I want to buy my first property…Where do I start?
Through our lives we experience many significant events and one of the most significant is buying your first property. On most occasions, when a person buys their first property it is the biggest purchase they have ever made. In fact, as you progress through life, buying your next property will usually be the biggest purchase you’ve ever made.
Although exciting, this can be a very daunting experience. We know this because over our 200-year history we have guided literally thousands of buyers who were taking their first step onto the property ladder. So, we thought we’d share a basic guide to the steps involved.
Step 1: Finance
First thing’s first, you need to assess your financial situation. There’s no point in looking at properties until you have a clear idea of your price range you can sensibly afford.
Speaking to one of our mortgage advisors is the best place to start. They will take you through all of the costs involved in owning a home and help you to accurately assess a realistic and manageable budget.
Step 2: Type of property
There are different options to consider for your home such as a flat, house, semi-detached, terraced, and so on.There’s also some worthwhile considerations around whether to opt for a new build or an established property. However, once you have an idea of your price range, choosing what type of property you would like to buy becomes a little bit easier.
Step 3: Location
The next step is to look at the location of your home. Deciding where you want to live may be the biggest decision in the whole process. Various factors come in to play here such as local schools, transport links, parking facilities, access to shopping and recreational facilities and other activities running in the area to name but a few.
It is also worth considering how long you may stay in this area and what is the potential investment value of the property you are purchasing. As a first time buyer, you want to make sure your property is going to increase in value enough to allow you to continue moving up the ladder as your circumstances change – perhaps when you start a family.
Step 4: Viewing the property
You’ve discovered a property that meets your criteria, now time to see what it’s like in reality. Our advice is to take others along to view the property with you, it’s always worth getting a second, and even a third, opinion.
We also advise that you view the property more than once, it is often the case that things are not quite as you remembered when you first visited.
Finally, we recommend that you visit the property at different times of the day, very often a quite daytime area becomes something different in the evening. Or, the beautiful public park next door becomes the local hangout for noisy kids in the evening. It’s better to be as aware of the environment as you possibly can be, and that means experiencing it for yourself at different times.
Step 5: Making an offer
Assuming you like the property and you’re happy that it will meet your needs, you then need to move quickly to make an offer and hopefully secure your first home.
That’s where Walker Laird’s experience is invaluable and can really help you. We know the area well, we’ve been helping clients buy and sell homes here for 200 years! Our knowledge of local areas, and even particular streets, will help you to quickly assess just how much to offer. We have a great deal of knowledge about the selling history of properties in most locations in the area and we can advise you with a great deal of confidence just how to proceed.
We hope you have found these basic tips about buying your first home useful and interesting, but really the best way to start is to give us a call, or pop in for a coffee and a chat to either of our offices, we will be pleased to explore your options and help you to make the right decisions.
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