Buying Process

[BlueWhale47]

I will start this by saying I am not a complete div & have done some research in terms of buying a house but scarily have a brain like a sieve and could do with some real life pointers.

Currently in London on 38k - single buyer so will need to move out. Have 50k saved for deposit, mixture of my own savings and inheritance. Have been putting off buying for a while due to my salary not being the best in terms of multipliers. Annoying as have a decent (in my eyes) deposit as a first time buyer but salary is letting me down. No chance to increase this at the moment as have a toddler and work is flexible. Have been looking at shared ownership if needed but if possible would prefer my own place even if it means moving a little further out.

Would like to be a reasonable distance to London to visit family etc. perhaps 1.5hr drive - have seen some properties in Basingstoke, Kent etc for around 200k.

Where do I even begin in terms of looking for an area to live? Schools are a big thing as DD is due to be 3 beginning of next year but other than that what do you do - search random areas and look at schools there? Is there a site where you can put in your criteria and it spews our towns that might be good for you?

Obviously as a single parent on a mid-range salary I'm not expecting a lot. But outgrowing where I am now and really need to be somewhere settled for when DD starts school.

Plan was to wait until next April when expenses decrease, nursery fee will decrease as she will be over 3 and also will have 30hours free. Using this time to research and save as much as I can.

Any advice would be welcome!

Which part of London do you need to be 1.5 hours away from? Basingstoke and Kent are opposite sides of London and you can spend 1 hour getting across London. So work out which part of London you want to be accessing and then work out from there. If it’s SW London, then start following the train lines and motorways/A-roads out of SW London.

Towns and villages that are well connected will be more expensive, so then you look for a town that is about 1hr away and then look at the neighbouring towns and villages. If prices are too high, try a bit further out or a slightly less connected town or village.

You want a decent sized village or probably a small town, a city will be expensive. You want to make sure the primary school has enough students to keep it open, some tiny village schools don’t. If the village has a lot of new builds going up, you might want to see what the places at the school are like as they might not have built enough infrastructure to cope with the new builds. School is an easy indicator but this will be reflected in everything else - parking spots outside the shop, doctors appointments, congestion. Check where she would go to secondary school, do you want her to walk to school or catch the bus to a neighbouring town/village? The next thing you want to do is check there’s a doctors surgery, a dentist and a shop. With a young child, you then want to check that there is stuff to do - soft play, farms etc. but as you will both be new to the area, I think you probably want a leisure centre with classes or maybe somewhere that offers forest school etc so you can both start to make some friends.

Then work out what else you need. If you have a particular hobby e.g. rock climbing then you’ll want to make sure there is somewhere within 30 minutes to do that. Or if you particularly want to be near the coast, you might need to adjust your search slightly and compromise on the driving time to family.

I would make a list of several towns and villages that have something you can afford and then check they have what you need. I’d get to a shortlist of about 5 places, join the local FB groups to see what is going on (ideally people will just be talking about dog poo and parking rather than anti social behaviour). Then I’d also go visit the places. I’d especially make a point of visiting during the winter, when it’s cold and rainy. You’ll be living there so you need to put up with it when it’s cold and rainy. You’ll also need to be watching rightmove for these places to see what the market is doing in these areas as that might influence your decision.

As you visit places, hopefully you will find one that feels right. You might be happy in 3 of the 5 towns and then it is searching those areas and going for the place that suits you best at the time you’re looking.

@PurpleBananaSmoothie really appreciate the detailed post. Has given me much food for thought. It will be SW London I need to be closest to. Work in the Staines area, have friends in Basingstoke & have previously lived in Southampton so going down south rather than north feels more familiar to me somehow. But I also recognise that beggars can't be choosers and will have to compromise somewhere. As it will be a first time buy and not a forever home I have resigned myself to the fact that I will just have to make a list of what is non-negotiable for me & compromise elsewhere.

Ideally I am looking for a 2-bed but have been told on here previously that it could be an idea to get a 1-bed with storage as may be more affordable. Not really something I would want to do.

Will have a look at the train line idea - liked that one!

So working in Staines, connections to Basingstoke but familiar with Southampton, I would draw a triangle between Reading, Guildford and Basingstoke. Look in that triangle and get a list of town and villages then look on right move to see what is affordable as a two bed in those areas. Set your search parameters as your ideal to begin with - 2 bed, garden, parking and then slowly get rid of ideals if you can’t afford what is in there. There isn’t any point in moving to a completely new area to you, especially as a lone parent. You also don’t want to make your commute too much of a pain.

It’s good to keep a few areas in mind though in case one area suddenly has a big rise in prices.