How to find your first house
Last updated: April 2008
In this article, we take a look at how to go about finding your first house.
So you have decided that it's time to buy your first house. There are plenty of decisions for you to make before you begin your search.
Decision 1 - How much? Unfortunately, buying all comes down to what you can afford. Find out how much you can borrow for a mortgage then check your bank balance to see if you have enough for at least a 10% deposit. In fact, if you have lower than 25% of a property's value for a deposit in the current housing market, you should expect to pay much higher interest repayments. Another factor to consider is the cost of living after you have purchased the house. You need to ensure that you can meet your monthly repayments on top of everything else you pay. Fortunately, our budget calculator can do most of the work for you.
Decision 2 - Where? Give yourself a search area. Make sure that there are properties within that area that are within your budget. The easiest way to find a house, is to search using one of the property search engines such as Rightmove. However, if you can see a house on rightmove, so can everyone else. Therefore it's important to visit estate agents who might be able to tell you about properties that are about to come on to the market - getting in first is paramount.
Decision 3 - What are your priorities? Make a list of the most important things that your first property should have - put the most important things at the top of the list. You may find that you have to compromise on a few things that are lower down on your list. Use this first time viewing checklist to help you compare each property that you visit - you are welcome to change it to add your own priorities.
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Article by Tim Ballard.
February 2008 (updated: April 2008)
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User Comments
Tim from Suffolk said...
Go on, be the first to add a comment!
Thursday, April 10th 2008 06:53 PM
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Website founded by Tim Ballard. First House Page.com trades under the name of Tim Ballard.
None of the information contained in this website constitutes, nor should be construed as financial advice. We recommend that you seek independent financial advice from a financial advisor on all financial matters. Despite careful content verification, we are not responsible for the content of third-party sites. We cannot guarantee the accuracy of information on this website. Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage. Property values can go up as well as down.
