Before you can look into buying a property, you need to assess how much you are able to spend. So obtain a copy of your credit report and your credit score and, if necessary, see what you need to do to improve it. The higher your credit score, the better the interest rate you can obtain. We suggest you contact several lenders and determine which one will give you the best deal.
Now you know how much you can afford to spend on buying your home, you can use this to reduce your home search areas, there will be neighborhoods for sure that are outside of your budget. Also make a hit list of things you want in your neighborhood or don't want in your neighborhood; for instance do you need to be close to public transport? Do you need good access to schools? Do you want to be away from power lines and industrial units? Also work out the minimum number of bedrooms and bathrooms that you require.
With the above information you should be able to go onto an online property listings site and quickly get down to a hit list of properties that are in your price range and have amenities and features you are looking for.
You will need to bite the bullet and start visiting properties that interest you and see directly if they suit your needs. Basically phone the agent and make an appointment to visit the property.
Its usually at this time that you will find its difficult to keep in your head the differences and pros/cons of each of the properties you will visit. After a while it all sort of blurs together.. This is bad news, as you will get stressed and find it difficult to make objective decisions and comparisons. Remember this is probably the biggest & longest financial commitment you will make, so you need to have a clear head...
Help is at hand, we have developed an app called 'Property Assess' for the Android that aims to keep you firmly in control of the property hunt and operating with a level head and facts to hand all the time...
How does Property Assess help? Well its a bit like a personal property organizer in your pocket; basically you either enter or import details of properties your interested in into it and it takes care of keeping everything organized. For each property you enter the address, price range and agent contact details. Then you can phone the agent from the app and set an appointment, which you enter into Property Assess (it will remind you when the appointment is due). Then when you visit the property you can rate each room, take photos, take voice phones or enter comments.
Property Assess even has a built in mortgage calculator with service costs, so you can see exactly what would be your outgoings per month.
The beauty with Property Assess on your phone is that you can then easily look through the properties and 'weigh' one property against another. To help with this there is a master rating per property so you can literally give a thumbs up or thumbs down to each property and quickly see that in the master list.
How much does Property Assess cost? Well a lot less than you would think; for less than the cost of a DVD you can have all this functionality assisting you with your property buying. We think this is excellent value for money and should more than pay for itself in reduced stress and giving you a clear head.
If you want to buy Property Assess or learn more click here.
Related Tags: building orientation, solar orientation, passive solar, sustainable architecture, sustainable design, home, home design, passive design, solar house
Related Listings: Insulation, Green Architects
I thought the south facing windows were supposed to be the largest?
ON Wed, 11 Aug 10, 10:52pm probably from United States Reply to this comment
In the Northern hemisphere, yes; but in the Southern hemisphere its the North facing windows.
ON Sun, 17 Apr 11, 1:17am probably from Australia Reply to this comment
I am building a house on a block where my views are to the East and the access/front of house will be facing East. How can I make the most of the Solar passive effect as possible? I thought about building an L shaped house with large glass doors at the rear facing North. Would this get enough light in?
ON Thu, 8 Dec 11, 2:51pm probably from Australia Reply to this comment
Hi Amanda,
Do you have any access to the North at all, e.g. good Northern access to the Sun. You can be up to about 20% off true and still get good benefit.
Also remember that regardless of orientation your roof space will still get warm - there are systems available that can capture roof space heat and inject them into the living area below - look up Ventis.
ON Fri, 9 Dec 11, 11:07am probably from Australia Reply to this comment
This might be the dumbest post I've ever seen on the internet.
You assume the goal of the home builder is to gain heat (ie during the winter) yet for the southern third (to a half) of the people reading they want to MINIMIZE heat gain. -- Your simply saying houses should be East-West is as moronic as saying no matter what ails you an antibiotic is the right prescription. [What if I have a broken arm?]
Really, if you are going to put so little thought into your writing, don't even bother cluttering the net with babble.
Just sayin'
ON Wed, 21 Dec 11, 4:13am probably from United States Reply to this comment
Hi Jordan,
I'm assuming, which I thought was reasonable at the time writing the article, that if you have no need to capture solar heat, you wouldn't enact what I have written.
Also there is another article on here called "Keeping your home Cool in Summer or Warm in Winter for free!" which covers cooling techniques if your property has too much heat to deal with.
ON Wed, 21 Dec 11, 8:00pm probably from Australia Reply to this comment
what is the disadvantage to give the glass windows in south facing
ON Sat, 7 Jan 12, 6:41am probably from India Reply to this comment
Hi, I am from India, which is the best direction for a Poultry and Dairy farm, I live near Mumbai (formaly known as Bombay)
Thanks
Arvind
ON Mon, 16 Jan 12, 11:10am probably from India Reply to this comment
i am designing a boys hostel in haryana karnal district what should be the orientation of my buildimg
ON Tue, 31 Jan 12, 11:06am probably from Australia Reply to this comment
what is your comments about south facing house as per buildig planning and orientation of building as per the sun digram.
ON Tue, 6 Mar 12, 12:18pm probably from India Reply to this comment
Basically you need to orientation the building so that the rooms you use the most are those that face the Sun the most. Northern hemisphere this will be the South side, Southern hemisphere the North side.
ON Sun, 11 Mar 12, 10:47am probably from United States Reply to this comment
The sun path diagram is not correct. In the southern hemisphere in Winter the sun rises to the north of East, and sets to the north of West. In Summer it rises a fair way south of East, and sets to the south of West.
ON Tue, 15 Jan 13, 3:46am probably from Australia Reply to this comment
Hi Bron,
I assumed people will adjust their comprehension of the diagram if they are in the Southern hemisphere.
ON Tue, 15 Jan 13, 5:39am probably from Australia Reply to this comment
What I understood is that this article is focused on heating based design for freezing countries (Am I right?) For Indian climate, temperature in winter on average is 20°C and in summer it is around 40°C with high humidity. We require cooling on most of the months and no cooling is required (with exception of few places). So can you please give link to any design articles for such scenario?
ON Sun, 18 May 14, 11:04am probably from Qatar Reply to this comment
Please read as "no heating is required instead of no cooling is required"
ON Wed, 21 May 14, 5:39pm probably from Qatar Reply to this comment
I am planning to construct a house in Vellore,India which is famous for dry summer with high heat and the house has west facing for the main entrance and south side has a building and north and east side are open as of now. Can you advise which side of the wall should have more windows so that the house is comfortable for living during extreme summer. I am little worried about the internal heating during summer in Vellore
ON Thu, 11 Aug 16, 12:28am probably from United States Reply to this comment
Hi, were doing a school project on energy efficiency for a north facing house in the Southern Hemisphere (Seaford Rise, SA) we’re stuck and are not sure on where to place our windows,which materials to use, keeping the house cool in summer and warm in winter.
ON Thu, 22 Mar 18, 1:49am probably from Australia Reply to this comment
I'm thinking about building a earth ship, minus the tires and earth, in Iowa and know it has to face south, but also slightly east I believe? I'm envisioning a two story wall of glass facing the winter sun. Your calculator is suggesting a almost 3 meter overhang? All other sides will be close to passive house standards with a grass roof to set a gazebo on, and bermed earth sides mainly for storm resistance. Use twin-wall polycarbonate panels on the majority of The wall, and glass where you want the view. And this property has the view too.. Thanks
ON Sat, 24 Jun 23, 5:53pm probably from United States Reply to this comment
Got a question or comment about this?
Find what you were looking for?.. Not quite what you expected?.. Got a question to ask people?Share your thoughts and use the form below to post a public comment right on this page.