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By the time you hit the mid-twenty mark, your party years will probably be over. The chances are that you’ll instead be turning your attention to things like settling down and, you guessed it, buy a property. Of course, even when you start thinking about this, you may imagine it as something in your distant future. Thus, it may not feel like something you need to worry about at this stage.
But, that soon changes when you realise that you’re only around five years away from thirty as it stands. That and the fact that buying a house isn’t exactly something you can do overnight should be enough to put this to the front of your mind. You may not be in a position to move forward in any real way right now, but that won’t change if you don’t at least start laying the groundwork. If you ignore the need to get around to future property acquisitions, you’ll find that it’s not possible until you’re well into your thirties or beyond.
That may not sound all that bad until you consider that not owning property can set your life back in other areas. You’ll need to work every hour under the sun to afford those extortionate rental costs. And, let’s be frank; you don’t exactly have the space to start a family right now. Just like that, putting this aside for the time being means you’ll never get the life you dreamt for yourself.
Okay, so that may be a little dramatic, but you get the idea. The sooner you turn your attention to the reality of home ownership, the sooner you can start leading the life you deserve. This is no need for panic, of course. You don’t have to rush into buying a property for a few years yet. But, you could start laying the following foundations to ensure that you’re able to move when it suits you.
Get your credit rating in order
A lot of us make significant mistakes with credit when we’re in our early twenties. When you’re young and have no real idea about money, it’s easy to max out that credit card and agree to a long-term payment plan. Who cares, right? You should, especially when it comes to buying your first home. If you attempt to apply for a mortgage with debt like this hanging over you, you’re in for an unpleasant surprise. Most mortgage lenders won’t go near someone with debt already behind them.
Even if you manage to clear this when you turn your mind to it, the damage to your credit rating may stop you from affording the repayments of any mortgage. Lucky for you, you have plenty of time to repair your score if you turn your attention to this now. With at least a five-year plan, you should have more than enough time to clear your debts and turn your credit rating green.
Note, too, that it isn’t possible to do this in a hurry. If you don’t focus on getting good credit now, you’ll find it near enough impossible to achieve the goal when it matters. So, develop a reasonable payment plan and look into the ways you can build your credit back up. You owe it to your future self.
Start developing some idea of what you want
Okay; this may seem like an extreme jump from just sorting your credit, but it’s also essential. If you’ve never considered houses before, you’ll have no idea of what you want. If you don’t know what you want, you can’t understand what you need to do to get it. See the issue there? You’ll have no idea how much you need to save or how long it’ll take you if you don’t tackle this.
We’re not saying that you need to select a specific property now and set your heart on it. Obviously, that isn’t going to work. More, you’ll benefit a basic idea of what you need to achieve the life you want. It may help to write a list for this, including points like:
Number of bedrooms
Location
Parking
Outside space
Office area
You get the idea. Once you know what you’re after, you can then start doing some brief research into the property market. Find out, for instance, how much a house with all your needs would cost you. It may be that you’re way out of your comfort zone and need to compromise. Or, you may find that five years of saving could achieve your goal.
Then, all you’d need to do is follow property news for the duration of your savings efforts. This would alert you to any sudden changes in the market. It also ensures you can stay on the right track for the duration of your long-term plan.
Develop a deposit saving scheme
So, you know what you want and how long it’ll take you. Now, you have the difficult task of developing a saving scheme which ensures you reach your goal later on. It can seem strange to pile every spare penny into something you aren’t too bothered about right now. Still, it’s essential that you do. It’s now thought that it takes an average of eight years for a single person to save the required 20% deposit. While you can lessen that by looking at cheaper areas or buying with a partner, you’ll still need to save for a long time.
As such, it’s impossible not to think about this at an early stage. You merely need to be aware of the prices you face, and how long it’ll take you to save them. That’s not to say that you need to cripple yourself to achieve this. By giving yourself plenty of time to tackle this, you should be able to save the amount you need and still have plenty to last you each month. That won’t be an option if you don’t even consider this until you’re thirty.
Meet with a mortgage advisor
Lastly, you may even find that it’s beneficial to meet with a mortgage advisor. As much as that might sound like a step you shouldn’t take until crunch time, getting ahead here can be a huge help. Many of us avoid taking this step until we have a deposit for fear of wasting an adviser’s time. But, the clue is in the title. A mortgage adviser is there to advise you, no matter where you are in the buying process. The fact is that, until you get things in writing, you’ll be operating entirely on guesswork. You won’t have any real idea about exactly what size your deposit should be or whether you’d be able to meet your monthly repayments.
That’s a problem, as it means that your five-year plan could well end up crumbling. Make sure that doesn’t happen by booking a casual chat with someone in the know. If you take along your bank statements and wage slips, an adviser can give you an idea of what your mortgage would look like. A meeting like this also has the benefit of getting you on their books ready. Applying for a mortgage isn’t always an easy process.
It can involve various meetings which each take a reasonably long time. By getting this initial assessment out of the way now, you remove the need to rehash these basics when you do finally come to apply. Which, by the way, will come around much sooner than you think if you take note of these pointers.
*Disclaimer – This is a collaborative post. This content has been pre-written.
