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When we were looking to buy our first home I found the options quite overwhelming. Not only do you have to think about mortgages, insurance, surveys etc. but before all of that you actually have to find the house you would like to buy. There are loads of places to look now such as high street estate agents or you have so much available at your fingertips with online estate agents.
In our small town we have quite a few estate agents in the marketplace. Each has its windows filled with pictures of houses for sale in and around the town where we live. The pictures look great and I think they really help to draw you in and make you look at the display. Unfortunately, it seems that just recently, most of the pictures I look at either have a sold sign on them or there is an ‘under offer’ note on there. There are very few houses which seem to actually be available. Whether this is the market at the moment or something else, I don’t know but it’s really off putting. If there aren’t options available in the window I don’t want to go in and ask about more properties.
There is a lot to think about when looking for your first home. Ideally, we wanted to find our dream home straight off. We wanted somewhere local as we don’t drive so there had to be good transport links. We had to be close to a supermarket and other amenities. We also had to have a house that we could grow into. We wanted at least three bedrooms, a garden and plenty of space. Looking at different properties through online estate agents made our job a whole lot easier!
When we were looking to buy our house we found that online estate agents were a lot more user friendly and easier to use than high street estate agents. We could put in our own search terms and quickly get rid of any options that we didn’t like the look of. Also, we could change the parameters for our search within seconds if we decided that actually, we did need an extra bedroom or off road parking. Online estate agents make looking for houses an absolute breeze.
Something fantastic about online estate agents is that they are just that… online! You can browse on your phone, laptop or tablet no matter where you are. You can search at lunchtime or 2am depending on what you are doing. Unlike high street estate agents where you can only go in during office hours, online estate agents make searching for properties as easy as possible. I used to work from 9-6 most days and John works normal office hours so going in to an estate agent just didn’t work for either of us.
The best thing for me about using online estate agents is being able to find houses that suit a particular budget. Using online estate agents means that you can find something for the best possible price that suits you and that’s such an important thing to remember when buying property. You’re already going to be splashing out a whole lot of money so finding the perfect house for you at the perfect price should be right at the top of the list!
Do you prefer high street or online estate agents more? I’d love to hear from you so let me know in the comments!
This was really useful as I’m looking to buy my first house very soon! Thank you for sharing x