So you've decided to take the plunge! You either want to stop living with your parents or you're fed up with your rent money just going down the drain. We won't lie - it's not easy. The average first time buyer in Luton would now have to find around £90,000 - £135,000 to buy their first home. Even when earning £20,000 a year, then three times that is still quite simply not enough. In 2002, a St Albans District Council survey showed that the minimum income at the time to access the housing market there was around £35K per year. But people CAN do it. Whether you've saved like mad and are doing it by yourself, you've got help from your family or are buying with somebody else, it does happen. Here are some things that are well worth bearing in mind when setting out to get on the first rung of the property ladder. Tips from Collinsons, London Colney and DG Property Services, Luton. *Thoroughly research the area where you want to buy, and definitely get a good grasp of what is actually selling. *Register with as many agents as possible. *Try and find an agent that you can befriend and take to the pub so he can find you a nice flat! Seriously though - when theres so much competition for properties - you need to make yourself known and remembered! *Save as much as possible to be able to put down as big a deposit as you can. This will enable you to keep your mortgage payments to an affordable level. *Don't borrow to your maximum because you've still got to be able to afford to live. Remember that you'll have other bills to pay too and should have something to fall back on if interest rates start to fluctuate. *Clarify your financial status at the beginning of the process. Sometimes, after people have put in a mortgage application, they discover that something like an outstanding debt or a bad credit reference will affect their mortgage. This can then cause a problem within a chain when the Building Society turn around and say no to the application and slow things up for everybody.
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