Buying a home – my experiences, good and bad!

This is a collaborative post.

If you have followed my blog for a while or follow me on social media you probably know that we bought a new home earlier this year. Buying a home can be fun but also stressful.

Whilst Stuart had been through the house-buying experience previously, I hadn’t so it was very eye-opening for me. There were some bits that were much easier than I had imagined and some bits that I found really stressful and hard. Today I just want to share a bit about that process with you.

The above photo is our new home when we bought it. We have changed quite a lot now so it looks very different at the front since we had the garden done up significantly and of course, have changed things like curtains!

Making an offer on the house

Putting in the offer for the house was much easier than I thought it would be. There were a few simple checks that were done to see if we had the appropriate funds and that was about it. After the offer was accepted it moved on to the searches and surveys.

Getting a conveyancing solicitor

I have never bought a house and we had to find a conveyancing solicitor! Luckily as Stuart had previously bought a house we went with the solicitors he used years ago, a local firm we knew had a good reputation and started the process with them.

Due to ongoing covid concerns, we had to verify identity and provide all documents online. Whilst to some this might seem like an added stress for us it was good and made things seem to get sorted easily.

Having a home buyers’ survey

Having been advised when buying a home to get a home buyers survey done we rang around local surveyors and found one that sounded reputable and was local enough to know any problems with the builds to look out for.

The surveyor arranged with the seller and went to do the survey a week later and after that, we got a comprehensive report. All very simple so far. The survey did highlight a few concerns that we needed to go back to the seller with but on the whole, we were happy.

The waiting for a completion date

We had our offer accepted on 16th November and by a month later we were all ready to proceed but this is when our seller started dragging his heels. Buying a home had been easy to this point and now started getting stressful.

He couldn’t find the evidence of the boiler being fixed (the surveyor spotted it has a “do not use” sticker on it!) and everything suddenly seemed to almost stop.

At this point, we started worrying that the sale might fall through and wishing we had looked at insurance when buying a house that would mean we lost nothing if this happened.

Agreeing on a completion date

Once we were close to completion agreeing on a completion point element of the purchase went really smoothly. We suggested a date and they agreed!

We then had to get home insurance in place from the date of exchanging contracts and start sorting out other things such as removal vans, getting the internet into the new house and the last bits of packing!

A few other issues we faced!

Here are a few other issues we faced when buying a home recently which I think will either make you smile or realise that nothing ever goes smoothly!

Ben tested positive for covid on the day we got the keys to the new house!

When we moved in we discovered the hot water tank has a leak and needed repair and that Ben’s shower leaked into the ceiling!

The previous owner had left loads of stuff that was not agreed in the house and garden so we had to liaise with them to have that moved.

Stuart and I tested positive for covid the day after getting the keys for the new house!

Have you bought a house?

Did you find the process of buying a house relatively easy or did you have similar stresses to us? Let me know in the comments below.