5 Essential Tips for Buying Your First Home

Guest blog written by Marketing Executive, Owen Deacon.

As someone who bought their first home in June of last year, I received support and advice from my mortgage adviser, those around me who had already purchased property, and by doing research online.

Without any of these, I’d have found the purchasing process stressful and difficult. But in the end, it was all relatively smooth and straightforward.

With the first six months of the year presenting the highest average monthly mortgage approvals over the last two years, now is the right time to present some helpful tips that will help you through your first home-buying experience.

Research Property Locations

One thing I encountered when shopping around and attending viewings is the location can affect your insurance premiums. If the property you have your eye on is in a flood-risk area or an area with a history of flooding, then you can expect the insurance to be higher, or rejected altogether.

The higher chance of damage from factors like floods causes an increase in the likelihood your insurer will have to pay out for claims, meaning your premiums will be higher. If you can help it, choose an area with lower chances of risks such as these. Not to mention, your home will be safer as a result.

Choosing the Mortgage Plan that Works for You

Typically, you’d be expected to pay a deposit of 5% or 10% minimum. The higher deposit you pay up-front, the less you’ll need to lend from your mortgage provider.

Some lenders will encourage a higher deposit, by offering lower interest rates over the term of your mortgage, potentially lowering how much you’ll need to borrow.

However, you shouldn’t just choose a higher deposit percentage because of this, as you still need to afford your monthly repayments. If you’re going from renting a property, or even living at home to owning a home, it’s likely you’ll notice a jump in your payment totals.

With energy bills, electricity and other factors like home repair, you’ll likely need to try and have some extra savings for a rainy day.

Carrying out a Home Survey

Although conducting a home survey isn’t mandatory to get a mortgage, like home insurance usually is, it is a useful way of finding out whether your potential soon-to-be home is ideal for living in. If you move into a house without undertaking a survey and things start going wrong, you may find yourself having to contact your insurers quite frequently for advice.

Despite these surveys costing a few hundred pounds to do, I think they are worth it and may even save you money in the long term.

In a recent report from Countrywide Surveying Services (CSS) and Pegasus Insight, it was revealed that 88% of those who used a home condition survey would conduct one again in the future. 92% of this group stated the survey provided peace of mind.

Choosing a Trusted Mortgage Adviser

There are so many things I wasn’t aware of before purchasing a home, which were all cleared up and explained by my adviser.

One of these things was the amount of fees that are involved outside of the mortgage purchasing – costs like solicitor fees and survey completion costs. A mortgage adviser can point these out to you and make you aware, meaning you can budget accordingly.

Mortgage advisers will show no bias towards your lender options and will find you the best mortgage possible to fit your needs. On top of this, many mortgage advisers will recommend quality home insurance, which as I mentioned, is necessary to get a mortgage.

Protecting Your Home with the Perfect Home Insurance

Cover for your home protects what is ultimately your biggest investment in your life. As a first-time buyer, like me, you may not be fully aware of what is needed in order to keep your home safe from harm. Luckily, I was able to find the ideal product with Source, where they have been able to protect everything I need.

I did shop around before choosing this policy, but comparison sites may seem easier, but they can often lead to you missing certain aspects that will make a big difference in the event of a claim. My quote with Source took a matter of minutes and was cheaper than a lot of other products I saw online.

Ensuring I have the ideal cover was one of the biggest decisions I made when buying a home, and I recommend that you do your research, rather than settling for a cheaper quote at the expense of the cover’s quality.

Our article about having an accurate policy is a good guide on where to start.

https://www.sourceinsurance.co.uk/source-news/the-importance-of-personalising-a-quote-to-your-needs

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