There are few more stressful situations in life than when you are thinking of buying your first home. Let me first direct you to the words of Douglas Adams work “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy”. It is very clear on its front page what it wants you to feel. The words are “Don’t Panic” and that is what I will say to you now. Like anything in life the purchase of a house is just one of those things that you have to go through. It is a complicated process but, don’t panic (see, told you that would be a useful phrase) this will try and set you on the right path.
- Find a house/flat you like. You might think this is the easiest part of the process but it’s actually not. Firstly be realistic, don’t think that you can get a mansion try and be practical. Think about the fact that this will be your first home, it might just be the start of your journey on the property ladder so don’t go all out at the start.
- Save for a deposit. Actually this should be number one. You can’t do anything without having at least 10 percent of the property already saved up. For example if the property that you want to buy is £135000 then you need to have £13,500 before they will look at lending you the £122500. If that figure sounds huge, it is, there are Government schemes that can help (they will want it paid back) and there are bank schemes that need the assistance of the bank of Mum and Dad. Either way you need to be very aware of this.
- Get a mortgage. There are plenty of banks that you can choose from provided you have the deposit (see above). First you must gain a Mortgage promise, this is a soft credit score and look through all the things that you pay for. Bank’s computer systems have complicated algorithms that deduce average living costs but they need you to tell them about the loans and credit cards and store cards and overdraft and lifestyle choices that involve you spending out money. Pay for a Yoga class each month and you would never ever give it up even if you could not afford the mortgage payments? That goes on the list of commitment. Once a figure is reached you then get mortgage advice and a mortgage advisor will help you through.
- Next are Solicitors but, again Don’t panic, for Conveyancing Quotes go to https://www.samconveyancing.co.uk/conveyancing-quote.
That should be enough to get you started.
Eleena Timmons 
Roman Cyrus