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So
you've decided to take the plunge! You either want to stop living
with your parents or you're fed up with your rent money just going
down the drain.
We
won't lie - it's not easy. The average first time buyer in Luton
would now have to find around £90,000 - £135,000 to
buy their first home.
Even
when earning £20,000 a year, then three times that is still
quite simply not enough. In 2002, a St Albans District Council survey
showed that the minimum income at the time to access the housing
market there was around £35K per year.
But
people CAN do it. Whether you've saved like mad and are doing it
by yourself, you've got help from your family or are buying with
somebody else, it does happen.
Here
are some things that are well worth bearing in mind when setting
out to get on the first rung of the property ladder.
Tips
from Collinsons, London Colney and DG Property Services, Luton.
*Thoroughly
research the area where you want to buy, and definitely get a good
grasp of what is actually selling.
*Register
with as many agents as possible.
*Try
and find an agent that you can befriend and take to the pub so he
can find you a nice flat! Seriously though - when thereÂ’s so
much competition for properties - you need to make yourself known
and remembered!
*Save
as much as possible to be able to put down as big a deposit as you
can. This will enable you to keep your mortgage payments to an affordable
level.
*Don't
borrow to your maximum because you've still got to be able to afford
to live. Remember that you'll have other bills to pay too and should
have something to fall back on if interest rates start to fluctuate.
*Clarify
your financial status at the beginning of the process. Sometimes,
after people have put in a mortgage application, they discover that
something like an outstanding debt or a bad credit reference will
affect their mortgage. This can then cause a problem within a chain
when the Building Society turn around and say ‘no’ to
the application and slow things up for everybody.
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