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A couple of months ago, I had not even considered buying my first home. My partner and I took our first overseas trip and spent thousands of dollars in doing so. We returned in January with few savings left. Our only plan upon return was possibly to start planning our next overseas trip. Then suddenly I had the brain wave of 'Why not buy our own home?'. Here in Australia, it was suddenly the best time to buy. Housing prices were starting to drop, as were interest rates. And on top of that, the government was offering a first home owners boost of $14,000 for anyone who has never owned a property before. This bonus pretty much meant you did not even need a deposit, since my $2,000 of savings were not going to go far post European holiday.

So after a bit of convincing, my partner agreed it would be a good idea. He was reluctant at first and his over-realistic view of everything sort of killed my excitement for a while. However, I convinced him to start looking for prospective properties with me. I scoured the online listings for weeks, until suddenly I found one that was a bit above our price range, but certainly worth a look. It was $9,000 more than we budgeted for, but we went along anyway.

It was love at first site with this house. It was the first one we looked at, but it had everything we both wanted. It was modern inside, with large, spactious living areas, with tiled areas and two seperate living rooms. It had four bedrooms, and a massive outdoor pergola area. It was just what we wanted, if not more than we expected to find. So we put in our offer.

At first we started relatively low, and the owners rejected our offer. So we tried a little higher, but very near our budget. The real estate agent called to say they had accepted and we were over the moon. We ended up $1,000 below our budget. Any saving is a good one. So then the process began.

Up to this point we are currently waiting on the signed contract to return to us. Our pest and building inspections have taken place and our finance approval is in progress. It is ours, providing our finance is approved and we have no concerns there, so now it's a matter of waiting for everything to be finalised and moving into our first home.

The excitment has already taken over. Yesterday we spent the day looking for furniture for our new home. While we haven't decided on any actual furniture, we have a better idea on what we want. And we already purchased a 50 inch plasma for our new lounge room.

At 26, I am proud to be able to almost call myself a home owner. Sure, we could have done it sooner, but we are glad we went overseas first. This way we get to experience all aspects of life while we are still young. Now the next step for us is getting married. Oh, and planning a massive house warming party.

Learn more about this author, Holly Rogers.
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