Starting the House Hunt

So… Now that we have our mortgage in principle, our house hunting can officially begin J

My first step was to look online to see what properties in my area are for sale and which we could possibly be interested in. Now there were a few properties around, but some would have needed quite a bit of work doing to them, and that wasn’t what Sam and I were looking for.  So I printed off the details of a few other properties which I thought might be interesting, to show to Sam when he finished work.

Okay… Sam liked a few of the houses I picked and so that is promising! Haha! The only current issue that we have is that we need 3 months worth of wage slips to be able to finalise our mortgage and so as Sam only recently started his job in December, we need to what until the end of March to be able to do this.

Chances are that some of the houses we like the look of, might end up being sold before we are able to view them and make an offer. But at least we have been able to decide on the more important aspects such as; we need a garden, there needs to be space to park 2 cars, we would like a downstairs toilet, and we don’t care if we have a garage or not…

We also might go and take a look at some of the new homes that Persimmon are building near-by. Fingers crossed we find a few houses that we would love to live in J

xx

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Mortgages... Scary Stuff!

So we went to the bank today! As a spot of luck, NatWest contacted Sam a couple of days ago to ask if he wanted to pop into the local branch to discuss his current finances and if they could help with anything J

When we got there, we met with Kat, a chartered banker who took a look at Sam’s current situation and what we could do to make it better, and the dream of owning our own house more achievable. After quite a long chat, we came up with a simple plan. Using part of the money Sam is getting for the house, he is going to pay off some of his long term debts, and the rest of the money will go on a deposit for the house and other outgoings, such as, stamp duty, legal fees, and just general stuff for the house.

Afterwards, Kat entered my financial information into the system alongside Sam’s to determine whether or not we would be likely to be accepted for a mortgage with NatWest. And we were!!! We walked out of the bank with a mortgage in principal! To say we were excited would be a little bit of an understatement!

We are now in a position to begin looking at houses and to make an offer on one if we like it! Then it will be back into the bank to finalise the mortgage with a mortgage adviser. We are one step closer to our first home and we are feeling positive! J

xx

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Journey So Far :)

Hi!

So Sam and I have been together for nearly a year and it looks like 2017 might bring about a rather huge milestone for us.

Sam currently owns a house with his brother, and has lived there for the past 4 years, decorating and renovating it to increase their investment.  But last Wednesday, his brother approached him with a proposition. He wanted to buy Sam out of his share of the house so he could live there with his girlfriend and Sam could use his share to buy a different property.

Now for the slightly scary part... Sam and I have decided to join our finances together and buy this new house as a couple. Our first house together!

We have already had a few people question the length of our relationship and whether or not we are ready for such a big commitment to each other. But we believe as a couple that time is meaningless, as you could be together for years and not be ready or you could just do it and see what happens!

So I thought I would share this slightly scary, but incredibly exciting journey with anyone who is interested, and also to help me document how I feel about this journey, and any bumps we might hit along the way. 
x

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