Hello and welcome back to part two of my First Home Journal.
If you haven’t seen my first post I covered what key aspects my boyfriend and I looked into/discussed before we started to view properties – check it out! J
Once we had decided what factors were key to us the house hunt began! The main websites we used for our search were Rightmove, Zoopla and Purple Bricks. Here are my tips for house hunting.
1. Don’t view too many properties on the same day!
The first time you start looking at properties is an exciting time and you can get caught up in a whirlwind of wanting to see as many properties as you can as quickly as you can. However, after our first weekend of doing this I realised how overwhelming it actually is. If you are seeing 4, 5, 6 or more properties in one day it soon becomes a complete blur and you start to forget which one was which. My advice would be to maybe check out 2 or 3 properties at a time. I would also suggest making notes whilst you are walking around on your phone or even record videos/take pictures if the owners are okay with this. We found that by doing this we were able to look back later and remember each property more clearly and in better detail.
2. Research the location of the properties you are viewing
Before booking any viewings with the estate agents make sure you research how far away the properties are from each other in terms of driving/walking distance. Once you have an idea of rough timings you can then book time slots for viewings allowing yourself enough time to get between properties. We often booked viewings for properties within a close vicinity of each other so that we could park in a central location and walk between them (which also gave us the chance to get a feel of the area). If walking isn’t an option make sure that you remember to leave time to take into account the journey plus traffic if you are visiting on a busy day of the week, such as a Saturday.
3. Have questions ready for the estate agents/vendors.
Really make sure that you maximise your time at a viewing and get as much information as you can about the property whilst you have the opportunity. Of course you can ask more questions at a later date if it is a property you are interested in but we found asking questions helped up to make a decision in regards to whether we wanted a second viewing/if we were going to put in an offer etc. I have to admit I didn’t have a clue of what sort of questions to ask when we started our journey, but speaking to/taking our parents with us on the first few viewings really helped. Some of the questions we would ask include:
- What council tax band is the property in?
- How much are the rough monthly costs of electricity/gas?
- What type of boiler does the property have and when was the last time the boiler was serviced?
- When was the last time the electricity was rewired/checked?
- How much is the ground rent/service charge and what does that go towards? (If you are looking at flats).
- What are the neighbours like?
- Which side of the garden are we responsible for when it comes to the fences?
- How easy is it to get parked? (If you have on road parking that isn’t allocated)
- What is the vendor’s reason for moving?
4. Take an experienced home buyer with you
As I touched on in the previous point, try and take an experienced home buyer with you when you first start viewing properties. We found this really helped as they had already been through the process before and knew things to look out for that we wouldn’t even have thought of or noticed (e.g damp, cracks, water pressure etc).
5. Look at the potential
Now this is something that I really struggled with initially when viewing properties. At first so many things were running through my mind…”oh I don’t like that carpet”…”I’m not a fan of this décor”…”Those curtains are horrible!” However, you need to remember you are buying the building and not furniture…those things you can change! The more properties we looked at the more I began to picture them how we could decorate it or extend it and the more excited I actually got.
6. Prepare to be bombarded with calls/emails
As you may or may not know estate agents work on commission so they obviously want to push the sale of properties to earn themselves extra cash! You will be inundated with calls, voicemails, emails and texts prior to and after viewing properties. The best thing we found was just to be honest with the estate agents. If you didn’t like the property – tell them! If you don’t want to be on their mailing list – tell them! This will save unwanted contact and hassle!
7. Go with your gut
When you find the right property you will know. Go with your gut feeling and don’t be afraid to put in an offer. At the end of the day the worst the vendor can do is say no but if you never try then you will never know!
If you are on your first home hunt I hope you have found this post helpful! My next First Home Journal will be touching on what happens after you get your offer accepted!
Happy house hunting! 🙂
Love,
Hannah ♥