Buying a new home, whether it’s your first or a later one, is one of the most exciting times in anyone’s life. Unfortunately, it’s one of the most stressful too. The key to getting around this is to prepare as best you can, and the key to preparation is proper research. If you know what you need to do at any given time, you can ensure it’ll all run a lot more smoothly. Your home is everything, so you need to ensure it’s perfect for you. The issue here is that perfect has different meanings for different people, so finding exactly what you need means finding advice and applying it in a bespoke way to your own likes and interests. Also, homes are all different, certain advice might be geared towards one type of home and not all, so be careful what advice you take. Property markets can be hard to navigate, but these tips can help you shift your perspective to get you thinking about things which are necessary. Even if you’ve already considered some they can put you in the right mindframe. Good Luck!
New Property Need A Lot Of Work? Consider Overlapping
Overlapping is basically where you keep your current property for a week or two while you have the keys to the new one. This is easier to do if you are renting, or if you are living with family or friends and are a first time buyer. It enables you to do work on the house without living there, so that all of your stuff doesn’t get in the way. It just makes it a lot easier. If you need to, you can consider skip bin hire and look to strip the whole place. Or, you can think about giving every single room in your home a new coat of paint. Decorate the kids rooms, assemble new furniture, etc. All of this is a lot easier if it is in place before you actually move into the house. Sure, it might be a bit of hassle making trips from one to the other. It might also cost you a bit more money, depending on how long you want the overlap to be. But just think about how easier it’ll be for you to sort out once it’s all in place. This might not be practical if you’re moving a long distance or abroad, but if it is, it’s worth thinking about.
Get The Removal Company Booked In At The Outset
Even with the coronavirus pandemic still in full swing, people are moving home. That means removal companies are getting booked up. Book the company you want before it’s too late. You do not want to end up with a subpar company who can potentially damage your stuff or a company who has a bad reputation. Start to have a look as soon as you’ve got the date set. Look into reviews, make sure you know what you’re paying for and pay the deposit. There’s nothing worse than having to look around at the last minute for a removal company and settling for one you’re not sure of. If you can’t seem to settle on one try word of mouth. Ask friends or family who have recently moved and go with what they say. Just remember, the longer you put it off, the less firms you’ll have to choose from.
Get Your Mortgage In Place
This is a no brainer…you need your mortgage in place in order to be able to buy the house (unless you’re one of the rare few who are purchasing in cash.) However, getting everything in place isn’t easy. You may need to show them pay slips, have your credit rating checked and tested, etc. Make sure you’re organized and don’t do anything to slow down the process. In most cases you’ll need to be on the phone to your mortgage provider or conveyancer to ensure it proceeds. Be proactive and chase everything. If anything gets sent over for you to do, make sure you do it quickly. If you don’t it might just completely slow down the process meaning you end up slowing the chain down and if this happens for long enough someone might just stop and decide to look for a buyer who’s more engaged. Focus on your mortgage, and be as organized as you possibly can.
Take Advantage Of Credit
It’s often found that credit can be somewhat of a negative thing but actually, when buying a home, it can be a real help to your finances. With a good credit score, it can secure more opportunities in getting a mortgage and you can also end up with a better deal too. Good credit scores can do a lot for you and your household, so take advantage of it when it comes to property and try to improve it before you go mortgage shopping! It’s worth finding out how to use credit to your advantage where you’re able to.
Don’t Forget The Survey
Hiring a surveyor is a little annoying because you have to pay a chunk of cash to someone at a time where you’re already spending money. But doing so can save you more money in the long run, for a few different reasons. Primarily this is because you can find issues or problems with the home. These could put you off buying altogether if you find something bad like damp in the property. Or it can give you a reason to knock the price down a little more, or demand the work is carried out before you exchange. Of course, the important part here is in keeping your family safe. Getting the survey done means you have peace of mind to ensure your family is in a house which is structurally sound. Surveyors are easy to come by. You just need to ensure that you go with a firm who are properly qualified and who can carry out the work to a high standard. If they aren’t qualified, it could come back to bite you in any number of ways.
Be Safe Upon Moving In
Talking about moving in, you need to ensure the home is safe beyond what the surveyor does. This involves ensuring you have smoke alarms on the landing and in the hall. If the home is large you’ll want them in other places too. You’ll also need carbon monoxide near any fossil fuel burning appliances to ensure that no one in your house gets poisoned by it. They’re fairly cheap to buy too so there’s no excuses. One of these will be near your main boiler. You have to get the boiler serviced as you move in. This is even more important if the boiler is old, or if it hasn’t been serviced in a long time. Ensuring the boiler is safe is important. A bad one can be a fire hazard. Not only that, but it can be a lot more expensive because the boiler won’t properly burn, meaning it’ll cost a whole lot more to power as it won’t be very efficient. A lot of people get the boiler surveyed before moving into the property…it’s more important in older houses. You can extend this to the central heating system which is a must in most places…but where they’re old problems can easily be found.
Set Out A Budget
If it’s your first time buying a property, you might not have anything to move. Instead, you might have to buy everything up from scratch. A nice proposition, but when you see how much it all costs you might think differently. This is why you need the money beforehand. There’s no point in moving in and trying to live without a fridge or an oven. You need to be careful, save up properly and have the money to buy these things once you’ve moved in. This is why you need to save above your deposit level which you wanted for the house. Try not to put too much on a credit card or finance plan either. One or two things might be fine, but beyond that, you might be making each month incredibly hard to get by on. With your new mortgage in place, and certain things on finance, you need to budget monthly too. Make sure you can pay the bills. This includes money for phones, for utilities, cars, etc. Mortgage will likely be the biggest expense you have and it may take you some time getting used to it so don’t just go into it blind. Instead be sure that you can afford the monthly payments. Essentially, you can’t spend how you used to spend, you need new spending habits.
Manage Expectations
Your own expectations might be set particularly high, however due to coronavirus you need to be patient. This covers the whole process. There are impediments all over the place driven primarily by people being off sick, self isolating, having to get tests etc. Furniture delivery is impeded, a lot of people are doing up their homes so furniture can be hard to come by and you’ll have to wait a while to get it. Because of this you might want to purchase as soon as possible and differ the delivery date. Not always easy, especially if you’re operating on a budget but it can mean an easier life later on down the line. Be aware of how Covid has affected the industry and make sure you take this into consideration when you’re chasing up for updates etc. To get around this, book early and often to avoid disappointment.
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This tips that you are sharing here are awesome and can be helpful for a lot of ppl. Thanks 😊
My pleasure! 🙂🌺
Excellent advice, thank you
Thank you for stopping by!
Thank you so much for sharing! 🙂
This information is superb. Short and to the point. Thanks for the tips.
My pleasure! 🙂