Finally, you’re now at that stage in your life where you want to get your foot on the property ladder. So you open up Rightmove or Zoopla, type in the area, add the filters and start looking. After some house/soul searching you’ve found a couple of properties you like, so where do you go from here?

Well from personal experience, you book a viewing and have a look at the property. But where I fell short was not knowing what to ask and my lack of understanding of how the process of buying a property worked. I wasn’t sure what  ‘Stamp Duty’ meant and how that would benefit me as a first time buyer or how the ‘Help To Buy Scheme’ worked. I also wasn’t sure how much the deposit on a property should be, is it 5%, 10%, 15% etc?  Or how that would affect my mortgage rate. And then someone mentioned the word ‘solicitor’ followed closely by ‘fees’… So after a small panic attack, I did what most people would do and asked the internet but there’s so much information out there all saying different things. As a last resort I turned to my parents for advice but even they weren’t sure.

The point I’m trying to get at is that being a first time buyer is exciting but also scary. There are so many things you need to know and be aware of before even thinking about making an offer on a property. You want to start this new chapter in your life right and the rush of it all can be overwhelming.

However, all is not lost. More and more people (estate agents included…) are now realising that honesty goes much further with a client. Doing your research is an absolute must. And there’s some really helpful tools out there.

To make that process easier, here at Avocado we’ve developed some videos that really do cut down the time you need to spend researching.  They’re helpful, insightful and cover the basics of what you’ll need to start your journey to becoming a first time buyer. Check out our YouTube page here to get more advice.