The Type of House You Want to Buy

When shopping for a car, unless you’ve won the lottery, you’ll have an idea of what you want. You’ll set out with a checklist. It needs to have enough space for the children’s car seats. It needs to have a certain sized engine and a decent sized boot for the prams or the shopping.

You’d never just walk into a showroom and say “you decide for me, I’m open to anything”. Unless you’ve got thousands to spare you’re hardly likely to spontaneously decide to buy a sports car. You have to have an idea of what you want.

The same goes for buying a property. When you decide to move house you make a checklist of the things you’re looking for. You may want a larger garden. It may be that you want to be closer to schools or local amenities. Perhaps you’re looking to downsize after the kids have moved on.

Either way you know what it is you’re going for. It’s not like when you go the hairdressers and say “do whatever you like”, when you’re buying a house YOU know what it is YOU want.

Making a list is important. It means you won’t get distracted by other, pretty features. Yes it may have an outdoor hot tub and a beautiful patio but you wanted three bedrooms so the kids could have their own room. It keeps you on track.

Buying at Auction

However at auction some people think it’s a game of chance. Despite the fact they are still shelling out a large amount of money for a property some people see auctions as the chance to take more risks.

Of course this isn’t always a bad thing to do. If the property is an investment that you intend to rent out or sell on and you have the extra money to spare it can often pay off to be a little risky. Auctions can be a gamble and if you’re not risking your life savings it could pay off.

If this isn’t the case though it is important to know exactly what it is you’re looking for. If the property is for yourself work out what you definitely need. Of course it’s important not to be too picky. Since not all houses are put up for auction there may not be a great deal of choice but make up a check list of the things the property MUST have.

If the property is to rent out then decided what kind of tenants you’re looking for. Do you want to rent to a family? If so the number of bedrooms is important as are things like garden size and the number of bathrooms. If you want to rent to a professional couple or commuters then good transport links will be vital.

It is important to decide all these things before the auction so you don’t lose sight of the purpose of the property and the reason you are spending so much money.