Buying a home is an expensive exercise. It’s not just the need for a deposit and a mortgage that will cost you a lot of money. The act of buying a property and everything it involves can mean that you need to have a spare few thousand on top of that to take care of everything. You need to pay stamp duty if your property costs over a certain amount. Your mortgage lender will ask for money to carry out duties such as property valuations. You’ll also need to have a surveyor look at a property before you decide to buy it. You’ll need a conveyancing solicitor to take care of legal aspects too. All these costs add up, so it’s important to save, but you can find ways to reduce your spend too.
Choosing the Right Mortgage Lender
Looking for the right lender for your mortgage is a good place to start if you want to spend less on buying a new home. Mortgage fees might include a booking fee, arrangement fee, and valuation fee. It’s possible to add these to your mortgage, but that means paying interest on them. Paying upfront is more sensible, and you can get the costs out of the way. When you’re looking for mortgages, make sure you do some research into what you could end up paying. You could end up paying a couple of thousand pounds. Of course, it might be worth paying higher fees if it gets you a better mortgage deal in the long-run.
Get Quotes for Professionals
You’ll need to work with a few professionals when you’re buying a house. They include surveyors and either solicitors or licensed conveyancers. You need to pay for a surveyor to inspect a property before you buy it. This helps you ensure it’s in good condition and perhaps negotiate the price if there are problems that need fixing. One way to save is by choosing more basic surveys. However, if you want to play it safe, you can compare quotes to find the best deal. The same can go for legal costs. You can easily compare online conveyancing quotes to find the best deal.
Compare Insurance
Another cost of buying your home is the insurance policy. When you buy your property, you should take insurance out on it straight away. If anything happens before you move in, you’ll still have to pay for it if you legally own the property. Just like other costs, comparing quotes will help you find a good deal. However, be careful when you choose cheap policies. You could end up losing more money than you save if the policy doesn’t cover something that you later need to pay for.
Property Value and Costs
Some costs are associated with property value, such as stamp duty and the council tax you will soon start paying. You might want to take stamp duty into account when you decide how much to spend. If the property costs £125,001 or more, you pay 2% up to £250,000 and 5% on the next £25,000. Council tax, however, is based on a historical valuation of the property.
Buying a home is expensive, so make sure you’re prepared. You’ll need to save more than just a deposit.
XOXO
Debbie
