Dream Believers

Tag: First time buyer

  • First time buyer – initial preparation

    First time buyer – initial preparation

    If you’ve come to this post then I’m assuming you’ve decided you want to own your own home and are looking for help as a first time buyer. No matter what age you are when you make this decision, my first piece of advice is START SAVING!!! Home ownership is a very expensive venture, the sooner you start saving up the better your options will be.

    This will be a blog post series guiding you through the various steps, this post being group 1.

    First time buyer ‘help’

    There are lots of schemes and programmes out there that supposedly help first time buyers. Make sure you’re reading all of the small print, exclusions and exceptions before going ahead as many turn out to be more hassle than they’re worth.

    Savings

    Saving money is something I know a lot of people struggle with. The best thing to do is to save something each month from the moment you get your first pay check. There’s always something that you’ll want to save money for, even if it’s not initially to buy a house. Holidays, the latest tech, a new phone, a car, it all costs. Being good at saving money will always be a useful skill. If you’ve been saving for a while it also means you have a nice starting block in your savings if you then decide you would like to buy a home for yourself.

    Credit score

    Something a lot of people forget about is how much their credit score can affect things. Credit scores will affect the mortgage deals you’ll be offered. It’s a good idea to check what your credit score is and make it as healthy as possible. I usually use the free version of Experian to keep an eye on mine.

    Location

    Think of where you would like to live. UK? Europe? USA? Canada? Australia? New Zealand?

    Research into the house prices in that country/area and any other stipulations linked with it. For example, in London the majority of homes are either shared ownership or leasehold which involves a lot of additional fees added on top of the usual price. Again, the best advice is to keep an eye on all of the small print.

    What do you want?

    No, I’m not quoting that scene from The Notebook (although it’s now in my head).

    Think of what you want/need in your home. What could you not live without? Do you have any deal breakers? What would be the dream? Make a list, or if you’re artistic enough why not sketch it out. Visualise what you want and need and then go searching. It will help you to keep focus and not get lost in the sea of options.

    Use your network

    Do you know someone who has recently bought in that area? Ask them about their home buying journey. They may have found a great broker, or estate agent that they recommend which can save you a lot of time, effort and money. Use your connections. The more help, advice and information you can gather from your network, the better.

    Your first time buyer tips

    What else would you say to a first time buyer? Any tips you have that I’ve not discovered yet? What was your home buying journey like, how long did the whole process take?

    Hopefully this helps you to get a few steps closer to your dream life, keep believing.

  • Our first home checklist

    Our first home checklist

    I am the kind of person who looks at property for sale on Zoopla, Rightmove and other sites all the time. Have done for years, even before I decided I wanted to be a home owner. It was something to do that let me and the friends I was dream home hunting with imagine ourselves in different lives. A way of seeing ‘how the other half live’ as they say. To see how beautiful a house could be.

    Jez mentioned he wanted to buy his own house by the end of this year. I have been looking a bit more seriously ever since. Nowadays sticking to a realistic budget rather than the multimillion pound, 7+ bedroom properties I used to search through.

    What we are looking for

    Ideally, the aim is to have:

    • 2 bedrooms
    • home office space
    • balcony (with a view)
    • shower and bath
    • lots of storage (or space for me to fill with storage units)
    • decent sized living area
    • decent sized kitchen
    • lots of plugs

    I am hoping that there will be space for both me and Jez to have office space as we will hopefully both be working from home for at least some of our employed hours. Plus it’s always good to have somewhere guests can stay (or maybe a future nursery ;)).

    It will most likely be a flat rather than a house initially. The fact we are looking to buy in London, the house prices are a lot higher. Water features have been discussed as an addition to the balcony chats so it is definitely something in my search criteria now. I’m thinking of making the balcony into a tranquillity area for us both so we have an escape if we need it. It would also be the perfect place for me to read so win-win.

    Location

    We are looking for a property in London and it needs to be nearer the centre for easier connections to work and hospitals for Jez. We are looking primarily at north/west London. There are certain bubbles of London that Jez has vetoed and some areas we would love to live in, but will be priced out of.

    Although I lived in London for 9 months a few years ago, I don’t know the areas well enough to pick purely on location. The system we have in place at the moment is I find places that I think look nice, tick most of the boxes, have a logical floor plan and fit within our budget. Jez then looks at the area, reads the small print and checks his commute to work.

    Our first home

    The property we buy will be our first time buying. Our first home will need to be somewhere that doesn’t need too much work doing. Other than that, the location and the size of the flat we aren’t really that picky. We have a healthy deposit and most furniture/decor pieces that we will need to get started.

    Small changes in the colour schemes of the home will be expected, just to make it our own. Any big repair works or alterations needed would be a possible deal breaker. I would like to be able to find somewhere we can move straight into without too much hassle.

    Small print

    We are buying in London and lots of properties come up as auction, cash buyer only, shared ownership and leasehold so reading the small print is becoming one of the most time consuming tasks.

    Although we started talking about this last Autumn and haven’t got anywhere yet, we are still on track to be moved in this year. I was hoping we could start viewings in January and get everything sorted so we could move in before my 30th birthday. Sadly though with Covid and the housing market being on a rollercoaster the last few months we’ve delayed plans.

    Due to the stamp duty break we have found that the house prices have gone up dramatically. Instead of looking for our home in January – March as we planned, we are now waiting until June.

    When will we get our first home?

    We will find the home for us when we are meant to, and it will be amazing. These things take time, I know it will be worth it. I’m hoping Christmas 2021 we will be celebrating in our own home, but it may take longer to find our perfect first home. Either way, it’s exciting!

    Are you looking to buy your first home? Are you already a homeowner? What has been your biggest hurdle so far?