There’s a little saying about too many cooks in the kitchen spoiling the broth that may apply to buying a house too. During the three months my fiancé and I have been house hunting. I have heard so much conflicting advice that if I was actually listening, my brain would be in agony. Luckily for me, I have been holidaying in my imagination. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the tips and tricks that my dear friends have tried to pass on to me. It’s just that their sensibility is no match for the urge I have to conjure up my dream house simply by wishing it into existence.
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Among their advice is a widely sprouted little gem about first home buyers using their heads rather than their hearts. Pish, tosh! I do agree that it is important to think about whether or not you are making a good investment choice. I definitely recommend being realistic about your budget because I don’t want to see any of you selling The Big Issue to pay off your mortgage. However, there was no way that I could have bought a house that I didn’t have feelings for. The average person will spend 5 to 10 years living in their first home – that’s a long time, don’t you think? Besides, I have spent about twenty conjuring visions of it – and I’m attached to those dreams. Fatefully the gorgeous little villa I dreamt about the night we met her is now mine and my beloved’s new home! Dreams do come true.
I won’t pretend this was an easy journey. If you are buying your first home, you will need to prepare your heart and your mind as well as your bank balance. Otherwise, you may well end up having a mini nervous breakdown, like I did. Throwing my handful of beans into the pot; let me give you some advice. Enlist the help of a mortgage broker, who will do most of the hard work for you. You may need a translator for this. Luckily, my girlfriend picked up the language quickly and was able to clear things up for me. We saw our broker at the beginning of our journey to find out hypothetically how much we could borrow, which type of loan we needed and then for help with finance approval once our offer was accepted.
Giving the offer was like walking a tightrope between ecstasy and anxiety. Having a good poker face is an advantage and not one that I possess. The second piece of advice; when making a counteroffer, only go up in small increments of 5 to 10 thousand because otherwise you won’t leave yourself enough room to move. My last piece of advice is this: do not be like me and get your affairs ready at the last minute. Make sure that you collect your pay slips, get a copy of your credit file –you can do this online at Veda Advantage- and once you do, make sure any outstanding bills are paid. Make sure your tax returns are up to date too.
When we put an offer on this villa, I must confess, it wasn’t our first time. We had put offers on one particular little abode previously that just kept getting rejected. Serendipitously, this time, it was a fat piece of strawberry cheesecake. We bought our dream villa at an unbelievable price and settlement date is in a month. Now, all we need to work out is- once opposites attract, how do they decorate a house together?
Maya Muir
