Wednesday 2 March 2022

Buying my first home | part 2

When I first embarked on my journey as a first time buyer, I wrote a post about it which you can read here. It's been a while and quite literally nothing has happened until now. So I thought it might be time for an update; I've been sharing some home/interior-related posts too, and I'd love it if you checked them out. There's going to be a lot of that kind of content coming up!

February 2022


So, last month Barclays announced the return of their Springboard Mortgages. These are marketed as being a great option for first time buyers, especially those with a non-existent/small deposit. If you have someone who can act in a guarantor kind of role, they really are worth looking into. This made me get the ball rolling again, start looking at houses and collecting as much information as possible as I scrabbled to get an appointment with Barclays.


However, as my dad and I looked into it more we decided that the Springboard Mortgage wouldn't really worth it for me as I have a higher deposit than what they allow you to put in, and it would mean I could actually only get a cheaper house than what my budget really accounts for. 

By this point I'd tried to arrange viewings for two houses near me. One was up for £65,000 and the other for £75,000 with two different estate agents. The first, up with Jones & Chapman, was actually up for auction with that as a guide price. However, the woman I spoke to on the phone (shout out to you, Rachel) was so helpful - she asked me *so many* questions, booked me an appointment with their in-house mortgage advisor AND told me about a house that had just come in. It wasn't even on the market yet and she took me to see it the very next day. It's tiny, and actually on for £95,000 - but I'm keeping it on my radar.

The second house was up with Bakewell & Horner. They called me and told me it was "sold, sorry" and that was that. From my very brief experience, I'll be avoiding them as much as possible.

Speaking to the mortgage advisor


When I went to view the £95k house, I also went to see the mortgage advisor at Jones & Chapman. She was a dream, and so helpful/reassuring. She talked me through everything and, being self employed, suggested I wait until April. Because my earnings from the 21/22 tax year are much higher than 20/21, the bank will then lend me approximately an extra £20,000. This takes my budget up to around £110,000 as a solo, self-employed buyer.

So that's what I'm doing and where I'm at now. I'm trying to be as transparent about this as possible, as I know how hard it is for first time buyers - especially those of us who are self employed within an industry which was decimated by covid...
 

I'm still scouring Rightmove daily, of course. Rachel from Jones & Chapman said February is a quiet time for houses coming on the market but that there'll be a lot more choice come April, when the tax year ends and I have another SA302 under my belt. For now I'm doing that, and writing blog posts about Disney homeware and steam mops, and trying to earn as much cash as I can to add to my deposit/budget for legal fees.

If you have any first time buyer tips please leave them in the comments, and send me all the good vibes for getting this purchase across the line in the next few months! Also just plugging my Amazon wishlist in case any rich people are reading this and want to help ya girl out. It has to be done...
 

1 comment:

  1. It's a looong time since I bought my first house and things were very different then, so I can't offer much advice. So just to say good luck - I'm sending all the vibes I can, and am looking forward to reading your progress posts.

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