Last week we introduced ourselves as a working couple with aspirations to start a family quite soon. Our first purchase around 10 years ago was a flat, and we are now looking to move to a 3 or 4 bedroom home, more suited to a growing family.

Of course as with any home purchase, finance is one of the biggest factors. For us, this is now quite a good time to sell, as first-time buyers have had a bit of a boost from the changes to stamp duty. This has lead to price increases for entry level homes, which is helping us stretch our pennies a bit further towards our next home.

Something that came to us in the form of advice that could easily be overlooked was that we are likely going to need to look at changing our mortgage deal. Of course there is plenty of advice for first-time buyers about paring back spending and getting your personal details and so on in order, so that not only is your credit score decent, but so that mortgage companies can see that your monthly outgoings are not going to be too high to afford repayments.

For second-steppers like us, this is also crucial. We are now a few months into 'saving mode' and have tried to cut out as many monthly outgoings that aren't essential; which necessarily means a bit less going out! Having said that, this does leave us with little option other than to get our flat tidy and decorated for viewings.

Something that we are thinking about carefully now is areas within the catchment of good schools. This will probably mean that we end up paying a premium, but given that we are intending to raise a family in our next home, it makes sense to factor in education. Cameron is our local agent with great local knowledge, so whilst we can use Rightmove’s School Checker for the statistics, chatting with the team who have local roots and hands on experience of the community is even more useful!

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