After sleepless nights, a lot of decision making and a fair few tears – I’ve finally found the perfect property and it’s all falling into place. I’m lucky enough to live in Cornwall, even better, Falmouth. Voted the 4th best place to live in the UK, I knew I’d never be able to afford to buy a place here, so I’d been searching far and wide. After numerous properties falling through due to being outbidded, valuation issues and surprise mundic problems – I was loosing hope that I’d even find anywhere to buy.
Just as I decided to take a step back, after loosing another property, something came on the market that I had to view! It was in Falmouth, a couple minutes from work with two gardens, a private driveway and amples of room. I’d been so used to tiny living rooms with cramped kitchens – this place was spacious and even had a dining room.
To top it all off – it was under budget as she was looking for a quick sale, after a previous buyers chain fell through – so she dropped the price a whooping £35k! Not to mention it was actually IN Falmouth, close to work and to my parents house – it was too good to be true from the outset.
Within 48 hours I had a viewing, fell in love and put in an offer. Typically, a cash buyer came along and too tried to snap it up, but I raised my bid and won the war! The buying process started and the vendor agreed not to accept any other bids! I had my mortgage appointment after the weekend (of celebrating!), followed by a speedy valuation the next day.
It’s by no means the end of the road, after all nothing is set in stone until completion date – however I’m feeling a lot better about everything now since valuation is complete, searches are instructed and my solicitor has given me my exchange date (44 days to go!).
Maybe all those other properties fell through for a reason? I was willing to travel over 30 minutes to work, friends and family everyday and now I can walk down the road to work and have a seaview from my street – wow!
Recently, my lovely friend Charlotte who blogs over at LovefromConrwall.co.uk started her round the world trip with her fiancee. She sold everything she owned and left with a backpack and a one way tickets out of the UK. She kindly sold me pretty much the entire contents of her house at a ridiculously low price just before she left the country.
This, along with all my crockery, small furniture and domestic appliances from my previous flat and shared houses I lived in during university, has given me a bit of a foundation to build on. However, there is still so much left to buy and so much furniture to upcycle – but I guess this is the exciting bit now.
In retrospect, purchasing and moving into my first house on my own (that needs a bit of cosmetic work done!), along with finishing the third year of my degree via distance learning and training for my first half marathon – whilst working full-time in a new job was probably a bit ambitious. I’m in the deep end now, fingers crossed I’ll come at the other end of this alive.