Getting the feet wet… Finally

Great work on the savings!  And the First Home Owner Grant will add a bit to that too.

Try and stick to a freestanding house or townhouse.  Failing that, go with a villa unit.  Try and avoid apartments if you can, since it's the land that has the value.

Where in Melbourne are you looking?  And second to that, what sort of work do you do, and in what suburb?  We might be able to suggest suitable suburbs to look at.  For instance, you might say "I'm keen to buy a mansion in Toorak" and we'll say wow, let's rethink that, you work in the CBD so realistically you could commute to work from as far out as the likes of Frankston or Melton.  Give us some details, we'd all love to help!

Yes indeed, you don't want it to be an epic to visit friends and family, so it makes sense to buy within reasonable distance of them.  Buying somewhere near a train station and a major freeway that goes to Melbourne is also important.  Better still if you find out about some freeway or train station that is yet to be built, and you can buy into the area before the prices skyrocket!

Something else you might like to do is speak to council about the minimum block sizes in the area, and evaluate potential properties for their subdivision potential.  Surveyors can give you some help on how to detremine roughly which kinds of properties would qualify.  So you could live in the place for a while, and when you're ready to upgrade, move tenants into the original house, and pop another dwelling in the rear yard (or sell the yard).  And then there's corner properties with big backyards.  Better again, because when you subdivide the backyard, the dwelling built in the "new block" would still have its own street frontage.