At the beginning of this year my boyfriend and I decided to take the next step in our relationship and started looking for our first home together.
In all honesty I have found whole journey a complete and utter stressful minefield, not to mention an emotional rollercoaster! Nobody really prepares you for everything that goes into purchasing your first property (I feel like this is something they should definitely teach at school!) and to be honest I didn’t really know where to begin!
I thought I would put together a series of posts breaking down the home buying process from day dot to completion with the hope of helping somebody out there.
Before even starting to look at properties I think that it is really important that you write down a list of key factors that are important to you and anyone else you may be purchasing with. By having all your cards on the table it really helps you to understand what you want from a property. If you are buying with a partner/friend it will also highlight areas that are important to them which you may not even have considered. This means all parties are going to be the same page or you can have discussions if there are areas you do not necessarily agree on and you can come to a compromise. (Compromise is a biggy when it comes to buying a property with somebody else!)
1. Budget
As boring as working out your finances can be this is the most important part before beginning your search. Most commonly a 10% deposit is required in order to get a mortgage and with this amount you will have mortgages with lower interest rates available to you. However, there are some mortgage lenders that will look into lending with a lower deposit figure of 5% as well as many government schemes in place to help you get your foot on the ladder. It took us a few years to get together our deposit and once we had this we went to see a mortgage advisor at our local bank to get a rough idea of how much we would be able to borrow. One thing that is key is to remember that is isn’t only the deposit that you need to save as there are also mortgage arrangement fees, solicitor’s fees, surveyor fees and potentially mortgage broker fees if you decide to go down that avenue!
2. Location
To us location was one of the key priorities we had when we began our property search. We are both very much family orientated so neither of us wanted to be far away from our families. Another factor we took into account when it came to location is the distance to our workplaces. As we both travel to work by train making sure we were within walking distance from a train station was essential! We also looked into things like local gym facilities, pubs/bars, restaurants and shops.
3. Property Type
There are so many properties out there it can be overwhelming when you begin your search. You will know your price range but there are so many other factors which will need to be taken into account. Just to name a few…
How many bedrooms do you want?
How many toilets/bathrooms do you need?
Do you want an open planned living space or closed off rooms?
Do you want a garden?
Do you want/need a driveway?
Initially we started looking at flats as we thought that was all we could afford, but we soon realised that moving into a flat came with extra costs, e.g ground rent and service charges, on top of your mortgage/bills and it was really hard to find a flat with outdoor space, e.g a balcony or roof terrace, garden etc.
We then went back to the drawing board and realised that with the average service charge/ground rent added onto a mortgage we would actually be able to afford a house with a garden instead! Then the search really began and we both had completely different ideas of what we wanted in terms of a house. I thought I wanted super modern with little work to do, whereas my boyfriend like older properties with the potential to put our own stamp on it. The more properties we viewed I quickly realised that I agreed with my boyfriend. Whilst it would be nice to move into a property that was completely modern and finished I started to come to the conclusion that that property would never feel like ours…it would be like living in a hotel or somebodies else’s home.
My biggest advice on viewing properties is to be open minded and look at the potential, which can be hard I know! We will touch more on viewing properties in my next First Home Journal post!
Of course there are so many other factors that can lead to your decision on where to move but I believe these are the main three and of course everyone is different and has their own wants/needs.
Love,
Hannah ♥