Buying your first home is exciting, but if you have never done it before it is also understandably something that can feel a little daunting. It can seem like a long and complex process and there are also lots of terms that are used that you may never have heard before.
Here are the basic steps to help you to navigate the process of buying your first homeā¦
Firstly, you need to make sure that you have the funds to buy a property. Save up a deposit and look into mortgages, taking into account how much deposit you need to have saved to get a mortgage (this can vary between lenders). This is also a good time to look at your options financially for the future, and do things like opening a high interest savings account and look into the help to buy schemes and shared ownership schemes that are in the area that you want to buy in.
Once you have your financial situation sorted you can then secure a mortgage in principle, which is an agreement with a mortgage provider to give you a mortgage for an agreed amount. This will then mean you will know what your budget is, and you can start to look at properties that are in your budget.
A good way to start is to have a look online at what is around and get an idea of what you can afford for your budget in the area that you want to live in. Go to a local estate agent like this Gloucester estate agents https://www.tgres.co.uk and speak to them about the type of property that you are looking for and register with them, as they will be able to send you properties that you might be interested in as soon as they come in.
When you find a property that you want to buy, then you can make an offer. Sometimes you might want to negotiate back and forth, and you need to remain in your budget when doing this.
Once you have had an offer accepted, you will need a solicitor to help you with all of the legal paperwork that is required when buying a property, and you also should arrange to have a property survey done to ensure that all is ok before you officially own it. Once this is done, you can exchange contracts, collect the keys and the home is officially yours!