Buying a home? 5 things you MUST do first!

The process of buying a home is full of twists and turns which makes it for most of us the most stressful thing they'll ever do. The greatest challenges are knowing what to do and when to do it. But the thing that buyers struggle with the most is having to rely on their solicitor with whom they have most likely never worked before.

It's easy to get swept up in this exciting - if stressful - time, particularly if it's your first property but even before you start looking for your dream home, you need to have certain matters under control.

You are, after all, in most cases, committed to spending the most amount of money you've ever spent in your life - you owe it to yourself to let your head rule your heart when it comes to cold, hard, decision-making.

Here are 5 real life tips concerning what you should be doing whilst your solicitor is doing their work to stay ahead of the curve!

Obvious as it may sound, ideally you should not only be out of debt before you think of buying a home but you should also have some reserves to draw on in an emergency. Trust us, 'rainy day money' when you're buying a house is worth tenfold - try not to over spend on items for your new house until you exchange contracts!

Congratulations if you're able to buy a house without a mortgage. The vast majority, however, will need to apply to a lender for a mortgage.

The differences in the number of mortgage products available for those presenting a 10% deposit compared to those presenting a 5% deposit is huge - and there is far more competition among mortgage lenders. This is even more the case if you are able to muster a 20% deposit.

Another way to think about it is this; if you have to borrow to manage even a 5% deposit, sadly, it may not be the best time for you to buy.

You should work out what your monthly mortgage repayments will be and ideally keep these to a value which does not exceed 50% of your take home pay.

Any more than this and you are taking a large risk: as a home owner, compared to someone renting you have many more items and matters to maintain and upkeep. As time progresses, the number of these is likely to grow!

If you're a first time buyer, you'll already have done very well to get to this position. You owe it to yourself to stay logical and to keep within your planned budget.

You don't, for example, want to fall head-over-heels in love with a particular home if it means risking financial annihilation in future. As it is so often in other matters, patience here is a virtue!

You may be tempted to switch off from time to time during your home buying process, for example once you've had an offer accepted. This would be a bad mistake - there are many obstacles in your way before you get your set of keys.

You have to stay focused and prepared for negotiating, organising valuations and surveys and chasing people up.

As with most things in life, eventual success is invariably linked to excellent preparation. The more you do for yourself before you buy a home, the greater the chance that you'll enjoy living in it once you've purchased.