For Melbourne first home buyers
Your first home starts with understanding it
Free learning modules, honest calculators and straight answers. No jargon, no judgement, and nothing you have to buy.
No card, no cost. The first lesson of every module is open to everyone.
5 modules, 18 lessons
About 2 hours, at your own pace
6 calculators
Save your results and come back to them
8 guides & checklists
Downloadable, printable, actually useful
Three things that move you forward
Most people get stuck because nobody has laid it out in order. This is the order.
Learn
Five short modules that take you from 'thinking about it' to 'ready to buy'. Written for Melbourne, in plain English, with nothing to sell you.
Start the courseCalculate
Six calculators that show their working — borrowing power, stamp duty, deposit and LMI, upfront costs, repayments, and which schemes you qualify for.
Try a calculatorGet ready
Checklists, guides and templates to take to your first inspection, your first auction, and your first conversation with a lender.
Browse the libraryMost used tool
What could you actually borrow?
Not a guess based on a multiple of your salary. This runs the same shape of calculation a lender does — take-home pay, living costs, existing debts, and the assessment buffer they're required to add on top.
- Shows its working, line by line
- Flags the credit card limits quietly costing you
- Free to use, no account needed
The First Home Buyer Course
Five modules, short lessons, and a clear next step at the end of each one. The first lesson of every module is free — an account unlocks the rest.
- 01
Are you ready?
Before the numbers, the honest questions. What buying actually costs, what it demands of you, and how far away you really are.
3 lessons · 18 min
- 02
Your deposit & savings plan
The deposit is the biggest hurdle for most first home buyers — and the one where the rules have changed most. Here's what's actually required now.
4 lessons · 27 min
- 03
Borrowing power & credit
How lenders decide what you can borrow, and the specific things quietly reducing your number right now.
4 lessons · 28 min
- 04
Grants & schemes decoded
Four overlapping schemes with different rules, caps and eligibility. Which ones are actually yours.
3 lessons · 22 min
- 05
Finding & buying the home
The Melbourne buying process step by step — including the bits that are genuinely unforgiving if you get them wrong.
4 lessons · 29 min
The questions couples ask first
How much can we borrow on two incomes?
Put both incomes in and see what a lender would look at.
Read itThe 5% deposit scheme for couples in Victoria
No LMI, no income cap, and how it stacks with Victorian savings.
Read itHow much deposit do we need to buy in Werribee?
Typical prices, the 5% deposit, and the schemes that fit.
Read it
Built by someone who does this every day
Jacob Williams is a mortgage broker in Melbourne's west. This site exists because the same questions came up in every first conversation — so the answers may as well be free and public.
Latest from the blog
All articlesBuying Education
Your First Home Loan Document Checklist
Payslips, ID, statements and the papers people forget. What lenders usually ask first home buyers for, and how to get it sorted.
Money & Lending
What happens if the bank valuation comes in low?
Signed on a home and the bank valued it lower? Here’s how valuations work, what it means on the 5% scheme, and the usual options.
Suburb Analysis
Truganina or Tarneit for your first home?
Truganina or Tarneit? How the commute, new vs established and the $600k duty line decide it for first home buyers.
Ready to find out where you actually stand?
Create a free account to save your calculations, track your progress through the course, and unlock the member-only guides. Or book a chat and skip straight to the conversation.