Buying Our First House

Buying Our First House

We have been married now for sixteen years come August, we have three beautiful teenage boys and have always been a working family but the timing for buying our first house has never been right.

We have lived in our housing association three bedroom house since 2003, we exchanged to move here from our two bedroom council flat – we was very lucky.

Since living here we have done so much to the house to improve it and make it more homely, we have put in a new fitted kitchen and bathroom, added a conservatory and even paved both gardens to make it more pet friendly for Buddy our German Shepherd dog.

The timing hasn’t really been right for buying our first house until now – the house is now comfortable to how we want it and now feels like home – a home that we really want to buy. This is the house all three boys have grown up in, these walls hold so many happy memories.

We did look into trying to buy our house a few years ago but due to the (right to buy) law at the time it came back as a big fat NO!

Now due to recent law changes some people are now being given to right to buy their property if they wish so we recently looked into buying our house again and was totally shocked when they said YES, yes we will be happy to send you out the application pack needed.

Things are now starting to look up for us, we still have a long way to go but we are now a step closer than we was last year and we are keeping positive. We now have an application pack being sent out to us and all the relevant paperwork out to apply to be homeowners……Eeek exciting times!

Looking back to the very first time that we phoned to ask if we had the right to buy our property, in a way we are glad they said no because Ian was then working for a family run business and the boss never paid regular, we went from week to week not knowing when the next payday was or even worst still we never knew how much for. This wouldn’t look good on a mortgage application now would it?

It was a financial struggle and yes bills mounted up but he kept the job because it was a job and they are hard to find nowadays aren’t they?

Things are now different, I have been in a secured job now for a good few years and Ian has since changed jobs, he is now working for a very stable company that has been going for years. This company pays Ian on a set date each month without fail, now this has got to look much better for when applying for a mortgage hasn’t it?

With us both being in a steady job that we’ve been in for a few years now, bills have always been paid on time, we don’t have any rent arrears and we have means to show we can afford a mortgage and have means to pay on time each month.

So looking back – no the timing would have been completely wrong for us to apply but we have worked hard to get to where we are now the main thing we done was financially planned to get to where we are now, that is to be stable enough to be able to apply comfortably for buying our first house.

Your credit report holds all the cards as to whether you will be allowed the credit needed, so having a good credit rating is very important as it is used by lenders to determine how much of a risk you are to loan too. Do you check your credit score? we have been keeping a close eye on ours over the past few years. Credit score checks are used by most lenders, this can be for loans, mortgages, car finance, credit cards and so on.

Ways you can financially help yourself.

Financially plan if you wish to buy something.

Try and avoid getting into bad unessersary debt if possible.

Keep on top of all your bills. Paying on time shows you’re a good trustworthy person to lend to.

Keep an eye on your credit report and try to fix any problems that may show up.

Register on the electoral roll.

Try your best to avoid getting loans.

Keep a check on your outgoing’s, it is so easy to overspend.

Don’t abuse any credit that is available to you.

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