Buying Your First Home: What to Ignore and What to Listen to

When you buy your first home, you’ll have plenty of people giving you their opinions: from your real estate agent to your family. This means you need to decide quite sharpish who to listen to, and who to ignore. When it comes down it though, it’s really hard – you want to accept advice and guidance from people who’ve done it before, though you don’t want to lose out on your dream home, due to misguided thoughts. So, here’s your guide to knowing what to listen to, and what to discard. That way, you can accept everyone’s opinions without taking them too seriously. You can judge each situation as it arises, by yourself.

The neighborhood

If someone raises a concern about the neighborhood, it’s a good idea to listen to them – especially if you don’t know the area too well. It’s always better to be safe rather than sorry, and even if you find your dream home, you want to feel safe when you’re in it. Likewise, try to meet the immediate neighbors. If the properties are close to each other, you don’t want to move in without knowing that one’s a drum teacher and the other has seven toddlers. See how much privacy you get from your neighbors too. You can usually work this out by testing what you can see of them from your windows – next door will probably have the same view of you.

Existing furniture

Unless you’ve been told otherwise, nearly everything you’ll see on the day of the viewing will be gone by the time you arrive. So, you can walk through any clutter and decades-old furniture without worrying that you’ll have to learn to love it. Try to see the house beyond its furnishings. To give you an idea of space, look at the ceiling: you’ll be able to judge the shape of the room, without being distracted by hideous furniture.

Even items that are staying, like pieces in the bathroom and kitchen can be ignored. It’s so inexpensive to replace bathroom vanities, showers and new kitchen units, there is no need to fret about it.

Natural daylight

While nearly everything in a house can be changed, the amount of natural daylight coming in can’t. Well, it could – but you’d be looking at a major renovation project. Take stock of any large trees, overshadowing buildings, or awkward window angles. For this reason, it’s good to view a house during the day, and preferably a dull, dreary one, so you can see how bad it’s going to get.

Interior design

When it comes to home décor, everyone has different opinions and taste. Which means that more often than not, you’ll walk into a property and think it looks terrible. Just remember that it’s cosmetic and not permanent. You can upgrade everything from carpet to wallpaper – so don’t let bad taste put you off.

Bad cleanliness

Just like with poor design, any amount of odd smells and mess can be removed quickly. You might even be able to wrangle a professional clean into the terms when you come to debating them. If not, deep cleans are easy enough to do by yourself, if you’ve got the time. If not, a professional cleaner won’t charge too much – and it’s worth it for the squeaky-clean feeling you’ll get when you move in. Click here for the best cleaners checklist templates.