First time Buyer tips

Running_Horse

smcqis wrote: »

• Go to "upmystreet" website and see stats on the local area, crime figures, education, council tax.

Go to “zoopla” for house price comparisons

• Better a smaller house in a good area than a huge house in a bad area - think resale value.
• Don't move into a property right beside a train line

Just a few points at random (could have chosen many more):

Upmystreet information on crime and neighbourhoods is vague at best. Useful for schools.

Zoopla are rubbish, as has been discussed here.

We got the biggest house in our road, because it suited our needs. Areas are not usually "good" or "bad", but a mixture of both.

You get used to train noise, if you want to.

Most FTBs are not in a position to be quite as fussy as your extensive list suggests, and are usually capable of making the compromises required in real life.

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celyn90

Squish_21 wrote: »

Dont agree with this. Personally I was 20 when I bought my first home so got a mortgage over 35 years to get the repayments lower. I overpaid from day 1 but knew if i ever started to struggle I could switch back to the minimum payment.

Worked out great, very glad I did it that way.

I also don't agree for the same reason as above. We are looking to take it out over the maximum term allowed then will overpay (we specifically want a mortgage with unlimited overpayment capacity) so the actual term doesn't matter. I think it depends on your circumstances.

kingstreet

As you can fiddle around with the term of your mortgage every time you move or remortgage, the initial term doesn't have much relevance. If you move three times over ten years and keep on going back to a 25 year term, you're probably doing more damage.

Pick the term you'll find most affordable and then make overpayments when you can. Sticking yourself in the straitjacket of higher contractual payments is fine, as long as your circumstances don't change and you end up struggling. The overpayments route is more flexible and you can vary or stop the extra payments if it becomes a burden due to something unforeseen.