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It’ll be a year at the end of this April since we’ve purchased and moved into our first property, here in London. Even though it’s been a year, I feel like it was only yesterday when we were eating Mcdonalds on a beach towel because we literally had no furniture in our apartment for the first week of us living there. But that’s the fun of being a first-time buyer and it’s a right of passage that many of us new homeowners go through because renting didn’t usually require you to buy furniture. If you’re looking at getting into the property market, here is some advice from a first-time buyer.
Take Advantage Of Help To Buy
For us Brits, we’re fortunate to have a scheme called Help To Buy. This was put in place to give us young un’s the best chance of getting onto the property ladder. The Help To Buy Scheme requires you to only need 5% of a deposit in order to get a mortgage. So for a £300,000 property, you’ll only need £15,000. You put in a set amount of money between £50-£200 per month and the government will provide you with a bonus of £3,000 once you’ve reached the maximum saving which is £12,000.
One thing to note is that this government bonus doesn’t actually go towards your deposit, it ends up going on stamp duty, legal costs etc. It’s annoying, however, this scheme makes you save money and after a while, you just consider it as just another payment coming out of your wages.
Be Strict With Your Savings
Everyone can save money, you just have to be strict with yourself. Fortunately, around the time I was saving for my Help To Buy fund, I started making some extra money with the blog. This meant that I could put the full £200 in a month. But you don’t have to put in that, you could do £50 or £100 instead and that’s easily achievable if you look at your current spending habits and make a few cutbacks.
Consider Alternatives
There are some alternatives to finding the finances to cover a deposit as a first-time buyer. You could take out a loan, although look out for bad credit loans. It’s also always worth asking family members to help out or loan you money. For some, that’s not possible but it’s good to exhaust all your avenues when it comes to getting the funds for your home.
Buy The Bed & Sofa Immediately
One really useful tip that I definitely learned from was that you need to buy your bed and sofa immediately. Do it as soon as you get your move-in date confirmed because it can take anywhere up to 12 weeks for a bed or sofa to be manufactured and shipped out to your new home. Hence why we were eating Mcdonalds on the floor…
Read All The Legal Bits Carefully
And lastly, purchasing a home is a big commitment, so when it comes to the legal bits of the buying process, be attentive. There will be lots of legal jargon that you probably won’t understand but if there’s anything that raises red flags or concerns you, then it’s a good idea to query it with your legal representative. We got mountains of papers to read through, so make sure you set aside some time where you, your partner or whoever you are buying with can look through it with a fine tooth comb.
Are you a first-time buyer? Let me know how your property search is going in the comments below.
*Disclaimer – This is a collaborative post with Associates Home Loan. All words are my own.
