You know pretty much what you want to buy and now you understand how to get a mortgage" and then prepare your finances.
Now comes the fun bit; scanning the property market for your ideal home. This might sound like an excuse to indulge in unbridled property porn, but it's harder than most first time buyers realise.
This is our insider's guide to finding your ideal property.
Budget approach
The secret of successful budgeting is to get wise to the fact that properties are rarely advertised at the price vendors expect to sell them for.
This probably sounds mad. But most homes in the UK sell for between 90% and 95% of their asking price. The softer a property market - i.e. the lower the competition for homes - the more likely a vendor will accept a lower offer.
Most sellers put their home on the market at a price that reflects the most likely final selling price, not the one they want to achieve.
For example, if a house is for sale at £200,000 then the seller in a normal market will expect to get between £180,000 and £190,000 for it.
In some cases, when a property is very popular and attracts a lot of bids it will sell for the asking price. But it’s not very common.
This means if your budget (mortgage plus your deposit) is £250,000 then you should look at houses advertised for sale at least 5% more than your budget, or in this case £266,000.
How much does the price vs offer gap vary?
As you move around the UK it can vary a lot, recent research has revealed.
At the moment the gap between asking price and price paid varies by between 5% and 8.3% depending on where you live.
But it's also about how many houses are being reduced in the local area. This is a good indicator of how busy a local property market is, and for example in Twickenham nearly 42% of properties for sale have been reduced in price since coming on to the market, compared to 29% on the Isle of Man.
The search circle
Unless someone is relocating with work or retiring, most people move between five and ten miles from their existing home, estate agents will tell you.
Start by firing up Google Maps and drawing a circle up to ten miles from your existing rented property. It's where you're going to live. Then start searching for homes within it.
Most people want to be close to friends and family and near to familiar pubs, shops and parks, and only look outside the 'circle' if their budget won't stretch to any of the ideal properties within it.
The other major needs of most buyers (and also the biggest driver of house prices) are transport links and schools. People on average pay nearly 9% more for a home near a train or tube station in cities, and 6.8% more to live in the catchment area of a good school, according to recent research.
How much more does a good school's catchment area cost?
The government's research boffins recently looked at how much a good school hikes property prices within their catchment areas.
It says that near to the top 10% of best-performing primary schools, house prices are 8% higher than the surrounding area. For non-selective secondary schools, it's 6.8%.
Based on an average house price of £233,000, this means home buyers have to pay £18,600 extra on average to buy near a primary school, and £15,000 to live near a secondary school.
Ask friends, families, agents
Looking at a map is one thing but finding an area that has the vibe you're looking for is more difficult to track down, unless you're prepared to wear out some serious shoe leather.
Instead, ask friends, family and agents which area might fit your needs. Do you want a 'nappy valley'; where lots of young families hang out, or a fashionable neighbourhood where arty types are found, or where traffic noise is lightest? Digital maps can't (yet) tell you this sort of information, so get snooping.
Property portals
There are four large property portals in the UK - Rightmove, Zoopla, PrimeLocation and OnTheMarket. Rightmove lists pretty much all the properties available to buy in the UK and is the largest, while Zoopla, PrimeLocation and OnTheMarket are smaller but offer services Rightmove doesn't.
In the case of Zoopla, it shows how long a property has been on the market and any price drops. This is useful because you can work out a lot from the age of a listing including how desperate a vendor might be. Zoopla also reveals how many times a seller has dropped their asking price.
OnTheMarket offers properties that are often on its portal first and then uploaded to the other portals later. This means buyers who use it get 'first bite' of the cherry when a house is listed for sale.
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Remember the information provided in this article is for information purposes only and should not be considered as advice.
