Purchasing A New Home Checklist: What Needs To Be Done?

Buying a new home is an exciting venture, but it involves a series of crucial steps to ensure a smooth and successful process.

Purchasing a new home is one of those things that you constantly read about, but it’s not a process that you go through often. Most people will buy one home in their life, maybe two or three if they need to move for whatever reason, but it’s still not something that you go through regularly. This is good because it can be quite a stressful process to get through, but if you manage to keep yourself organised then it’ll be less so. 

If you are going to be getting into this process for the first time, then you might not really know what to expect, but that’s okay because that’s what we’re here for. We’re here to give you the advice that you need so that you can have the easiest process possible, making your life so much easier. Want to get started? Let’s go then.

Setting The Budget

Setting the budget is going to be the foundation at which you work out everything else. Your budget will determine what kind of properties you can afford, what kind of locations you are going to be able to afford to look in and pretty much everything else which is why it’s so important that you get it sorted. It might not seem like a massive thing because you can always look at properties and then sort out the finances later, right? Wrong, because what if you have fallen in love with a property that is outside of your budget but you don’t know that until later because you didn’t set this beforehand? This is going to be heartbreaking, and no other property is going to compare going forward.

As you can tell then, it’s going to be important for you to set your budget before you start looking for a property. You can consult a financial expert if you’re not sure about the best way to set this budget based on the money that you have, or if you own your property and you’re planning to sell for more money. Just make sure that you take your time and get this right, because the last thing that you want is to think that you have more money available than you actually do.

Sorting Out Legal Help

In the movies people make it out as if the process of buying a house just consists of seeing one that you like, and then paying some money to the owners. Then bish bash bosh, congrats because now you own a home. The reality of it is a little more complex, and you’re going to need other help to purchase a house. Getting legal help for example is a massively important part of the process, and not one that you can skip either. They have to take care of all of the paperwork, make sure that everything is transferred into the right names and so on, so ideally you should start looking at conveyancing solicitors as soon as possible. There’s no point putting it off when you’re going to need one anyway.

Ensure that you keep some money aside to pay for these legal fees, else you could find yourself in a bit of trouble. Get a quote before you hire anyone, and this way you can keep the money aside without a problem.

A List Of Needs

What do you need from the home that you are going to be moving into? This is something that you need to ask yourself, and your partner if you have one, before you start looking for new places to live. If you don’t know what your needs are, how are you supposed to choose a home based on them? When you purchase a home, it should be based on the things that you know you need to ensure that your home is suitable for all of your needs. 

The thing that you need to understand is that this is going to look different for everyone. Different families have different needs, so don’t try to compare your needs to someone else’s, because if you do you won’t be looking for a home for you, you will be looking for someone else. This defeats the whole point of the process, and really doesn’t make any sense to do.

Find Somewhere Suitable

Now that you know what you need from the home because you’ve made a list like we told you to, wink, you need to start trying to find somewhere suitable. Use your list of needs to narrow down properties, or get the help of a real estate professional as they will be able to find properties based on your wants. View the properties that you find that seem to fit what you need, and determine whether they are actually as good as you think they are. Be prepared for the fact that more often than not you won’t fall in love with the first few properties that you find. It’s completely normal, and not something that you should worry about because as long as you keep searching, you will find the home of your dreams.

The thing that we want to stress to you more than anything at this stage is that you should not settle for less. Make sure that you are not compromising on the list of things that you have written, as they need to be the base of choosing the house.

A Survey Needs To Be Completed

If you’ve never been through this process before, then you might not know about getting a survey completed on a property. These surveys are completed to check the home for anything that might be hidden, any issues that the house might have with the foundations, and a whole load of other things. The whole point of a survey is to ensure that the property is as it is being presented, and that there are no hidden surprises when the purchase has gone through. It protects buyers from having things hidden from them, as surveyors are very thorough in what they do, so if there is a problem, it’s more than likely that they will find it.

When you put an offer in on a home, it is usually subject to survey. This means that you are happy to make the purchase as long as the survey comes back and says that everything is as it seems. Again, this provides a layer of protection to the buyer, ensuring that if there is something unexpected, the offer does not have to stand.

Secure A Mortgage

Most people are not going to be able to afford a home outright because it’s massively expensive to do so. This means that the other option is to put a deposit down and then secure a mortgage. The basis of this is going to be that you borrow a certain amount of money from the bank or from a lender, and then pay this back over the years at a rate that works for both of you. This is going to be agreed to in your mortgage agreement, and will be calculated based on your income at the time, using the amount that you borrow, the interest rate and anything else necessary.

Even if you have bad credit, there are lenders who will take a chance on you. The interest rates are more than likely going to be massively high because of this, but it’s an option if you need it. Securing a mortgage isn’t always easy, so it’s best to look around and see what options are available to you.

Hiring All Services For The Move

The final thing that we’re going to be putting on this list is hiring all of the services that you are going to need for the move. Now that you have purchased the home and the sale has gone through, it’s time to move in which is a super exciting time. You’re going to need help to do this though as you want your new space to be perfect. Hiring movers to get your stuff from A to B is going to be helpful, especially for those larger items that you are going to be bringing with you. Then you’ve got services like cleaners to ensure that the space is spic and span before you move all of your items in, and any repair people that you might require. There’s a lot to organise, so get on it!

So, that’s what needs to be done. Of course, the process is a little more complex than this, and we’ve just made it a little simpler for the sake of this article. There are lots of elements when it comes to purchasing a new property, and you want to make sure that they align as much as possible so that everything goes as smoothly as it can. The last thing that you need is more stress in your life, but if you’re not careful then this is exactly what is going to happen. Take  every single part of the process seriously, and treat it with the respect that it deserves, and you will end up with a home that you love without bags of stress attached to you.