There’s so much to think about when it comes to buying your first home that it can be hard to figure out where to begin. To help you navigate the home buying journey, we’ve teamed up with Virgin Media to bring you an insightful new short form content series called “Buyers Bootcamp”, which follows six couples who are all at different stages of the home buying process.

Episode 2 features Daniel and Orysola as they embark on a road trip to find their forever home in the perfect location for their family. The couple are accompanied on their road trip by TV Presenter & Entrepreneur Darren Kennedy as well as Buyers Agent and Property Consultant Liz O’Kane who help them to figure out exactly what it is they are looking for in their first home. From choosing the best area to learning how to compromise on their strict criteria for their perfect home, there are plenty of helpful tips for First Time Buyers throughout the show.

Landing on a Location

It’s easy to get lost in house viewings and interior design ideas when thinking about your dream home but oftentimes that’s not the best place to start. One of the most important things to consider is the aspects that you cannot change about a house, namely the location! If you’re thinking of embarking on the home buying journey, one of the first things to do is sit down and figure out exactly what it is you’re looking for in an area.

“When buying your first family home, it’s really important to check out that location, schools, restaurants, supermarkets, public transport, sports clubs…this is going to give you a really strong idea about what the future will hold”

You should make a list of the location criteria that are important to you such as distance from work or family or how far away the nearest supermarket is. Once you’ve decided on your must-have criteria, you can look at the different areas that offer the most potential and see where you can afford to be flexible. It’s easy to stick to the areas you know but this will limit your search, so the more areas you’re willing to consider, the more opportunities you’ll have to find the best home for you.

“It took me a while to realise how important it is to look in different areas but once I did, this gave me so many more options and greater potential for what I could actually buy”

For Daniel and Orysola, it’s all about the community their daughter will be growing up in, the safety of the neighbourhood and the nearby schools as they search for their perfect location in Episode 2 of Buyers Bootcamp.

Compromise is Key

One of the most important things you’ll learn when buying your first home is that compromise is key. Whether it’s learning to compromise on your strict criteria or coming to an agreement with your partner, you may need to learn to be flexible in order to get that sale over the line.

Starting out, you’ll most likely have a long list of must-haves when it comes to your dream home but as you move through the process, hopefully you can figure out which of these criteria are in fact must-haves and which are nice-to-have. The best way to do this is to get out there and view multiple properties so that you can understand how realistic your criteria are.

 “It’s all very well researching online but nothing beats standing in a property and realising its full potential”

Follow Daniel and Orysola in Episode 2 of Buyers Bootcamp as they view different properties within their budget and work with Liz and Darren to figure out what criteria are most important to them in the search for their first home.

Realising Future Potential

It’s easy to get turned off by the musty grey carpet or the mothballs under the stairs but remember it’s all about the bigger picture and looking at the future potential of the property when you’re doing house viewings. Is there room to extend to build your dream kitchen? Is there potential for attic conversion to give you an extra bedroom? Could you add a bathroom under the stairs down the line? You’ll need to use your imagination here but it’s also important to get a trained professional in such as a builder or an architect to help you realise the full potential of the property.

In Episode 2, you’ll see Daniel and Orysola struggling to decide between a modern townhouse and an older property with more room for potential. You can find out which way they leaned by heading over to watch Buyers Bootcamp on the Virgin Media Player today.

The content of this blog does not constitute advice and is for general information purposes only. Readers should always seek professional advice before relying on anything stated in the blog. Some of the links above bring you to external websites. Your use of an external website is subject to the terms of that site.