It’s an exciting time buying your first home, and you want things to go as smoothly as possible. But we know at times it can get confusing, and that you might also face some challenges along the way.

Having learnt the basics of how to buy a house the next step is to get prepared so that you can go out and starting house hunting. This is especially important if you are the sort of person who likes to plan ahead and in today’s busy property market.

The good news is by getting prepared and the right support you can avoid expensive mistakes and feel much more confident along the way.

Take our readiness quiz below to see which steps you have left to take:

We work with first-time buyers to help them go through the house buying process. It has always been tough for first-time buyers because often they are figuring everything out on there own.

However, the recent property market has made things even more challenging for them. Not sure if you need to get ready to buy? Here are some challenges we are seeing that you want to be aware of:

Going out and buying your first home as always been a big and daunting step. But the current market is making even harder for first-time buyers to successfully navigate the process.

You may have heard of these additional challenges, including:

1. House prices keep rising – House prices across the UK are at record levels. This makes it hard for first-time buyers as the average bank has a limit on what they will lend you based on your salary making it harder to borrow what you need.

2. High deposits – With high house prices comes high deposits – saving is tough when renting and many people are forced to look for help towards their deposit.

3. A lack of properties to choose from – The property boom in the last year has meant there are less and less properties to available to buy. This makes deciding what to buy and finding the one harder.

4. It’s pretty competitive out there – Lots of buyers are looking to buy right now. This means it can get competitive and we need to be able to move quickly to not miss out.

5. We don’t know what we don’t know – Inexperienced buyers are going out and starting viewings but not being ready. This leads to them often feeling rushed, confused and making mistakes.

Facing these challenges in an already complicated process can make the thought of going out and starting your journey on your own pretty daunting.

Having coached many buyers we know the best thing to do is to get prepared before starting house hunting.

By getting prepared you can take the time to build your knowledge of the process. And by the time you find the right property you will feel ready to say yes. Instead of worrying about are my finances ready, what mortgage adviser am I using and do I have a solicitor etc etc.

That’s why we have put together this fun ‘Readiness Quiz’ so that you can make sure you are prepared to start house hunting and clearly see where you are. It’s a harmless bit of fun but might teach you a few things.

Take the short quiz to see what steps you have left to take before starting house hunting: