Are You Clear on What You Want from A New Home?
posted in Mortgage News
Whether you’ve outgrown your current home, are fed up of the area you’re living in, or are wanting to get your foot on the property ladder for the first time; you know you need a new home, but have you thought long and hard about what you realistically want from it?
With many of us restricted to our homes throughout the ongoing pandemic, we’ve had time to think about what our homes mean to us, and what we want from them, and this can only be a good thing when it comes to buying a new home. Perhaps you want more outdoor space, the kids no longer want to share a bedroom, you need an office to work remotely from, or the area you live in isn’t close enough to local amenities; whatever the reason, by answering the following questions, you can get a better understanding of what you want from your new home:
What do you like about your current home?
Ask yourself this question and decide on a scale of 1-10 how you rate its existing qualities, such as style, size, number of rooms and location.
How does your home make you feel when you’re in it?
Do you feel cramped and as if you’re rubbing elbows with other occupants when you move around your home? Would you prefer an open plan layout, or do you need more rooms and space? Is there enough light, or do dark rooms and a lack of natural light make your home feel dingy or depressing?
Do you have enough outside space?
Outdoor space doesn’t necessarily have to mean a yard or garden, and sometimes, something as simple as a balcony can give you access to the outside that many of us were desperate for during periods of lockdown. If your home has little to no outside space, do you want more access to the great outdoors in your new home, and if so, does it need to be a space that you can entertain in, or simply a space to step out onto and breathe fresh air from?
What does your neighborhood offer you?
Are you living in a safe area with good neighborhood watch provisions, or do you feel threatened and are burglary rates high? If so, would you like to live in a safer neighborhood with a lower crime rate? Can you get to shops and medical facilities easily, or would you prefer to live somewhere that you don’t have to travel by car or bus to shop or take your children to school?
Ask your children how they feel about your home
Children, while they will inevitably fly the nest one day, spend a lot of time at home with you, and not only do they deserve to be happy living there, but they will often be honest and point out negatives or positives that you may not even have considered.
There’s no reason why you can’t find the home of your dreams, and aside from thinking hard about what you want from it, remember to take steps to save money for your mortgage. Working with a professional mortgage broker can help with this, and once you find a home you want to buy, they can make the whole process much simpler, and even get you great mortgage rates that you wouldn’t otherwise have had access to.