My house is going on the market! After a year of to-ing and fro-ing, I am moving into a rented house in Reading next week and I can’t wait to settle in.
I’ve been trying to find somewhere to rent for a while and so when a new place flashed up on Rightmove which was the right number of rooms in the perfect location at a good price I phoned, emailed and then phoned the estate agent again to get a viewing. The rental market is crazy right now; places are going so quickly at the moment that there isn’t time to hang about and umm and ahh about it. It’s very very different to the last time I rented, back in 2007!
Of course, a rented house is quite a different thing to one owned with a mortgage.
Not only can I not decorate to my taste, hang pictures or secure furniture to walls, but I can’t have a pet (so my dog will, sadly, be staying with my ex) and every few months I have to have the landlord round to check everything is OK. It’s something that, after 12 years as a homeowner, is going to take a bit of getting used to.
My hope is that after six months or so of renting and settling into my new town, I will be ready to start looking at my mortgage options, but it isn’t going to be easy. Here are some of the things I need to consider.
Things to consider before buying a new house
It’s been a long time since I last went looking for a house to buy, and things have changed significantly since then. Of course the biggest difference is that I now have two kids to consider, so need to make sure that any house I do buy is in a safe area, nice with good schools – both primary and secondary – as this is the one thing you can’t change about a house once you move.
Of course it has enough room for us all (while not being too big to maintain) but things like the internal decor etc aren’t as important as these can all be changed. If there is room to extend in the future then even better.
It’s good to come up with a list of deal breakers.
For example I know I need a driveway and there is no point looking at properties without. Others might be outdoor space, distance from roads etc. Estate agents might try to show you houses without your ‘deal breaker’ requirements anyway hoping you fall madly in love with them but my advice is to stick to your guns or you may end up regretting it.
Other preferences, for example the style of property, the exact neighbourhood, aren’t so set in stone for me and I’m willing to be more flexible there.
The next step is to look at the budget.
This obviously depends on the deposit I have from the sale of my house, and my earnings. As a self-employed person this has to be evidenced through my tax returns but is much more straightforward for someone in permanent employment.
Whether you go through a mortgage broker or a bank, a mortgage calculator is gives you an idea of what you’ll be paying each month and decide what is affordable for you.
As a single person buying, a good option might be a shared ownership mortgage; realistically a single income won’t buy me a house with three bedrooms big enough for my children and I, in any area of the south east.
What does this actually mean? Well, rather than mortgaging a large sum – let’s say £400,000 for a three bed house – you can purchase between 30-50% of a property which is much more doable, and pay rent to the housing association for the remaining 50-70%.
Once you have owned your share for a fixed period of time, buy further shares, enabling you to own more of the property, or pay more back when the property is sold. Meanwhile, you can treat the property like you would your own mortgaged house, although you must alert your shared ownership scheme to any major alterations, extensions etc. It can also work out cheaper than renting, and crucially you will benefit from any increases in property prices, and you aren’t giving all your money to a landlord.
Get a mortgage in principal.
This means estate agents will take you seriously when you are looking; you might find no one calls you back until you have one. Going through a broker or using a comparison site like Compare the Market or Go Compare will find you the best deals.
The other thing I need to do in preparation is to up my credit score to improve my chances with lenders. It’s quite good, but not as great as it could be, as until the last few months I hadn’t had a credit card in my name in many years. I got a new credit card which does cashback, and I use it for day to day purchases and then pay it off in full each month to show that I can be trusted with credit. The most important thing is to not become reliant on it – I don’t want more debt added to my name!
Then it’s time to go house hunting!
Then, if you haven’t already, set up your Rightmove alerts and get looking for somewhere to buy! I’ve had mine on for a while now, having been looking for rental properties and places to buy just in case… I would say make sure you check out the floor plans and the location map. If you find somewhere that interests you, you can even check Zoopla to see when a house last sold and how much it went for (and have a nose at house the decor has changed; I am obsessed with it!).
Fingers crossed next year I can offer tips on decorating a new place.
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