4 Tips on Buying a House During COVID-19

The housing market never sleeps, pandemic or no pandemic! Despite this, there have been some changes that can affect how houses are being sold. There has been a halt in building houses as well as increased demand for housing, as these two things directly contrast, it is important to be swift and prepared when trying to land property within this current climate.

Below are a few tips on how you can make sure you are in the right position when buying a house.

Shortlist the Best Options

As the housing market tends to be rather scarce and considering that a large portion of new houses has not been built due to COVID-19, you need to be confident in your selection of properties, especially if you have a list of around 20 properties. By the time you have filtered down to the one you like, it may have already been taken off the market.

Estate agents like us can help you find as many homes as possible that meet your criteria. Along these lines, given the risks involved in being around others in indoor spaces, there is no point in viewing homes that aren't a good fit, so make sure you know the exact features that you want when buying a home so that you can make effective use of time with your estate agent.

Be Conservative with Your Mortgage

It is important not to get in over your head when signing a mortgage. If you were to lose your job, which could happen to anyone due to the financial cutbacks that some companies are having to do due to COVID-19, you may find yourself unemployed for quite some time. It's crucial to keep in mind your current financial circumstances when it comes to mortgage repayments so that you can keep your costs low.

Different mortgage lenders have different requirements when it comes to approving applicants, and you might negotiate a better rate with one lender over another. The lower your rate, the less you need to pay on your mortgage repayments when buying a house.

Make Sure You Are In The Correct Financial Circumstance

As the economy is at the lowest it has been for a long while, you need to be extremely certain as well as being financially stable enough when buying a house during COVID. Depleting your savings account to buy a home is a bad idea in general, however during a pandemic, it is financial suicide! Jobs are being lost with a click of the fingers, so it's important to leave yourself with a healthy level of savings once your down payment is made -- ideally, enough money to pay for six months of essential bills.

Remember also, that if you are buying a house, you may not realize how expensive maintenance on a home is as it may need some improvements, or you might want to put your own touches onto it. Therefore, you should always keep a few thousand on top of the budget for buying a house so you can make these adaptations.

Prepare for Competition

Again, due to COVID-19 and as alluded to previously, there were way fewer houses being built in 2020, meaning there was an overall shortage of houses with the constant demand for buying a house increasing each year as the population grows. Because of this, many houses are selling in bidding wars. Close to 54% of homes that sold this past June were subject to bidding wars.

This means you should be careful when making an offer in buying a house that's toward the top of your budget, you may wind up needing to pay more than its listing price as others will also most likely want to buy it and could have a larger budget than you!

Contact Us For Properties To Buy

If you’re looking for support and advice in buying a home in Birmingham, then please get in touch with our property experts at Hadleigh Estate Agents.

Call our sales team on 0121 427 1213 or you can send us an email here.