Project Peter Pan: Sheffield estate agent on what first time buyers should look for in a home

The Star, Sheffield

Thom Cocker, director at Cocker & Carr in Crosspool, Sheffield, has sat down with The Star to offer his advice to first time buyers in the city.  He spoke with The Star as part of Project Peter Pan - a campaign launched by the paper alongside other National World city world titles.

Transcript

00:00 I think it's probably when we're speaking to first-time buyers, one of the main things

00:04 that we think they probably need to do if you're buying a property for the first time

00:07 is just making sure you're doing your homework and your research before you even start looking.

00:12 It's probably also speaking to a good independent mortgage advisor beforehand to work out your

00:16 budget and then within your budget you're looking at what your mortgage payments will

00:19 be. You might find that you can borrow a fantastic amount of money but then when you look at

00:24 the mortgage payments it's not something you'd be intrigued in taking off. So working out

00:28 your budget then looking at what you do in your life, your friends, your family, your hobbies

00:33 and then honing in your areas that you want to live in and then within that area looking at what

00:38 type of property you want, bedrooms, how many of them there needs to be doubles. One of the big

00:43 things we kind of always advise even our clients when they're buying any property is to make sure

00:47 that they write down a list of what the property's got to have, what it can't have and what they'd

00:52 like it to have and I think especially for first-time buyers maybe from people not from

00:57 Sheffield historically that maybe they don't have contacts with builders or trade people is working

01:02 out what level of project you take on if it's just a new bathroom, a new kitchen or like a full

01:07 renovation. When you've honed in then what you know what you're looking for in the budget just

01:12 don't deviate away from that. We do see quite a lot of buyers or first-time buyers especially

01:17 that are viewing houses that just aren't going to be right for them and I always think instead

01:21 of that viewing they could be doing something they enjoy. Viewing houses is always initially

01:26 a very exciting part of the process but it quickly gets boring and quite demoralizing.

01:31 It's realizing that for the house you're after there is going to be competition

01:36 and also understanding if a property's priced correctly in a lot of the areas you're looking at

01:41 it's highly likely it will hit the asking price and probably go above. So just being a bit ready

01:47 for a scrap really. We do hear buyers sometimes say "oh I don't want to get involved in a bidding war"

01:53 why would you not buy your dream house just because you don't want to get involved in a bidding war?

01:57 Chances are if you love it someone else will. So kind of get ready for a bit of a fight on that.

02:02 It's not being afraid of it if it's a bidding war it's because it's a good house at a good price so

02:06 it tends to be kind of a reassuring thing if they're out on the bid-to-own property as well.

02:12 Awesome and just to go back to the point they made about you know seeing

02:18 first-time buyers viewing houses that you know you see it and you think it's not gonna be right

02:22 for them. What kind of, how do you know what kind of house isn't right for a first-time buyer if

02:28 that makes sense? I think it's when we usually it's when they tell us which property they've

02:33 been quiet about with ourselves and then as a company we probably spend a bit more time chatting

02:38 to buyers to ask them what are their requirements what do they need what's it got to have and the

02:43 things I mentioned previously and sometimes and you do generally get it is they'll tell you the

02:47 property they want to view through us and then they describe their dream property and it's their

02:52 opposites and it's kind of that's the kind of thing is it's probably being honest with yourself

02:57 about what you're after and sometimes being honest with yourself that if it's a project house you

03:01 don't the common one is probably a property that needs a lot of work is for some people that's

03:06 their dream property because then you can kind of create your dream house with the exact kitchen

03:10 you want the bathroom you want but for someone else it can be terrifying. That's probably the

03:15 most common thing is when they describe what they're after and that has no comparison to the

03:20 property they want to view. Obviously we'll book the viewing in we're not going to probably refuse

03:24 to do it with you but it's just about using your time efficiently really. And if you were to think

03:31 of a first-time home describe what those homes look like for us based on maybe when in your

03:39 experience what first-time buyers are buying more? The typical first time I mean I think back to my

03:44 first house was a three-bed terrace in Walkley that ironically I thought needed a bit of work

03:50 and needed more than I was expecting but we still did it. Your very typical Sheffield terrace is

03:57 the most common first-time buyer home whether it's Woodseas, Hillsborough, Crookes, Walkley,

04:02 Moorsbrook, wherever but then you do get some people maybe they're not fussed about they want

04:07 low maintenance so sometimes they'll look at apartments instead but like yeah your typical

04:12 Victorian terrace and I think also when you're buying those homes maybe first-time buyers need

04:17 to remember sometimes is that it's probably a house that was built maybe in 1890 1900

04:23 things will come up on the survey it's an old house but that's kind of your typical

04:29 first-time buyer property in Sheffield.

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