Similar to a wedding, buying a house needs a long and complicated process. If you recently tied a knot or are still planning a wedding and considering to buy a house, follow these preparation steps as suggested by Brananto Shandini, director of GrandeVida, a property consultant in Jakarta.

The first thing to do is to prepare the ammunition, which is financial mapping. In short, you count the total funds you have. These funds include:

• Total income, including your partner's income if both of you agreed to have a joint account.
• Total investments, such as mutual funds and stock shares.
• Other funds, such as grants or parents' inheritance.

After knowing your budget, you can start defining your goals. The initial part is to identify how much money you want to spend. This budget should already include other expenses, such as tax and transfer of ownership fee. To give you a hint, these expenses mostly take 5% from the house price. These additional expenses are indeed not small, and there will also be an annual tax afterward. Furthermore, after the budget has been decided, then you can search the area based on your price expectancy.

Your goals on buying a house should also in line with your investment goals. The investment goals have two types: money investment (by buying a house that has an excellent potential to be put in the future market) and psychological investment (related to the area that answers your priorities, for example, it is near your workplace or educational facilities for your future children). Furthermore, Brananto also advised that you need to decide the ownership name written on legal letters in advance.

If the budget and the goals have been settled, now it is time to work on the strategy. The first strategy, besides deciding how much you will spend, is to set the payment system. For example, cash, direct installment to the owner (maximum 12 months), or bank installments are methods available in general.

The process to get your dream house is not as fast as clicking your fingers. Therefore, Brananto also warned some factors that challenge your wish to have a house.

• Distracted focus and goals because cannot resist spending unplanned outcomes, such as buying new gadgets or impromptu holiday.
• Poor willingness and commitment. Since buying a house needs a big budget, performing hard work is a must. Not only a great desire of having a private house, but a willingness to have additional income is also needed. Extra income can be acquired from investment or an additional part-time job.
• Wrong strategy, such as being too rush in making a decision or taking a payment system that unfits your financial mapping, can also lead plans to unexpected endings.
• Not cautious about legality can bring you to illicit administration process. This makes you vulnerable to fraud. Thus, do not hesitate to hire a professional party, such as a property consultant, to have trustworthy advice and suggestions.

As a property consultant who has married, Brananto supports the idea of planning to buy a house when you are still single. However, for those who are already engaged and planning a wedding, the house budget is less incriminating since it will be done together. "Besides, it drives you to wisely re-considerate decreasing your reception budget to be turned into a house investment instead," he suggested.

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