Buying your first home can be an exciting time, but it’s always a good idea to plan ahead and start thinking about your home insurance before you’ve even got the keys. It can be a very busy time in your life, as you spin the various financial plates at once to secure that property you’ve had your eye on, so being organised is essential.
If you’ve found the home you want and are speaking to mortgage lenders, it’s likely that choosing the right survey will be top of your agenda. There are numerous options at your disposal, ranging from basic mortgage valuations to the concise RICS HomeBuyers Survey. There’s also more detailed options such as the ISA Intermediate HomeSurvey and The Building Survey, which will offer further information and guidance to help inform your decision.
While surveys, mortgages and solicitors fees are typical expenses to deal with when you’re buying a home, there are also other things to factor in, especially if you’re a first time buyer on a tight budget. You’ll need to start thinking about the monthly outgoings and bills you’ll need to cover in your new home, to ensure that you’ll be able to keep up with your mortgage payments and not fall into arrears or your overdraft.
Although it won’t be possible to get exact figures for some bills before you’re actually living in the property, it’s a smart move to start getting quotes together to get an idea of what certain things may cost. For example, if you’re moving to an area where crime is above the national average, you can expect your home contents insurance to reflect this. You can also get estimates from local utility companies on how much your gas, electricity and water will be, based on the size of property you will be moving into. You can also check the council tax band of your property with the local authority, so you can accurately plan how much this outgoing will be over the course of the 12 months.
Add these figures together with your monthly mortgage repayment quote and you should start to get an idea of whether the move into your first home will be affordable, or whether you need to look at other sources of income or cutting back in some areas of your spending. Of course, few people will base their decision on whether to buy their dream home on a house insurance quote – but it’s always good to be armed with this information as early as possible to make the move as smooth as possible.