7 Guiding Principles for First Time Home Buyers

If you intend to buy a new house soon, you must be feeling a mix of excitement and apprehension. Though the prospect of owning your first house is exciting, we know that it involves a ton of careful planning and research. Even a minor mistake can cost you big in terms of money and effort. To simplify your efforts, we compiled here a list of dos and don’ts to be followed while buying a house.

Stay in touch with your developer:

Getting a brand new house is truly exciting. To start with, its economic life is longer. You don’t have to spend money on alterations and repairs. The reason that excites most people is that you get to personalize your new house.

If you too have specifications and ideas about the design of your house, make sure that you visit the site along with your builder and inform him of your ideas well in advance. Developers often have a generic plan ready, so being in touch with your builder and conveying your ideas is a wise step to avoid any disappointments.

Be sure before signing anything:

As buying property is a big investment, the process often takes much longer than you might think. The logical first step is to search with a fine-toothed comb for a house you are absolutely happy with. You then have a bunch of legal and financial matters to handle before you are ready to sign the contract. This process takes a long time within which your buyer may decide to sell off the property to someone else willing to pay more than you.

To avoid such complications,ask your seller if he is willing to take the house off the market till you exchange contracts.

Find the right solicitor/conveyancer:

A solicitor handles all the legal aspects of your purchase. As he plays a key role in ensuring a smooth transaction, make sure that you choose the right one. You can take advice from your friends and family, your lender, or your financial advisor in choosing your solicitor.

Your solicitor must be experienced, knowledgeable, and a fine communicator. Most importantly, he should be reliable to give you sound legal advice on all aspects of your purchase.

Do background checking:

Make sure that your prospective purchase is free from any legal complications like building control issues, enforcement actions, construction of government projects, or road schemes. You can take the help of your solicitor in doing this research.

Find out the resale value:

Property values are under constant fluctuation. You may be buying a house to keep, but getting a clear idea of your property’s resale value is essential to weigh your pros and cons.

Visit the site often:

Pay periodical visits to your site to keep an eye on the progress. This allows you to inspect the quality of the materials being used and to ensure that there are no changes in the initial plan.This is also a good time to suggest minor changes in the layout or finishing.

Get things in writing:

It is important to make sure that you and your developer are both on the same page before you proceed. Everything that you discussed and agreed upon should be written in contract to avoid any ambiguity in the future. You must make sure that details about how and when the construction will be finished are written in the contract.

Discuss with your builder about what happens if the deadlines aren’t met, and include this in the contract too. You cannot rely simply on spoken word in such matters.

With patience and commitment, the seemingly insurmountable task of making this purchase can be handled without any hurdles. Remember that all this effort would seem feeble when you finally get to sleep under your ‘own’ roof. So, never give up!