At some point in your life, whether you own your own home or rent, you are going to want to ‘upgrade’ your property. This could be down to a number of reasons, but it will happen.

Reasons could include your family expanding, either through a new partnership, marriage or having a child, aspirational reasons like you can simply afford a bigger place and want one or wanting to work from home and requiring more space.

There are questions you need to ask yourself though – how big a property do you need; can you afford it; where do you want to live now; how do you source your property?

The size of the property you require will of course be determined by your own personal circumstances. If you are having a child, for example, you may want an extra ‘full size’ bedroom and bigger kitchen and sitting room. If you just want to expand so you can work from home, an extra ‘boxroom’ may be adequate. All of this will affect the price of the property you eventually go for. Which brings us to question two.

Answering the second question is probably the most difficult. You’ll need to work out what your price range is before you look at any property, so you’ll need to know how much you can sell your current property for (if you own it), how much you will have left when you’ve paid your existing mortgage off, how much you have in savings and then how much of that total you are willing to use on a deposit for a new house.

Then visit a mortgage broker or bank and they will be able to determine what you can afford. Armed with this knowledge you can begin looking at the area, town or city in which you wish to live. If, for example, you wanted to live in Manchester city centre you should begin contacting Manchester estate agents and asking them to send you details of properties they have on their books in your price range.

The estate agents will be able to advise you on the type of property you can afford and the areas within the town or city you are looking at. As you’re looking to move to a bigger property than you are currently in, be sure to make it clear to the agents what your minimum requirements are.

Prepare to be flexible. Depending on your budget you may have to look different areas to the one you had in mind or a property that may require some work on it post purchase. Having said that, don’t be too ready to rule out your first choice – just because a property is only a little over your budget doesn’t mean you can’t make an offer you CAN afford.

Some vendors are willing to accept lower than the asking price in order to get a quick sale – often as much as 10%. Ensure your Manchester estate agent is sending you properties 5-10% OVER your starting budget as well. They should even be able to advise you on those sellers who may accept a below asking price offer.

Don’t be tempted to go over your budget as this will only lead to financial trouble further down the road. If you’re wise, you will choose a property 5-10% below your maximum potential, giving yourself some breathing room should your circumstances change in the future.

And don’t forget – you’ll need to get your own property on the market and sold while you are looking for your next one, so be sure to engage an estate agent to do that as well!

Author Bio: Ben Greenwood is writing on behalf of Shepherd Gilmour, Manchester estate agents.

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: moving house, buying property, estate agents, mortgages