Help to Buy isn’t just for first time buyers and second steppers; it’s for people who have already used Help to Buy as well!
We spoke to 28 year old Rebecca Braithwaite who told us her story about how she first bought her home using the Help to Buy scheme and how she went on to buy a bigger family home with her husband, 31 year old Matthew Braithwaite, using the scheme.
“I’m Rebecca and I’m from Mexborough, I’ve lived here all of my life. I work for Rotherham Council as an Educational Social Worker. I bought the house with my husband, Matthew who is from Dinnington, and works as a Credit Controller for a printing company in Sheffield.”
Rebecca and Matthew bought a Ledbury house type, a 4-bedroom home on Avant Homes’ Melton View development in Mexborough for £181,950 and reserved with a £9100 deposit.
Melton View is a beautiful development of 2, 3 & 4 bedroom homes, which is surrounded by open countryside and breathtaking views with prices starting from £149,950.
“I owned a property in Mexborough where myself and my daughter lived. That was a new build that I bought using Help to Buy. I then met Matthew and he eventually moved in and the house just wasn’t big enough for the three of us, so we decided to sell up and move.”
“We were looking for a while because we put my previous home on the market so we looked occasionally, but it wasn’t until we got our first viewer who came back a couple of times that we started to look a bit more seriously.”
“When the first viewer put an offer in, we went and had a look at Melton View which we had previously looked at before and we reserved pretty quickly because we really liked the homes. All in all it took about 6 months to reserve from initially putting my property on the market.”
“We had looked at older properties to start with, but my concern was that if there was work that needed doing, we wouldn’t be able to do it. Knowing that we’d get a nice kitchen and bathrooms and that the boiler was covered meant that a new build was the right choice for us.”
“As I’d already been through Help to Buy, I knew that it was available for people who wanted to move up the property ladder as well, not just for first time buyers. There’s no way that we would have been able to buy this house without the scheme, we just wouldn’t have been able to afford it.”
“The scheme got me my first property when I was living on my own with my daughter. I would have really struggled to buy a property without it.”
“We had no problems at all in the sale of my first house. Our solicitor dealt with it all and at the point of sale, settled the Help to Buy Equity Loan for us. All I had to do was phone up for a settlement figure.”
“We had no issues at all with the Help to Buy side of things the second time round as our financial advisor helped us with the application.”
“Our move in day was a bit stressful, but it always is. It was absolutely fine really, there were no major problems and all the money transferred on time. The only hiccup we had was that our sofa had been delivered before we got the keys!”
“The first thing I did when I moved in was sort everything out. The main thing was getting my daughters room ready. She’s always wanted a bigger bedroom and with the house having three floors, she has the top floor to herself.”
“We moved in on Friday 28th February and Avant Homes’ gave us a move in hamper with lots of little bits in. The Customer Care team have been good overall. We’ve had a few issues but they’ve been sorted when we’ve logged them.”
“We’ve not had a house warming party yet though, I’m not letting anybody in!”
“Help to Buy has meant that I could not only get on the property ladder to start with, but move up it. It’s something I can leave to my daughter and we’ve been able to move in to a bigger family home, which we couldn’t have otherwise afforded.”