Choosing first home

Drawingaline

We have bought two properties. Both times I decided we would be looking to buy, arranged a viewing of a property I liked the look of, made an offer and sorted the mortgage. But the first time it was only me and my husband, the following time it was an ex council house the same style as my sisters.

We are planning on upsizing in September. This time I have been researching much more in depth. We have three things that are non negotiable. Four beds min, two decent sized reception rooms and parking. These are must haves. Our wants are, 5 beds (really not likely!) Garage, conservatory, decent sized garden, utility room, porch, decent sized driveway and close enough to the station for husband to be able to walk to it. We are willing to comprise on any of these for the right property. We are staying in the same town so I will disregard any in areas I don't wish to live.

If your list of needs is too big then it makes choosing almost impossible. I don't want to disregard too many properties, would rather have a list of properties we are happy to offer on rather than deciding that we have to have 'the one'. 

firsthome2020

Thanks everyone, this has been really helpful, off to make my list now! 

RelievedSheff

It may sound daft but our top of the must haves list was a garage and two off road parking spaces. We have a classic car that has to be garaged and prefer the other two cars to be off the road. At the time that we bought our first house that was a big ask for our budget and greatly limited the houses and areas we could look in.

We looked at a lot of houses, probably 50-60 before we walked into "the one". It just felt right as soon as we walked through the door. You will know when you find the right property for you.

What I would say is that the one thing you can't change about a property is the location. Make sure you are happy with that. We lived in our last house which was the first we bought for 12 years and would probably still be there now were it not for the location and neighbours. That said we love our new, new build house (we have been in a little over a year now, not sure when it will stop being new!) Again when we walked through the door we just knew that this was the right house for us. This time we have got the location right as well. We had no real intentions of moving this time round so we only viewed the one house before making the purchase.

gwynlas

A lot depends on your budget and prices in  the areas you are looking at. 
I would choose a recently built flat over an older on because sound insulation is likely to be better. Low rise block without a lift. Top floor so no one overhead.
House rather than flat if I could afford it. as many bedrooms as I could afford eg. 3 rather than 2, Detached rather than semi, terraced cottages are the norm in some areas and can be really attractive. Good flow on floorplan decent sized rooms. Upstairs bathroom. Outside space.
You must have some idea of what you want in order to gauge preferences of one over another even if that is proximity to work, family,transport, shopping and social life

firsthome2020

I haven’t looked at 50-60 houses yet so feel a bit better! I wasn’t sure how many viewings were too many but I’m definitely going to try narrow my search down and determine what I definitely want! And yes I’m very much dictated by budget so that’s one thing I’m doing is only looking at homes I can afford. Another poster said to know the area which has been the sticking point for me, I don’t know exactly which specific area I want to be in but I’ll have a drive around places and figure out what’s best. I have friends all over so somewhere between work and family would probably be best. I’ve appreciated my garden so much in lockdown so a decent sized garden is now a must have. Totally agree on location more than house I think I’m being picky in the fact that I want a ready to move into house in a great location.