We bought a house! Saturday 1st of July Peter & I officially got the keys to our house, and it's a GREAT feeling. As first time buyers, we have nothing. We are starting from scratch. Sofas, beds, everything. I am so so excited to begin making it a home. Peter & I went in the morning for the first time together, and then in the evening, we had our families come round with us and went out for a meal to celebrate. It was a pretty fabulous day.
HOW DID WE DO IT?
1. Save
This is the most obvious one. Save anything you can, whenever you can. Decide how much you want to put aside each month, and make sure you budget for it. If one month you have more to put aside than usual, then do it. Don't spend it. Obviously, you don't need to go crazy and never buy anything ever again, (sad times) but don't go blowing unnecessary money on stuff you don't need. The house will be worth it.
2. Help To Buy ISA
Open a Help To Buy ISA with your bank. When you first open your ISA, you can deposit up to £1000 in to it. If you can, I'd reccomend paying the full £1,000.. or as much as you can. Because after this, you can only depost £200 a month. Set up a standing order so that you can treat it as a payment that's coming out of your account every month. The government will pay a 25% bonus on savings up to £12,000. Do it, it's free money. We used ours to pay for our legal fees.
3. Start Early
Start now. Even if as you're reading this you have no intention of buying a house at the moment, start now. Start as early as you can, because once you get stuck paying for rent and all your other bills, naturally, it becomes harder to save. Anything you can put aside will be give you that helping hand.
4. Get A Mortgage Advisor
This makes life so much easier. You mortgage advisor will sort everything for you. They'll find you the best mortgage available, gather all the information needed and make the application on your behalf. (Check the small print and make sure they aren't going to charge you - our advisor was free and took a cut from the estate agents - so essentially the estate agents paid our advisor, not us.)
5. Keep An Eye On The Market
The market is constantly changing. RightMove & Zoopla were our go to apps. It gives you an idea of what is out there and what you can get for the type of budget you are looking at. You can start looking at what area you want to buy in, maybe local, maybe somewhere new. Just keep your eye out! Take advantage of being a first time buyer. When you have your deposit and your mortgage offer ready, being a first time buyer will put you ahead of other buyers. You have no chain, and sellers love that.
Most importantly, ENJOY IT! It seems like such a long process, but when you finally get your keys, it makes all the saving and the searching SO worth it. You have a home and you worked for it. It's a really rewarding feeling.
Very wise words indeed Holly. Not that I am surprised of course. Congratulations to you both on buying your first home. I hope others will learn from your wisdom.
Awww congratulations, that's amazing!! We have been through a bad house situation but hopeful we might get somewhere with some affordable housing scheme properties in our area :D awww amazing tips! xx
uk based lifestyle & travel blogger. sometimes I write blog posts, sometimes I make YouTube videos.. but most of the time you'll find me taking pictures of my dog.
2 comments
Very wise words indeed Holly. Not that I am surprised of course. Congratulations to you both on buying your first home. I hope others will learn from your wisdom.
ReplyDeleteAwww congratulations, that's amazing!! We have been through a bad house situation but hopeful we might get somewhere with some affordable housing scheme properties in our area :D awww amazing tips! xx
ReplyDeleteelizabeth ♡ ”Ice Cream” whispers Clara
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