Four mistakes WE made when buying our homes and how to avoid them

EVERYONE makes mistakes – but when when you’re buying a home, they can cost you THOUSANDS of pounds.

Even The Sun’s new property experts, Rea Hill and Tonya Barnard, have made a few oversights of their own when they started out buying, selling and renting properties for a living years ago.

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They explain the mistakes they made when buying homes starting out in the industry so YOU don’t have to.

The duo, called the Property Twins on social media, have decades of experience between them and have been dishing out advice to budding buyers and homeowners too as part of a six-part series with The Sun.

They’ve already discussed the common mistakes you need to avoid as a first time buyer, and how to add thousands onto the value of your home.

If you’ve got a property problem you need solving, email your questions to [email protected].

Here’s the lessons they learned along the way when they were new to the property game.

Get a property survey

Rea’s big error came down to her naivety when she wanted to buy her first home back in 2011.

She was so excited when she went to view a property which had recently undergone renovation works – she thought the new conservatory had big potential.

But little did she know that it was hiding some costly secrets.

Desperate to get the keys as quickly as possible, she decided not to do a home survey in order to speed the buying process along.

This survey will give a detailed inspection of the work that needs doing, and what condition the home is in.

These can cost £900 or more for the most in-depth ones such as a building survey – and prices depend on the size of the property.

Rea thought paying for a survey was a big expense – and she wanted to use this cash on doing up the property instead.

But soon after she got the keys, she noticed damp and mould was coming through the ceiling in the room next to the conservatory.

Water started to run down the walls.

Rea got a builder to come in and see what the problem was – he said that the issue was coming from the conservatory roof, and that it needed to be re-tiled, costing her £1,600.

But it still didn’t fix the issue, so she got another roofing specialist in to try and solve it.

He said that the roof needed to be completely ripped off and replaced – a job that cost £1,200.

All in all, the works cost her £2,800 – a cost she could have factored into her decision over whether to buy the house or not if she had a survey done.

It’s really important to get a home survey done – you never know what the hidden problems are unless you get it checked out.

There are other surveys you can get as well.

You can get a condition report done, which costs at least £300 – its a traffic light report indicating the conditions of various states of the property.

There’s also a Home Buyers report, which costs at least £450 and you’ll also get a valuation and  insurance reinstatement value – which is an estimate of how much you’ll receive if the building were to burn down.

A building survey costs £500 or more, and it is an extensive check of the state of the property – it will also provide advice on repairs, estimated costs and timings, and what will happen if you don’t carry out the repairs. 

Beware of asbestos

Older properties that need a bit of work doing to them can often be cheaper to buy.

That can make these kinds of homes attractive to buyers on a budget.

But if it was built in the 1970s or 1980s and hasn’t changed hands much, you’ll want to check for asbestoc.

Asbestos was often used as insulation for homes back then – but it was banned from 1985 when it was discovered it could cause extreme health risks, like lung cancer.

One of Rea’s first homes she bought was a property built around this time.

But she had no idea that the property was riddled in asbestos.

Luckily her husband is a builder and removed it quickly and safely, but it could have cost her thousands of pounds.

It also meant they had to delay moving in properly to their new home.

No, she always looks out for the tell-tale signs that a property is old – and that it could contain asbestos.

If there’s a patterned textured ceiling, it could indicate there might be asbestos.

If the house has only had one owner for decades and it’s old-fashioned, it should spark a red flag as well – as they might not have had renovation works done to remove the asbestos since they bought the house.

Again, getting a survey done on your property before you buy it will bring up any issues with asbestos.

Check your contract

Going through paperwork can be really tedious – but it’s important to check every last detail about what you can and can’t do when it comes to your property.

That’s what Rea discovered when she didn’t go through the deeds of a new property she bought a few years ago thoroughly enough.

At the same time, she and her husband bought a caravan that they refurbished and they couldn’t wait to go on trips with it.

When they moved into the house, they put their new caravan in the driveway – but their neighbours kicked up a fuss and said that they weren’t allowed to do this.

After checking the deeds in more detail, Rea discovered that there was a section that said caravans – as well as boats – couldn’t be parked on driveways in the area.

Rea had to sell her caravan – she was gutted as it was her pride and joy, but the last thing she wanted was a turf war with her neighbours.

Now she’s the Queen of Contracts – she scrutinises everything.

Rely on your solicitor

Solicitors are there to help guide you and make sure contracts are watertight.

You should make sure you go through them for everything to make sure the house buying process goes as smoothly as possible.

That’s one thing Tonya wishes she had done when she bought a big house in Essex that she was planning to rent out.

The property had tenants already living there, but the terms of the mortgage Tonya had secured stated that the house needed to be vacant before her loan could be released.

She told the estate agent who was selling the property about this, and he said that the people living there will have moved out in time for when she was due to exchange.

Tonya took his word for it and didn’t ask her solicitor to get this agreement down in writing.

When it came to exchange day, the tenants hadn’t moved out – in fact, none of them had been told they needed to leave.

It caused major delays – Tonya couldn’t start any of the work on the property she wanted to do, and she nearly lost the mortgage for the property.

She lost £30,000 because of the delays and the added cost of helping get the tenants in the property out and in new homes.

It’s so important to get EVERYTHING down in writing, and get your solicitor to draw up terms in the contract on your behalf.

It means you’re better protected against problems like this.

This post first appeared on thesun.co.uk