First Time Buyer Help- You Have The Deposit, What’s Next?

Last month I brought you my first post in my first time buyer help mini series. That post was all about what to do when you wanted to buy. So the very early stages of realising you want to buy, saving, getting advice and working out what you can afford. Now I’m back with the second instalment all about what to do once you’ve saved your deposit.

If you’re a first time buyer then congrats on starting this journey. It might seem stressful or really hard, but it will all be worth it. You’re onto the exciting part of the journey.

First time buyer- Establish what you want

Now comes to exciting bit; working out what you want and where.

The first thing to do is establish an area of search so you know where to start looking for properties. Perhaps you want to live close to where you are now. Or maybe you’re happy to move a bit further out to get more for your money. You may want to consider the proximity to public transport, good schools (if needed) and local amenities.

Once you have an idea of location make a list of the things that are important to you. Then split them into must have and nice to have things. As a first time buyer you may not have much on your must have list other than it being owned by you. But really think about this because you’ll be spending a lot of money buying. And you don’t want to regret your decision a few months down the line.

For our current home the must haves were a driveway, minimum three bedrooms, a garage and an office. The rest of the things on our list were nice to haves but not always deal breakers.

Start looking for your home

Before this point you’ll have worked out what you can afford, but now the fun can begin. The search for your new home. We used Right Move to search for homes, but Zoopla is another good one. You can search your filters and search areas and begin looking. Start with a strict set of filters to see how many houses fit as much of your criteria as possible. Then once you’ve looked into those you can loosen your search.

Anything you see that catches your eye make sure to read the whole description, view all the photos and take a look at the floor plan and room sizes. Estate agents know how to make rooms look the biggest and best they can, but a floor plan can’t lie. So something might look massive in photos, but in reality be quite small.

First time buyers- Arrange viewings or do drive bys

Your next step depends on how many properties you like the look of. If you’ve only chosen a small handful then speak to the relevant estate agents and arrange viewings as soon as possible to check them out. You’ll have a good idea on somewhere just by driving up to it or walking through the front door.

If like us you have a lot of properties chosen do a drive by of the houses. On the property websites you’ll get a road name, and through Google Street view you should get an idea of roughly where it sits on the road. Then just drive by, looking out for ‘for sale’ signs, or just for a house that looks identical to the photos. Now you may feel a bit creepy doing this (I know we did), but you may be able to discount some houses straight away as you don’t like the road it’s on, it’s really close to a main road etc.

We managed to rule out about half of the properties we’d looked at by doing this. And then we could just view the 8 or so that we liked from this point.

During the viewing

When you go to your viewings make notes as you go on things you like or don’t like, or things you may have to consider. And make sure to ask loads of questions as you go around. As a first time buyer you may not have a clue what to ask but some things to consider are:

• How long has the property been on the market?
• What are the neighbours like?
• Why are the current owners selling?
• Have the sellers found their next property? Or what is their situation?
• How long have the owners lived there?
• What are the local amenities like?
• Are there any local plans that could affect the area?
• Has any major work been done the house lately?
• How old is the boiler?
• When was the roof last done?

By asking these kinds of questions you’ll get a feel for the place, but also know if anything big might come up.

Have you been a first buyer before? Was this the most fun stage for you?