Buying your first home

Buying your first home can be scary, overwhelming and confusing. But its also exciting, fun and a time to get creative. When we bought our home I did have a vision and also thanks to the pandemic I didn’t have to rush any decisions as it took 6 months from us viewing the house (extremely briefly) to us having the keys.

Agreement in Principle

Getting your agreement in principle is a good place to start as you can get a good estimation of your budget and what the banks will lend you. Its up to you whether you use the full amount or go on the lower end. We did the latter, taking less then half of what the agreement in principle allowed us. This was because it was important to us to still have a ‘life’ - meaning still go on 3+ holidays a year and have a normal life. Going at the higher end of your budget is also a good idea as it means you might not need to move in the future and of course you will probably earn more in the future than you are now so it will be less of your overall income. In any case its your decision so you do you! We used L&C Mortgage Advisors

The Viewing

Viewing the house properly is super important (I’ve come to realise!) We quickly rushed the process of viewing our home as it was the homeowner who did the viewing (rather than an estate agent). This meant that we felt like we couldn’t really look around properly as there were kids in their bedrooms and of course the owner following us around. There were many things we didn’t notice like how badly painted the kitchen units were, to more serious things like a massive crack on the bath! We were completely naïve in the sense that we didn’t really know what to look for or ask. We did notice it was a decent size (for 2 people and 2 chihuahuas at least) and I really liked the floorplan (I will do a full blog about floorplan as it is so crucial IMO!) as it was open plan living/kitchen/dining plus the patio doors to the back garden which I loved. Its important to remember that you will most likely paint the full house so don’t take any decoration or furniture into consideration as its easily changed, but make sure there’s no major flaws like a crack in the bath - which consequently meant that there had been a previous leak down into the kitchen - or that any of the upstairs rooms do not have any signs of water damage - or mould for that matter.

Ask questions - whether its the homeowner or an estate agent ask questions. Important things to ask is whether there has been any flood or water damage? What are the neighbours like (only ask this if its the homeowner of course). Why are you moving? How old is the boiler? And anything else you can think of!

Garden placement - super important! If you’re buying a house, the placement of the garden should be high on your list. If you’re a sun worshipper like me, you’ll want either a south facing (best option) or a west facing (second best). South facing will get the sun all day and night, and west facing will get it from late morning all the way into the evening. East facing will get the lovely morning sun but will lose it later in the day, and north facing wont really see the sun much except maybe the bottom of your garden. Of course if you prefer the shade then you won’t want south facing and so on, so this is definitely an important consideration as this is something you just cant change no matter what you do! Its easy to tell the orientation just by looking on google maps.

So now you’ve decided to go for the house and you’ve called the estate agent and put in your offer. It’s been accepted, its just a wating game with the banks. Use this time to plan what you want to do with the house

Decoration

If you’re doing a full reno this will be different for you, but if you’re just decorating then its time to plan your colour scheme, decide on what furniture you want (sofas can take forever!) and if you’re having any ‘big’ things done, you should get enquiring about these. We knew we wanted to do the bathroom so we had some contractors come out to give us quotes as soon as we got the keys. We didn’t plan on having it done right away but when we discovered the cracked bath and the kitchen leak it became a priority. We didn’t go for the cheapest quote, but the contractor we went with made us feel part of the full process and was the one we felt most comfortable with. Nearly a year and a half on and its still perfect so I’m really glad we went with them, the guys at the time were really good to deal with and professional too, making sure the house was left clean and tidy each night. The company we used was Custom Bathrooms Glasgow.

Flooring and carpets can sometimes have a lead time for fitting too so depending on how fast you want to get in you should be looking at this too. If you’re doing the decorating yourself make sure you ask friends and family to help, you might think you can do it yourself but you cant. Well you can, but it will take so much longer than you think.

If you don’t know what style or feel you want to go for, my favourite thing to do is go through Instagram and save any pics you like into categories like living room, bedroom etc. Do this for maybe a week or so (or however long you want but defo more than a day) and then look back through them and you’ll probably see a pattern like maybe you’re loving neutrals with black (like me!) or maybe you love bold wallpapers or the rustic feel etc. Look our for future blogs about this! This will give you a good idea of what you like and a good starting point.

What to prioritise when buying things

Knowing what to prioritise can be hard, especially when you’ve just spent the majority of your money on the deposit and you feel like you need everything. I can remember thinking to myself we only have a bed and a telly (TV), how are we going to fill a house! I think its just important to remember you don’t need it all right away. It takes time and if you rush it you’ll no doubt end up buying things twice because you don’t like the first one. The top things you’ll need are of course a bed and a telly, a fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, cooker and your bathroom in working order.

Realistically, you can move in without a sofa if you’re in a hurry to get in, but you need a fridge and a cooker for sure. Obviously you wouldn’t want to live without one for months but a few weeks would be fine, so this is medium priority. Things like ornaments, cabinets and accent chairs are low priority and can be bought later when you’re in!

Making it feel homely

When you finally have all the big things and you’re in but you’re looking around feeling like the place is a little bare, this is probably when you’ll want to start adding the homely touches. Personally I’m a bit of a minimalist so ornaments and similar items aren’t how I personally like do this but it could be for you. Other things you can add is artwork, plants, lighting and CUSHIONS- I could do a full post on cushions (I might do)- they are a great way to add style and homely-ness and can be fairly cheap. Other things can be nice diffusers or candles/wax melt holders. I love these as they’re practical as well as aesthetic.

So finally the most important things to remember when buying are:

• take time when viewing

• ask questions

• floorplan

• garden orientation

• any major issues (flooding etc)

• take time when making purchases

• use Instagram to get inspo

• don’t rush buying things

• prioritise the things you need to get in

And the things to forget about are:

• decor

• furniture

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