Photo Credit: Julia Kuzenkov, www.pexels.com
It doesn’t matter if you’re currently renting or your looking to upgrade your house for that ideal property – sometimes it feels like we’ll never secure our dream home. Well, fear not, your fantasy house doesn’t need to stay a dream forever. With just a few small tips and tricks, you can help secure your dream home in no time at all:
1: Save Up!
Saving up for your dream home is more than just having a deposit – you’ll also need extra money for other aspects of moving. For one, it’s always nice to have a little decorating fund, so that you can get your new home to your dream state and buy new furniture for all those extra rooms.
To help you cut unnecessary expenses in your life, use an excel sheet or money app to track your finances. Once you see where you might be wasting money – such as buying lunches – you can look to save money.
2: Build a Rapport with the Estate Agents
If you have a property to sell, it can be beneficial to build a rapport with local estate agents. Not only can they value your own home, they can personally contact you if a house comes on the market that suits your criteria.
In many cases, a good relationship with your estate agent can mean you get to see a property that could be your dream home before it’s advertised to the general public.
3: Gather Clues About the Estate
We can all spend hours looking through the photographs of properties online, however, to get a true feel for that property you should arrange multiple visits. Arrange these visits for various times during the day, as this will give you an idea if the property has a lot of traffic noise or if on-road parking is particularly difficult.
You should also examine the house carefully, looking for signs of damp or if windows need replacing. Many of the clues for problems with the house can be found in the actual listing, look out for the language used by the estate agent.
4: Understand Your Own Finances
Before you set your heart on a certain home, it’s important that you have all your finances in order. This includes using a mortgage eligibility checker to see how likely it is that you’ll qualify for one before you apply. You should research a property before deciding to apply for the mortgage for it, as although you may find the mortgage payments affordable, the other bills might make it too expensive.
As well as a mortgage, there are other costs involved in buying a home. This can include: life insurance costs, arrangement fees, solicitor bills, higher utility bills, extra travel costs and estate agency fees (if you are selling a previous property).
5: Play it ‘Cool’
It’s hard not to get overly excited when you see your dream home for sale. We all want to instantly call up and offer as much as we can. The problem with being overly eager, though, is that the vendor might think they can get more money out of you in order to secure the property.
Instead, play it cool, keep your emotions in check and follow online advice for making an offer. If you’re not sure you can, ask a friend or relative to phone on your behalf. You might just find that you get your dream home for a bargain price!