We had lived in rented accommodation for years and were resigned to the fact we would probably never be able to afford anywhere. Then along came the governments 'Help to Buy' scheme.
For the likes of us, it was an absolute godsend, allowing us to pay a deposit as low as 5%. With us both having saved (her much more than me!) and with a cash injection given to me after my Grandad sadly passed away, we were excited about the prospect of possibly being able to own our own place!
The first move was to book an appointment with a mortgage adviser to see what kind of property would be available on our budget and what our likely repayments would be on our mortgage. It was an interesting meeting which proved very positive in that it looked like although we couldn't afford a massive property our repayments wouldn't be much more than what we spent on rent anyway.
We got looking around and then went through the massively tedious task of mortgage offers and comparing the rates/benefits/terms and all that other important but highly boring stuff.
We viewed a couple of houses before the one that we finally moved into. It was shocking at first to realise how high the prices were in Brighton where we had been living. We knew it was expensive but obviously never needed to look into it that much while we were renting.
It boiled down to two choices:
1. We buy a really small flat with probably no outdoor space and still no parking (Brighton is rubbish for parking) but we do own it.
2. We bite the bullet and move out of town to somewhere we get a lot more for the money....
It was a no brainer in the end. Although we were sad to be moving out of town, we knew that we would still be close and chose to accept that if we were buying somewhere for the first time, we really wanted to be happy in it for a few years.
We had been eagle eyed and almost constantly looking at the property websites to keep up to date with houses coming up within our budget. I suddenly saw one that had dropped in price to just above but it looked really good. I looked at it with the wife and we instantly rang up and booked a viewing for that afternoon. We had learnt that if you were not the first one to see a house, you would probably loose it.
We went along to the viewing and really liked what we saw. The only problem was that it was dark by the time we got there so we canted to go back and see it in the daylight. We managed to arrange another viewing for the next morning and we went back again. We liked it even more!
We thought about it for a bit and both agreed that this could be the one. We phoned the estate agent straight away and put in an offer of our top budget, meaning they would need to knock a few grand off but we had the advantage of being first time buyers and they needed to move out relatively quickly as they had already found somehwere to move to....
We got the call a couple of hours later to say that the offer was accepted!
From then on it all moved quite quickly (although it felt agonisingly slow!). We sorted out the mortgage and all the paperwork with the solicitor and that was the end of that....
So instead of buying a pokey little flat, what we actually got surprised us. A 3 Bedroom Semi-detached house with a big garden and sea views.....
The great thing about the house is that it has obviously been well looked after, but there was plenty I had in mind to do and little (and some big) improvements to make.
We both agreed that we would probably concentrate on the Bathroom and Main Bedroom first and work from there.....
The DIY adventure begins!
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