Don’t regret your first home purchase

A recent First Homeowner Survey by Mortgage Choice was an interesting read with almost 20% of first homeowners regretting buying their first property.

According to the survey, more than one quarter (27%) of this group felt they should have bought in a different area, 26% said they regretted not shopping around for more property and 21% said they wished they had waited until they could afford a property that was closer to their ideal home.

In some cases these buyers have fallen for the ‘fed-up purchase’ where they are sick of looking at open homes every weekend and just want a place to call home.  They buy a property that they wouldn’t have accepted a few months earlier before they were emotionally and physically exhausted from the search.

Many think they can renovate the property to meet their needs, however when they consult a builder and council they discover that they can’t make the changes, or the cost becomes prohibitively expensive so it’s cheaper to sell and buy another, more suitable property.

While others simply fall in love with the 20^th property they’ve seen and buy it even if it doesn’t really meet their needs.

Don’t fall into these well worn traps.  Create your wish list, do your research and negotiate with facts and figures not emotion.

If it all gets too much it’s far more cost effective to hire an experienced buyers’ agent to do the searching for you. Not only will you get a great home you will be very happy with you will avoid overcapitalising, making an expensive mistake and selling and buying again which will cost you more than 10 times what it would have to hire a buyer’s agent in the first place.