First time buyer

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Hi

My husband and I are first time buyers and we're looking to purchase our first home. We are completely clueless on what we need to do, or how to go about. If someone could kindly point us in a he right direction that would be really helpful.

Current we have a joint income of roughly 50.5k basic salary without overtime/bonuses. We have saved 20k and looking to save another 5k for legal fees and expenses. The only debt we have is my car which is financed. And we also love in a rented property.

We were hoping to start the process but with Covid19 we put everything on hold and as the country is starting to get back on its feet we thought there's no better time to start the process as we no longer wish to rent.

Depends on the area you're looking at and how much property value is in that area.

Are you looking for older properties or new build?

You'll find from this forum that since the covid situation, mortgage companies require higher deposits (in terms of percentage).

Have you got a mortgage ? If you get a mortgage in principle (what you could borrow) you could start to look what you can buy in your area. Have a look on Rightmove you can filter by price , bedrooms etc. Exciting.

So very roughly speaking, probably looking at properties circa £220 - £250k.

You need to find a mortgage adviser who will give you a more accurate figure of what you can borrow and give you proof of this to show to estate agents (it's highly unlikely vendors will entertain viewings with buyers who aren't proceedable at present).

You need to find a house, view it, make an offer and have your offer accepted. You will need to appoint a solicitor to handle all the legal bollocks. Your estate agents and solicitors should help you work towards completion and exchange dates.

You will need to give notice on your rental property, you will need to find a removal company.

There's a lot more to it, obviously, but if you're working with a decent EA, mortgage adviser and solicitor they should all be able to work together and guide you. You're not supposed to be an expert in the whole process, you pay fees to other people to be the expert for you.

Thank you for replying. In that case tomorrow I'll start looking for mortgage brokers.

We currently live in Northamptonshire but are debating relocating back to Birmingham (we're originally from there).

In terms of properties I'm not keen on new builds/ builds on estate. Looking for either semi or detached 3 bedrooms preferably with off road parking.

OP you should find plenty either in Birmingham or a surrounding area within budget. Good luck!

Just had a quick search on Rightmove - I'd agree with @hauntedvagina that you should find something within your budget.

Assuming you have/want DC, then when searching also look at the local schools and catchment areas - it usually has that feature on Rightmove and they summarise the latest Ofsted report rating too.

I found this for you: The Best Areas to Live in Birmingham.

Average house prices in Birmingham

According to data from Zoopla, the average property price in Birmingham over the last 12 months (to September 2019) was £204,598. Get an idea of how far your budget will stretch with our breakdown of average prices by property type:

Detached house: £392,554
Semi-detached house: £213,489
Terraced house: £167,515
Flats: £146,718

Source

First step will be to find out how much you can borrow, what your repayments will be etc and then you know your budget. Always come down a little on budget so you have wiggle room.

When we were first time buyers we could have had a top house budget £50k more than we decided on. It meant everything was much more manageable financially, when we bought our current house in 2018 we did the same and actually bought £25k under the 'manageable' budget as we needed to do renovations and bought a project.

Then the fun begins and you start looking on rightmove! Make sure you have a mortgage in principle from the bank or broker as this shows you are proceedable and serious.

Estate agents can be cheeky with first time buyers so do as much research as possible. Even as second time buyers they tried it on with us (usually 'come see our broker so the sale goes through quicker' type thing).

You obviously aren't worried about buying a house "in the current climate".
Bear in mind that if you have a mortgage offer and a deposit you are in a strong negotiating position. You don't have to sell a property in order to move so you can make a cheeky offer on properties on the basis that you will proceed quickly with no delays due to a chain. And there aren't many other buyers around at the moment. Decide in advance what the maximum is you can pay for a property, make an offer, and BE PREPARED TO WALK AWAY if they ask for more. There will always be another property.

For a mortgage broker we used London and Country. They were free and recommended many times by different people on here. They were excellent and gave good information and were very helpful.

I would recommend using a trusted local solicitor and not one of these conveyancing companies, which your agent might very well try and push you towards. Be very wary of using any professional suggested to you by an agent as they often get backhanders for this. Make your own enquiries and checks on surveyors, brokers etc before engaging them.
There is no obligation for a seller to provide gas safety certificates/electrical safety certifictes. If you want these you will usually have to pay for them yourself, if the vendor agrees to them being done. Always get a full survey, a valuation from the building society isn't sufficient unless you are an experienced buyer and know what problems you might be looking at.
When you find 'the one', keep your excitement and anticipation in check until you have exchanged. One of the biggest disappointments in my life came from a house I was buying being withdrawn from sale 4 weeks after my offer had been accepted. I shed many tears over that. Don't move in mentally until you know it's definitely yours.