Choosing your ideal home is one of the most life-changing decisions you’ll ever have to make. You can expect to view a lot of properties, weighing them facing each other to finally settle on the place you’re going to spend the majority of your free time for many years. With that in mind, there are some key things you should think about as you learn to think about how exactly to pick the right house.
Before you begin looking for the new house, read about the five most important things to have in mind when wondering how to choose the right house.
Know your budget
Have a realistic conversation with auctions before you start to view properties. For first-time buyers, there could be the temptation to exceed your budget if you see a property you really love, nevertheless the stress of being struggling to afford future mortgage payments may not be worthwhile in the long run. Equally, not having a clear budget can lead to missing out on some wonderful properties by pitching too low.
Buy for your lifestyle
Choose the house that benefits the lifestyle you lead. It’s important to be aspirational about how you want to live on, but it’s just as crucial to be realistic about who you are and the thing you need. By way of example if you can’t drive and are not yet taking lessons, you need to ensure that you get somewhere with good transport links. Decide on what you need now from a property and what you will want from one in five years, to make certain that your search is looking both for the one that ticks the ‘now’ box and the ‘aspiration’ box.
Have a must-haves list
Knowing what your essential standards is key to working out how to choose the right house. Apart from budget, what are the other non-negotiable factors? Maybe it’s access to green space, several bathrooms, private parking or a loft for storage. It can help here to list each element: draw up a list of ‘non-negotiables’ and a second of ‘nice-to-haves’. Use ‘non-negotiables’ as a checklist when deciding if you need to view a house and then give a point out each of the ‘nice-to-haves’ present in a property while you’re viewing it – this will help you quickly compare different houses after you’ve seen a few.
Do some mental decorating
When figuring out how to choose the right house, taste can certainly be a very personal thing – you might not decorate in the same manner as the previous tenants. This means you will need to look beyond the décor to the area itself – give attention to the walls and ceilings, on any bright windows and think abaway how you’d fit your home design within them. When you find yourself mentally moving your furniture in to the room, it’s a good sign.
Get everyone involved
Make sure you get everyone involved’s input. If you have children, it can be worth bringing them to accommodate viewings to see how they react to the house; you might even involve them in the search by asking them a set of the top 3 or 4 things they’d have in their dream house. If you’re buying with a partner who wants different things in a home, make a checklist of your essentials to ensure you both get an equal amount of ‘must-haves’. Please remember, sometimes, you might come across somewhere without everything you’d hoped to find, but it somehow feels as though home. Even though the essentials do need to measure up, being the area you already know you want to live goes beyond its features on paper.
