By 
Let’s make one thing clear from the start, there is no simple way to move into the property market. There are many moving parts and different agencies that need to all align at the right time to enable you to purchase your first home. There are, however, some basic pointers and ideas that can be applied to most situations to help get people started on the right path.
Understand your money
People growing up today have a very different relationship with money compared to previous generations. In modern life, there is little need, and often little demand, for physical currency, with 
many countries now seeing the balance shift and digital transactions overtaking the number of physical ones. This does have the unfortunate side effect of making it very easy to devalue money, as a set of numbers on a screen has a completely different psychological impact compared to a finite amount in your pocket. This is why it is important that anyone looking to get onto the property ladder examines their finances, understands and controls their spending habits and can account for where their money goes. Not only will this most probably help you save, but it will also be useful when talking to lenders as you will be expected to have a pretty good idea.
Start to pay attention to the markets
Given that the internet is on us at all times, it has never been easier to keep an eye on the property and mortgage markets. This is not to say that you should be getting into stocks and shares, more than you should be checking the value of properties in areas that you like and the kinds of interest rates currently out there. This will give you a reasonable idea of the present state of things and you can always visit amazing local agents and outstanding local mortgage brokers to get a few pointers as well. 
Find out roughly how much you will need
Sticking with the theme of the internet; there are many different websites out there offering free resources to help with home buying. Probably the most useful are the loan, repayment, expenses and living costs calculators that you can find. These will ask you for information about your finances and general situation and then give you an estimate of how much lenders will be prepared to offer you. This is purely for illustrative purposes, but it will allow you to judge the kind of property price range you can be looking at and help you narrow your search; possibly curbing your expectations as well.
Using these ideas to start solidifying what is and is not plausible for your current situation will fill in a lot of the blanks before you need to start properly hunting for your first property. The data you can gather from this will also let you see how much saving you would need to do and let you set yourself goals and timescales to make the dream of owning your own home a reality.
Comments