This is a collaborative post.
If you were to pull together a list of the major milestones people love celebrating, you’d find getting a mortgage and buying your first home is definitely up there. In fact, most people put it close to the top with getting married, having a baby and passing your driving test.
The problem is, it’s also nestled in the most terrifying financial fears, and I can totally understand why. But just because it’s known to be complicated, stressful and scary doesn’t mean it has to be. It just means you need to have a solid understanding of the home-buying process and how you can take control of each step better.
Here are 6 ways you can make the milestone of buying a home as stress free as possible.
Summary of Contents (Quick jump links)
Know What You Can Afford
This one should come as no shock because, whenever you’re approaching a massive financial decision, the very first thing you need to do is determine your budget. Always. And buying a home is no exception.
If this is your first mortgage it is not easy to know what you can afford. Using a mortgage calculator can make this easy to understand.
Find The Best Mortgage For You
Once you’ve crunched the numbers and come up with an absolute maximum, you need to start hunting for a mortgage; one that is best for you. As a starting point, there are two things you want to look for: a great reputation on the customer service front and history of closing quickly.
Must-Haves & Nice Extras
You will have to have been born with some ridiculous amounts of luck to stumble across the perfect home within your budget. That’s to say, it’s unlikely. So, before you start the house hunt, sit down and make a list of all the things you absolutely want and need in a home, and a list of things that are nicer to have. It will help you know when you’ve found the one. I would love a garden office, for example, but know I don’t need one!
Call In The Professionals
There is absolutely nothing saying you have to do this, but I would recommend you call in a few experts to help you through the process. First off, you’ll want to find an estate agent to help you through each step and may even be able to tell you of upcoming houses they have been negotiating with before they even come on the market. There’s enough stress without making it worse for yourself so use the professionals when you can.
Grab Some Insurance
A lot of the time, any lender you go with will require the name of the insurance agency providing your cover, so make sure you are shopping around for a quote as early as you can during the house hunt process. Using comparison websites helps to ensure you get good value for money and the cover you need without paying over the odds.
Make An Offer
You might find the house you’ve been looking for on the first go, or you might have seen twenty others before. Either way, once you’ve fallen in love with a house within your budget, and one that meets all your needs and some of your wants, it’s time to make an offer. Sure, this is by no means the end of the line, but it is the first step in securing your first home and without all the usual stress. If you do not make that offer you do not know if it will be accepted!
Has the Covid pandemic made you keen to get on the property ladder and start looking at comparing mortgages and finding the perfect house? There are suggestions that the economy of the country is going downhill so it may be a good time to buy a house. This of course does not mean it is guaranteed to be cheap forever so be sure to calculate what you can afford properly. A good mortgage lender will only lend you what you can afford anyway.