Top Tips for new Homeowners!

[woodentop123]

Hello all!

Myself and my partner are currently in the process of buying our first house! It's all very exciting (not to mention stressful!) and we would love if people could provide us with any and all little pearls of wisdom! Or anything you made a mistake of doing/not doing?! Anything which you would say is a priority for us to buy for the house, any tips on saving money/space... absolutely anything!

Quite a lighthearted post, we are just so excited and want to talk everything home/house!!! Look forward to hearing what you guys have to say! Xx

Put an amount away every month to cover repairs and maintenance. Then if the roof or the boiler or the drains need doing it isn't such a struggle.

Keep the maintenance going - a house, when you own it, takes regular looking after.

Enjoy it!

If the walls look crap, get them reskimmed. Don't waste time with filler, sanding, more filler and THEN pay for a plasterer, like we did...

Take photos regularly - great way keeping track of improvements. See below!!

Yy to plastering.

Wrt money, work out all bills and have them come from one account on direct debit. On payday transfer your share to that account (or both shares if you already have a joint account). Add in a contingency to this to save for home repairs etc.

Get a nice big box and Chuck all paper bills into it. Don't faff with filing systems etc just make it easy to do.

Live in the house for a year before building any extension. Learn how the sunlight creates light and shadow across the rooms throughout the seasons.

No matter how much you love the house and how happy you are, you are likely to have a few 'what have we done' moments and feel a bit deflated once you've completed. You'll also discover things that are in a worse condition than you thought and on moving day it will feel cold and empty compared to when you viewed. None of this will matter to you once you start making it your home, and after a few weeks/months of feeling like a visitor in your own home you'll will almost definitely love it.

Decorate your bedroom as soon as you move in so you have a sanctuary that feels like 'you', but don't spend too much money. 1 year in our house and I already want to redo our bedroom, which was the first room we did.

Don't rush to acquire loads of furniture. People will often try and off load stuff onto you. Be picky, because otherwise one day you will suddenly find you've got too much. Guess how I know this?
They always used to say you should allow 1% of your purchase price per annum for maintenance, but this was in the days of cheaper properties. Even so, you should allow at least 1 to 2 k a year for fixes/repairs/decoration/servicing etc.
Learn some diy. Painting/wallpapering/tiling and many other jobs are expensive to have a tradesmen in to deal with, but are not difficult to learn. Put it this way, the more you do it, the better you get at it!

Guys thank you so much for all of this advice it's really appreciated!!