You’ve been saving for a deposit for years and the time has come – you’re ready to buy your first home.
Getting on the property ladder is really exciting but it’s fair to say it’s not always plain sailing. There’s a lot to get your head around and finding a place and home you and your family love is hard enough before you have to start thinking about mortgages, surveys and valuations. At the same time, stories about poor customer service and bad build quality have unfortunately been quite common in the new build market – but that doesn’t mean these are things you have to put up with in your search for a place of your own.
We’ve put together some tips on what to bear in mind.
As a first-time buyer you might not be opting for the biggest or most expensive home at a development but you deserve to have the same standard of service. The best developers treat all buyers equally. They’ll also tell you about how their homes are built – so don’t be shy about asking for information.
At Legal & General Homes, quality and customer service are central to our approach. For us it’s about making all the little things run smoothly and doing what we say we will, so that the journey to home ownership is just as good as the final destination.
What does that mean in practice? For a start, we promise that what you see is what you get – there’s no hidden costs for things like carpets, appliances and turf that you might not have accounted for. That’s not true everywhere, so make sure you ask what’s included and what’s not – some homes might look cheaper but you may end up paying more down the line.
Our visitor centres are also open to everyone, whatever stage of the buying process they’re at. We’ll never pressure customers to give us their information and we won’t harangue them if they aren’t interested in one of our homes. Don’t feel obliged to share details if you’re not interested – you’ve got enough on your plate without receiving endless phone calls about a property you don’t want.
Remember too that customer service doesn’t have to stop once you’ve moved in. Ask developers how they’ll help you once they have handed over the keys – one thing we do is give all our buyers an iPad loaded with a home instruction manual to help them settle in. Will there be someone to help set up your internet, or even do it before you arrive? You’ll be wanting to make sure your house feels like home – is there a handyman service like ours to help put up pictures or fit your new curtain rails? And who’s there to help you if there’s a problem – are they in an office far away, or someone on the ground who can pop round at your convenience?
If you’re armed with the right information then the process of buying your first home will become that little bit less daunting and you’ll have more headspace to focus on the excitement that lies ahead. So go ahead, make developers do some of this work for you – and enjoy!
John Allan, Managing Director, Legal & General Homes
