What do you wish you'd known as a 1st time buyer?

[Deleted User]

From my experience I would say 1) try not to fall too in love with any one house and 2) be realistic with what you can achieve on a do-er upper

Reason being, we absolutely adored the first house we viewed. it had beautiful views to die for over rolling fields at the back, but the inside was an absolute s*** hole. It was cold, damp, parts of the floor were even caving in. We were adamant that we could live in it and do it up over time as and when we could afford to, but in reality were blinded by our love of the house and wouldn't have been able to afford to do anything substantial for a long time, and we would have been miserable living in it.

Despite a couple of offers we didn't get it, and ended up buying something that needs some cosmetic attention but nothing on the scale as that first house. I look back on that first house now and think thank god we didn't get it!

There will always be another house.

nwithers1

Do not go for the cheapest solicitors. And when you have a solicitor, chase them up every day from the start. Ours did nothing for 2 months until I started ringing every day. Even towards the end, they'd say they were going to post some contracts/searches, then a week later you'd call to ask where they were and they'd say "oh I'm just going through them now, I'll post them today".

Margot123

The following website can be invaluable if you aren't too familiar with the area: https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/postcode/alldistricts

PS Don't forget to search for nearby postcodes as well, some streets have different postcodes for North, South, East and West.

JoJo1978

Another vote here for location, but that doesn't necessarily mean buying in an expensive area. My first buy was an unfashionable purpose built 1 bed with a Kent postcode that is essentially now a London suburb. Longer commute bit cheaper to buy and lower rates. The original pink bathroom suite was still intact when I sold, amazing what you get used to in time!

I made a packet on that first place because by the time I sold more and more people were being priced out of London and the town's transport links had massively improved. I had done some research when I bought and was hoping that would be the case. Had to live in it with then boyfriend (he moved into mine and sold his 5 years in) for longer than expected due to pesky 2008 crash, but hey how some things can't be foreseen. From that experience I'd say make sure you have the space you are likely to need for the next few years. It was a period of adjustment for both of us to have had a one bed flat each then going to sharing one.

We bought together, ex LA, in an equally unfashionable SE London suburb. Sincerely wish we had have visited at more times of the day and week because we may have backed out due to one set of close neighbours. To begin with it wasn't too bad but their cute kids grew up and had kids of their own. No one moved out, the council simply extended their house with a huge wraparound extension. Weekdays weren't too bad because we both worked long hours in the city. But we used our lovely garden only about half a dozen times in eight years, it wasnt very peaceful in the summer!

The upside is that we bought where we did so we could pay the mortgage down quickly and also banked a bit on prices recovering after the crash. In preparation to relocate we both started working from home, which was really when the houses location became unbearable. No one was particularly being a nuisance nearby but big families do generate fairly constant lively noise. That said. 'detached' was number 1 on our priority list once we were in a position to upgrade.

Lastly, only now are we finally purchasing our own sofa. The ones in our flats were family hand me downs and we purchased the last sofa (plus armchairs, and master bedroom furniture from the last vendor...(all has come with us to forever home lol!) We negotiated an outdoor gazebo, kitchen island and two wardrobes in forever home too. Don't be afraid to ask around, Freecycle, trawl the charity shops and make a cheeky request or two to a vendor for furniture that will do you a turn. Save your readies for unexpected bills and repairs (sorry they will arise)

Don't lose sight of the bigger picture when things get a bit stressful, it's worth it

ChicaBonita

1) Don't be rushed into anything via the EA - we're pretty sure we were told a bogus story about another set of potential buyers which put stress on us to get the mortgage application done. Things take as long as they take, and if you're being pressured by the EA, take a step back and think about whether you really want it. We did, but we had to leave it up to whoever's up there in the sky as to whether we got the property or not.

2) Check up with everyone at least once a week. I was naive and thought we would be updated when things happened, but it was only when sh** almost hit the fan that the EA got in touch with us (4 months after our offer had been accepted) and told us we could lose the sale (long story). Turned out everyone else knew certain crucial details but neither us nor our solicitors knew it. I wish I'd been more proactive and asked for an update every week. I won't be blindsided like that again!

DD265

Margot123 wrote: »

The following website can be invaluable if you aren't too familiar with the area: https://www.streetcheck.co.uk/postcode/alldistricts

PS Don't forget to search for nearby postcodes as well, some streets have different postcodes for North, South, East and West.

That is a fab site thank you!

And thanks for the other suggestions too. As we're renting unfurnished, we already have all of the furniture we need but that brings it's own complications in terms of fitting it in. We do need to allow for acquiring white goods in our budget though so I need to do some research on those.

When it comes to dealing with estate agents/solicitors, I am a control freak and my other half can be extremely stubborn, so I think we'll be doing the bullying rather than being bullied. :rotfl:

Soph1988

Make sure the neighbours directly next to you aren’t miserable old mean people.

A do-er upp-er will end up costing more than you think. Don’t like the doors? £300 a door with frame and fitting....

Buying off a tradesman (gas engineer, plumber etc) does not mean he did any decent work to his own house.

Make sure parking is good!

Brexit_Fan

Check and double check everything for yourself. The first house we bought many years ago, we only discovered a couple of weeks AFTER moving in that it was bang opposite a large school.


We viewed on a dark winter's night and moved in at the start of the Easter holidays so it didn't come apparent for a little while - we thought we had a nice green opposite us!


We had no end of arguments and fights with selfish parents who would constantly block our drive mornings and afternoons.


The vendors never told us about the school, nor did the estate agent, not even the Solicitor bothered to inform us. We discovered later there was a tiny mention of the school ( literally one sentence) in the surveyors report which we only skimmed through at the time (it was about 60 pages long!).


Looking back we can laugh now and accept we were probably a little bit naive, but at the time it wasn't nice, so my advice would be check and double check every little thing for yourself, no matter how small.

spadoosh

The opinions of others are meaningless when its you thats liable.

Surrey_EA

nwithers1 wrote: »

And when you have a solicitor, chase them up every day from the start.

I'm not sure I'd recommend this!!

Choose a decent firm and trust them to do their job. Most conveyancing solicitors are handling 100-150 files at any one time, if every client called them each day chasing them, how much work are they likely to get done?