This is a collaborative post.
Buying your forever home is a huge step financially and often requires pushing to the top of your budget with the hope that the investment you make will be worthwhile in the long term. Here we look at the top 5 things to look for in your forever home.
1. Space
Firstly, you need to consider whether there is enough space for your family, if the answer is no, then perhaps you would be able to extend. Take a look at what neighbouring properties have done to the space they have to give you ideas of what you may be able to do. You will also want to consider how close your neighbours are to you and whether you will feel too cramped. Will you have enough space to play your music as loud as you want, or enough space to sit back and relax with Delta 8 Seltzers without a worry in the world? Or will your neighbours be in your business all the time? You need to think about how much space you will have both inside and outside the property.
2. Flexibility
It’s worth thinking about whether the property will be able to stand the test of time. How will it accommodate children, teenagers, elderly parents or, you yourself, getting older. If the stairs are wide enough, you may be able to install a stair elevator chair to aid getting to the upper floors. If you have plenty of space outside you might consider building an annex for relatives to stay in when they visit, to house elderly parents or perhaps for older children who have not yet flown the nest.
3. Outside Space
It’s worth considering your options with the outside space depending on your age, disposable income and time. Whilst acres of land would be nice you do need to consider if it’s practical. Do you have the time to manage that amount of land, do you have the money to outsource the garden maintenance to an external company or are you still young enough to be able to manage it all yourself.
4. Planning Permission
Often to make a house into your forever home you do need to do some renovation work and possibly building works. Before you buy the forever home, it’s worth getting a professional’s opinion on whether your proposals are viable. It would be a waste of time and money to have invested in something that cannot be changed how you so wish.
5. Location
For your forever home to be everything you hope it will be you need to consider its location. Depending on your age and stage of life you need to consider everything from accessibility to Primary Schools, Secondary Schools, Doctors, bus and train links, distance to the nearest shops, playgrounds, football pitches, libraries etc… Having lived myself in somewhere so rural that there isn’t a shop within walking distance I would urge you to consider location very carefully.
I hope you found this blog post useful – these are all things that can cement ours decisions when choosing a property for ourselves and our families. What things do you look for in your dream home? We are all unique and have things specific to us that we may like in our homes that others may not. What is a deal breaker for you when you are looking at property?
