The truth to buying a house

So as you probably already know, myself and Tadhg recently bought a house together. It has been such a refreshing process, like real life Sims, creating our home from scratch. I have spent my life dreaming of the day that I buy a house to develop it and make it my own, so this has been such an exciting project for me. However I am fully aware that buying a house and/or moving house, can be an extremely stressful process, so I wanted to take this opportunity to share my experiences with you and offer a little guidance on how not to lose your s**t if you are going through a similar situation.

You have seen the best part, the finished product, but this was my third time of trying to buy a property (third time lucky). I found somewhere a number of years ago, I had paid a lot of money and I was close to moving in, however it fell through at the final stages because the estate agent illegally told the seller I had pulled out. Estate agents don’t do themselves much justice sometimes. The second property, Tadhg and I found together last year, it was a Help to Buy scheme but sadly, they were impossible to please, eventually resulting in the whole thing falling through, again. Although these schemes can be very beneficial for first time buyers, if you can hold out a little longer (and trust me I know how hard that can be) to get a property that is 100% yours, then do it.

So having now been through the entire process and finally coming out the other side, happy and smelling of so many variations of Jo Malone candles, then here is a little bit of advice and insight that you may find useful.

Firstly, prepare yourself. This process is an extremely invasive one, you cannot hide any detail and you will be judged for every spend made within in the last 3 months, so hold on the Zara hauls. You are required to provide every bank statement within the last 3-6 months, credit card history, credit ratings and if you get as far as being accepted, you then have to provide yours and your families medical history for life insurance. It is exhausting, but I promise you, it is worth it, so stick with it and if you can’t resist the shopping sprees, then at least pay cash so they can’t see it!

Secondly, get yourself a mortgage advisor. I am not kidding, they will do SO much to assist you. Like find you your best mortgage, home insurance, life insurance and can even offer advice to tidy up your credit rating. Some mortgage advisors charge a small amount upon obtaining your mortgage, others do not charge and instead take their percentage from the mortgage lender once the sale is complete. Either way, this person will be your life line and I cannot recommend it enough. You will be sent hundreds of pages worth of contracts, agreements and clauses. It is so boring but you need to be sure that you are comfortable and you understand your terms. For the sake of £300 when you are likely spending the most amount of money you ever will, I would say it best to have that guidance and support.

Finally, the biggest piece of advice I can give – If it is meant to be, then it will be! I mentioned earlier that this was my third time lucky and it really was. This time around was so easy, everything just fell into place. At the time of viewing properties, you put your life and soul into it, it can literally be heartbreaking when it doesn’t happen, but honestly, do not force it. You may not see it at the time but there will always be a reason if it doesn’t work out and eventually, you will get your dream home, just like I did.

Let me know if you are going through something similar.

Penny x

2 Comments

  1. Lee B
    November 20, 2018 / 7:50 am

    Great read, and completely agree a mortgage advisor/broker is the way forward. Takes so much stress out of the buying process when you have to deal with so much already!

    • PFrance
      Author
      November 21, 2018 / 5:39 pm

      Thanks so much for reading Lee! Gosh, doesn’t it make such a huge difference!? Hope you are well 🙂 x

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