If you have been frequenting my blog for quite some time, you will know that our home-buying journey was not easy. We knew from the start of our relationship that we wanted to buy a house. I had lived in rented for some time and hated every second of it, After being together for only a few months, we began squirreling our money away.

Before we knew it, we had a savings pot upwards of £10,000 and it was time for us to start looking. I have to say, the excitement of looking for our first home lead us to make some questionable decisions. So, today I wanted to sit down and share with you how the process went for us. Some of the things that we would do differently. Plus, where we are now and about our home.

 

 

Where we wanted to be.

Firstly, where my husband and I lived before we decided to buy was very expensive. It was where I grew up and I wanted to stay there. I felt like I knew everybody and a level of security came with that. One of those neighbourhoods where you walk down the street and everybody stops to talk. I loved it and it felt natural to look around there. It wasn’t until we looked at the house prices, that we realised that something had to give. For a standard 2-bedroom house you were looking at around £300,000, whereas in other areas of our town, it would only be worth half of that. We had a serious decision to make whether this was the area that we desperately wanted to live in. Especially considering that we will be paying massively inflated prices.

 

Did we want to renovate?

In order to buy a house in the area where we wanted to live, something had to give. Ideally, we wanted a 3-bedroom house and we had seen the street that we wanted to be. The houses themselves were built in the 1940s and most of them had been renovated. Ideally, we would move into a house with new electrics, fixtures, etc. Because of the inflated prices, we couldn’t a renovated home. Our only option was to wait patiently until a house came on the market which was outdated and cheap, for us to put in the hard work ourselves. In the end, a house did come on the market. They were asking £200,000 which was in budget. However, we got somebody in to take a look and they estimated £90,000 to update key things.

 

The decision.

A decision had to be made at this stage. I was desperate to stay in the area that I grew up, but I had to reconsider. I wanted to stay local because it is where my family was all based. However, I didn’t see them all that much anyway. Plus, I can drive and have a car, so moving a little further afield would not be the end of the world. The main thing was that I just adored the familiarity of where I lived. If I were walking the dog through my village, I would pass 5 family members houses and I loved that. However, as I prepared to get myself in 30 years worth of debt just because I didn’t want to move 10 minutes away. After the discussion, my now-husband took it upon himself to start broadening our search.

 

Finding our home.

In the end, I was the one who finds the home where we are now living. The house was amazing. It is a 5-bedroom house, with three stories and 2 lounges. The price of this house was just under £200,000 and we couldn’t believe it. The house is much larger than anything that we could ever afford in the area where I grew up. The only difference was that we had to move around a 20-minute drive away. Even though metaphorically I feel far away from my family, I understand that I can just hop in my car and get to them If needed. Finding this home just really goes to show that sometimes change is good. It was the best thing that we did making the decision to move away.

 

I hope that you guys liked this blog post on our home-buying journey. Buying a home is one of the most important things that you will ever do. It honestly changes the rest of your life. It is years’ worth of debt and you have to make a calculated decision. As much as I love our home, I do not think it is our forever home. We will probably look to move later down the line. Especially if children are in our future. But, for a starter home, this is simply wonderful.