I’ve just bought a house – these are the five things I wish I knew before I did, from setting up an individual e-mail for correspondence to saving for extra costs

A new homeowner has taken to social media to share all the tips and tricks they’ve learned along the way, hoping to make it easier for other first-time property hunters.

Liv Bamford, who goes by @lxvxgx on TikTok, posted a video captioned “things I wish I knew before buying a house/starting the process!”

The 24-year-old warned that she is “not an expert” and that viewers should “take any advice or information lightly and” do their own research.

However, her advice appears to have proven useful as the video has been viewed by more than 38,000 people.

From money advice to organization, here are her top recommendations.

Set up a new email address

She told viewers: ‘The first thing I wish I had done was create a new email account because oh my god, there are so many emails, there are so many different people to contact.

‘There are life insurance matters, home and contents insurance that you have to arrange.

“All these different emails and when I tell you they get lost, it’s so hard.

I started highlighting them but there are still things I forget to highlight or things I miss and I wish I had created a separate email for everything house related that would make things so much easier have made.’

CC everyone in your emails

Following the initial advice, she replied to a commenter who wrote: ‘Cc everyone in emails too, i.e. lawyers and real estate agents so you’re all on the same page and you need to insure the property at the time you exchange .’

Liv added: “I completely agree. I wish I had involved people in everything.

‘Fortunately we chose an estate agent who arranged almost everything and I think there was a lot of contact between all those different people behind the scenes.

‘But you don’t know that and you’re kept in the dark and it could be the same for everyone, so it’s a good job to get everyone involved in everything so that everyone knows what’s going on – I wish we had that done done.”

She told viewers: ‘The first thing I wish I had done was create a new email account because oh my god, there are so many emails, there are so many different people to contact’

Know the help to buy ISA rules

Help-to-buy ISAs are a government scheme designed to help first-time buyers save for a mortgage deposit to buy a home.

The government promises to top up your contributions by 25%, up to the £12,000 contribution limit.

However, Liv wishes she knew about this lesser-known line:

‘I wish I’d known that ISA help only works for houses up to 250,000, unless you’re in London and that’s 450,000, because honestly you can’t get as much for it as you can these days.

‘None of the ones we looked at were covered by that, so it was completely pointless to have had an ISA tool for the last four, five years, or maybe even longer, and that money could have been in a better savings account so that there more money could be made. interest.

Please take additional costs into account

The TikToker also wishes she had known that “you need more than just the deposit amount,” adding “there are so many more things you need to pay for.”

“Not even just the deposit and the notary, that’s another two thousand dollars on top of that, but you can buy your house and a week later you have to pay your first mortgage payment.

‘Ours costs around £1450, so that’s almost £1.5k we need on top of all the other things we’re currently paying for, which I didn’t think about until last week.

Know what your priorities are

Finally, she advised buyers to think about what their priorities are before beginning their search.

The influencer said: ‘I cared more about the location than the house and I wish I had known that sooner because we actually reserved a house that we didn’t even want in the end.

‘Luckily we got that reservation money back, but I don’t think that was the intention.

“Knowing whether you prioritize location or home is so important and I wish I had known that in the beginning.”

People in the comments offered their own tips and tricks, with one person writing: ‘Lifetime ISAs are the better ones – you can save more per year and house up to £450,000 (recommend The MoneyBox). Congratulations on your house!’

Another added: ‘We bought a house that needed work. We knew this, but were shocked when we received quotes. Engage people who trade you in before you buy anything!”