stack before assuming anything.
6. Emptying savings to zero on settlement day
Settling with $200 left is how a broken hot-water system becomes a credit card problem. Keep a buffer — ideally in an offset account where it cuts your interest while it sits there.
7. Skipping the building & pest (or strata) report
$400–$700 against a six-figure mistake. For apartments, the strata report is the building’s medical history — special levies, defects, litigation. Never waive it to “stay competitive”; renegotiate with it instead.
8. Changing jobs mid-application
Lenders verify employment right up to settlement. A new job — especially with probation, or a switch to ABN income — can unwind an approval at the worst moment. If a move is coming, tell your broker first and we’ll sequence it.
9. Letting pre-approval quietly expire. Most pre-approvals last about 90 days. Markets move slower than that more often than you’d think. Diarise the expiry; renewing early is routine, discovering it lapsed mid-negotiation is not. The fix takes one email.
10. Setting and forgetting the loan after settlement
The “loyalty tax” is real: back-book rates drift above front-book offers within a couple of years. An annual 10-minute review — is refinancing worth it? — is the cheapest money you’ll ever make. I run these for every client automatically.
The pattern behind all ten
Notice none of these are about picking the “wrong suburb” — they’re about sequence and structure: approval before auctions, costs before offers, schemes before assumptions, buffer before settlement, review after. Get the order right and the purchase mostly takes care of itself. That order is exactly what I set up in the first free chat.