Don’t buy unless you’re financially stable doing so if you’re not is incredibly risky. Are your job, your salary and your working hours secure? If not, you might want to hold back on buying until you can be sure they are – being unemployed with a mortgage to pay is not a position you want to be in.
What’s more, do you have a good credit rating? To get the best mortgage rates, you need to have a great credit rating. Again, if this isn’t the case it might be an idea to hold back for a while. Take out a credit card, use it for small payments and ensure to pay it off every month to help build up a positive credit rating.
Consider if you really need to move or is there an alternative? This is a risky time to be buying would your current home suffice with a new loft conversion or a kitchen extension? If so, you might be better off staying put for now.
Buy a home not just a house buying as an investment is especially risky. Despite all the hear-say, nobody actually knows where the property market is heading.
Unless you’re planning to live in the property for at least five years and would be happy to stay longer than that if necessary, don’t bother.
Buy properties with room for improvement following on from above, the housing market might see you stuck in the same property for much longer than you’re expecting. Because of this, you should ideally buy a home that has room to grow.
If at any point you welcome new additions to the family, you might find yourself in need of a loft conversion or an extra bathroom. Ideally, you don’t want to find yourself in negative equity, without the scope to extend your home to the size you need.
Haggle there are so many properties and so few buyers right now that if you’re looking to buy, you’re very lucky.
Start with a really low offer. While it may well get laughed off the table, it also might not, and if you’ve offered much less than you’re actually willing to pay you’re still in a great position to bargain.
Don’t buy what you can’t afford, it might be tempting to buy your dream home but if that dream home will leave you struggling to make ends meet each month, your dream could easily turn into a nightmare.
Ideally, you want no more than a quarter of your monthly income to be spent on your mortgage. A third of your income is the absolute maximum threshold you should consider.
Remember that as well as paying for the mortgage itself, buying a home involves paying for repairs and maintenance. Ideally, you should place some money into a savings account specifically to cover such occurrences.
It’s also advisable to keep a substantial pot of money aside just in case you should lose your job or find yourself in some other unforeseen and dire financial circumstances.
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