Things you might want to consider before buying your next home… the family home.

Are you planning to buy your next home… the family home? There are several things you might want to consider before you take this next step. It’s an exciting time and planning exactly what you might want or need for your future, can help in the long-term.

So, to help you to start thinking, we’ve provided some tips of what you might want to consider in your search.

Priorities

Make a list of what is important to you; is it a garden, a garage, 3 or 4 bedrooms, closer to the family? Making a list and agreeing what is a priority, helps you to narrow your property search and allows you to start building a picture of what your future home could look like. It’s important to note, you might need to be flexible with some of your priorities so numbering these in order from the highest priority down to the lowest, will help you to focus on what you can or can’t compromise on.

Budget

Having a maximum budget in mind helps you to search for homes within a set price range. This, coupled with your priorities, will help to identify the most suitable homes for you. Remember, you will need to have additional money set aside to cover, your house deposit, stamp duty costs (from now until 31 March 2021 the Government have issued a stamp duty holiday on all new residential house purchases up to £500,000)*, solicitor fees, any applicable early repayment charges from your current mortgage lender (if you have a mortgage already), valuation fees, estate agent fees, as well as moving costs.

Location

Thinking about the location of your family home is so important, even more so if you’re planning or have children already. You might want to consider where the nearest local school or nursery is, or whether you want to move closer to your family to help with childcare.

Other things you might want to think about are where the local shops are situated, how far you would need to commute to work, local transport links and how far away the nearest hospital or doctors surgery is.

Make sure the local area is right for you, take a few trips out there and look around. Visit at different times of the day so you can see what it’s like in the morning, afternoon or late at night.

When you go to view a house, you might meet the neighbours or people walking their dogs, use this as an opportunity to find out about the local community and ask those important questions to make sure the location is exactly what you are looking for.

Space to grow

Thinking about the longer-term can really help you to make sure your next home is big enough for your family to grow. Is there outside space you could extend onto? Are there opportunities inside to restructure the home? Making sure the home you choose is flexible enough so you could expand if you needed to, can really help to ensure the next home you choose is set up for your future.

We hope you have found our tips useful. Good luck with the house search, purchasing the family home is an exciting and memorable time. Make sure you relax and enjoy it.

YOUR HOME MAY BE REPOSSESSED IF YOU DO NOT KEEP UP REPAYMENTS ON YOUR MORTGAGE

NB. This article is intended as a summary only and does not constitute legal or financial advice from Leek United Building Society. No reliance should be placed on this article. We recommend that you seek independent legal and/or financial advice if you have any questions or queries.

*The Stamp Duty Holiday is applicable to house purchases up to £500,000 until 31 March 2021. This applies to residential properties in England and Northern Ireland only. House purchases above this value will need to pay stamp duty, please view the Government’s website here for full details - www.gov.uk/guidance/stamp-duty-land-tax-temporary-reduced-rates