I'd be talking with a few bankers, home lenders ASAP and see what they offer re rates, borrowing power, mortgage insurance. we ended up going with bendigo bank for our home loan and have been super happy with them as people (we have become friends with the manager hahahaha!). some banks can offer pre-approval really quickly, whuch is great as you can then start making offers and bidding with confidence knowing what the limit is etc.

Um, yep, you need a solicitor or lawyer or conveyancer. we went with a solicitor that was just down the road and had a flat rate. really, all they do is sign off the paperwork, and check the section 32 etc. we paid about $1300.

as for inspections...i would only really do it if i really believed it was a goer. we had a building inspection done through archicentre and TBH they told us nothing we were not able to work out ourselves. they can only see what is on show...no looking in roofs etc. of course, for peace of mind it is worth it, but in our case we opted not to do it again unless we could see potential structural probs and needed to know extent and timeline of when it would need to be fixed.

another tip i have if you start seeing a few places (the bug catches quickly once you start lol!) is to take a camera so you can remember what place is what...we seriously couldnt remember what our place looked like when we bought it..could only remember that we loved it ).

kitchen and bathroom can be the big ticket items. we were pretty conservative with our kitchen and all up cost about $13,000 (we had to remove a wall!). the kitchen itself was $6000. plus electrician, gas plumber, benchtops, tapware and stove/oven/rangehood.