Buying a house…

C: Something a little different from us today, but a blog post that would really have helped me a couple of months ago… tips on buying a house! I know a lot of people that are saving their house deposit/house hunting so I thought I would put a little post together on some of the things I have learnt along the way. And hopefully in a few weeks time, I will have a more exciting post about the house I have bought (fingers crossed, no jinx).

1. Save Save Save. work over time, cancel the gym membership you never use and stop buying thousands of lipsticks that you don’t need. Okay… this is a hard one, because we all need thousand of lipsticks and we never know when we might fancy a little aqua gym. But seriously, do your best and set yourself a saving target for each month/search through the beauty stash for old favourites you had forgotten about.

2. Start looking at houses. When I first started saving for a house I thought I wanted a massive new build that was all modern and perfect, and now I have just put a deposit down on a tiny, old house that needs so much renovation work. By looking at all sorts of houses (including those we don’t think we will like) you get a much better idea of what you want and this will help your estate agent too as they can then send you property details as they come on the market. This was the best tip I have been given (by Annie of course!) and I am now so in love with the house we are hopefully getting.

3. Plus side of number 2… it makes you more motivated to save. By looking at houses you keep being reminded of what you are saving for. As it is a long process saving a deposit and you can get off track/disheartened. Keep reminding yourself on what you are working towards and it makes it 100 times easier.

4. Get a mortgage advisor/certificate of mortgage approval. If you aren’t going for a new build having a mortgage certificate proving that you will be able to get one means you are more likely to get any offers you put in approved. By having this ready you are a more attractive buyer than someone who hasn’t and may mean your lower offers gets accepted due to a quicker sale! Plus by having a mortgage advisor all the stress of looking at/comparing mortgage rates are given to someone else! Perfect.

5. Drink wine/make sure chocolate is readily available and you have a good friend to moan about it all too. Turns out buying a house is super stressful/a horrendous experience. The past month has literally been the best/worst month of my life. Be prepared for the stress/sleepless nights.

And a few tips from Annie….

6. Stand your ground. Estate agents can be (not always!) difficult to deal with when you’re a first-time-buyer. I was pretty young when my boyfriend and I bought our house and the agents can try and use that to their advantage when you’re placing offers and trying to purchase a house for as little money as possible – you obviously don’t want to spend more than necessary but the more the agent can sell it for, the better for them as a company so just bare that in mind.

7. This one is a bit pessimistic but don’t let yourself get your hopes up until you’ve got the keys. My boyfriend and I were super lucky when we found our dream house and got the keys just six weeks after our offer was accepted BUT tried really hard to not let myself think it was our house until I got those keys in my hand and opened our front door. This is really hard because all I wanted to do was plan what furniture can go where and how I could decorate, but I stopped my self getting to over-excited (a little bit excited is allowed). House purchases can be so tricky, and so many things can go wrong so easily, and you can be left disappointed if the house sale falls through – but super super happy when it all goes through and you’re left with your very own home.

Any of you guys got any house buying tips that might help? Let us know! Good luck and happy house hunting!  #twolittleowlsblog

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