First time buyer tips

I’m a big gamer. I own consoles way back when Nintendo was still lording over Sega and other console makers of the late 70s and early 80s. Some of the best games in my collection were IPs from the good old days of NES and SNES. Even now that I have kids of my own, I still consider myself the very same gamer that blasted baddies in Contra, slayed koopahs in countless Mario games, and slaved away for Gil in various Final Fantasy titles. It shouldn’t come as surprise then that my living room is home to my PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and piles of games for these consoles.

My passion for gaming has become so hard to nurture lately though, with costs for games and consoles. Consider this: PS3 was priced around a 800 Euros when it was released, Xbox 360 around 400 EUR, and Wii about 300 EUR. Couple this with rising cost for games (betwen 60-90 EUR) and it’s becoming harder and harder to sustain my “addiction”. That’s the major reason why I’m always on the prowl looking for great deals on gaming merchandise on the Internet. Lucky for me, I stumbled upon what could be the El Dorado of gaming bargains.

A single page lists various bargain deals covering highly popular titles such as Gears of War 2, The Limited Collectors Edition and other casual gaming pick-ups like Golden Compass, CSI: Hard Evidence, and Telly Addicts. A little bit of digging also brought me to a SendIt.com promo that offers more than 75% discount on selected games, as well as films and albums. Make sure you take a peak. Any place that offers Halo 3 for 17 Pounds is a winner in my book.

I have had a few comments and emails from email asking about which mortgage would be best for a first time buyer so I decided to dedicate a post to it :)  Since this is likely to be the first property you have ever had to borrow money for, your choice of mortgage is absolutely crucial and you’re no doubt nervous about picking the one which best suits your needs.

You have no doubt come across all these confusing terms like apr, fixed rate, tracker, capped and so on.. seems scary doesn’t it! One of the best things to come out of the internet is comparison services which let you compare mortgages online, completely free at that. These things literally take all the hassle and stress out of choosing the right one and let you make an informed decision based on your requirements.

You could spend forever looking around yourself and then end up choosing one of the more expensive deals out there, what’s the point when you can put in your circumstances and then have a nicely presented table put in front of you outlining which ones are going to work out cheapest and overall best meet your needs.

One huge tip for a first time buyer is to be realistic when working out how much you can actually afford to spend on your first home and ensuring you will still have enough money for any modifications you may need to make to the home. It’s important to remember that whilst newly built homes will usually require less furnishing they will no doubt require at least some sort of additional furnishing which can be costly.

When you are buying for the first time the chances are there will be a number of different properties you will be looking at but you need to make sure you’re looking at the important things about each one. It is advised that you take an experienced home buyer, such as one of your parents or a existing home-owning friend when going to look at a property.

Buying your first property can be a very difficult and daunting task. If you have been living in shared or rented accommodation then the thought of having a mortgage can seem like too big of a responsibility or even out of your price range.

There are so many things you need to consider when purchasing a property such as location, cost, transport, facilities and such like. When buying you’re obviously tied down more than renting where you could move at any point (within lease agreement terms anyway!).

When searching for my own home I was very specific on my requirements. I was looking for a 2 bedroom property, preferably with a garden for my little baby boy to play in. I also required close access to a train or tube station which gave good access to and around London. My price range was slightly limited which made the choice obviously that little harder.

After spending these many months I did finally manage to find a nice house which met all my needs and decided that I should make use of all the research I performed and all the little tricks I learn’t along the way. I’m not very technical minded so a blog is the best I could do but hopefully people will benefit from my ramblings.

Natalie