In this episode of the discover wealth podcast I'm gonna be talking about the first time buyer journey and what I consider to be some of the key areas you should focus on and pay attention to and in What stages you should do these.

I'm going to be focusing on first-time buyers and sharing with you what I consider to be the more common mistakes which can take out a lot of the enjoyment from the process. And yes I do believe buying a home is and should be enjoyable.

There are no two ways about it. Buying your first home is a huge step to take for anybody. Whether you've been renting for a long time, possibly the majority of your adult life, or whether you have always looked at home in the past and your mum and dad have been responsible for paying the mortgage and bills. In both these examples you are going from not being responsible for 100% of the costs of owning, running, and maintaining the property to being 100% responsible. Granted if you are buying with a partner you will likely be sharing the responsibility but whatever the division it is almost certainly going to be an uptick on your previous situation.

The enormity of taking on the responsibility of homeownership will not be lost on most if not all first time buyers. And it's entirely reasonable and normal to feel worried, unsure and uncomfortable in situations we are not familiar with.

But it's not necessary to feel high levels of anxiety when going into the situations and you can take steps to better prepare yourself to be able to cope better in this scenario. And I'm talking mainly of course about knowledge.

If you are a first-time buyer and you are not fortunate enough to be given the bulk of your deposit if not all the deposit for a property then you are going to have to use a for your cause it yourself from your income and depending on the circumstances, of course, can mean this is going to take some time.

but this doesn't have to necessarily be dead time. You can use this waiting period to advantage and prepare yourself by gleaning information from professionals and individuals you trust so that when you are ready to take those next steps you can do so confidently.

So we already agreed that buying houses is a normal task and like anything that is large or worse while worth having it takes work and sometimes a lot of work. Just think about anything in your life that you value, how did you come to have that thing, how did you come to own that car that you drive around, how did you come to have that great relationship in your life, you worked at it right so let's start working towards homeownership.

Step 1 in my mind is always your credit report. And when I say credit report I don't mean your credit score. often I ask clients for a copy of their credit report only to be presented with a screenshot of a number which I'm here to tell you now is not useful to a mortgage advisor. Your credit report can be obtained from the credit reference agencies and it's a very minimal cost. I get a  statutory report for £2 and it's which I apply for periodically especially if I know I'm going to be applying for a mortgage.

I will be making a stand-alone show just on credit reports because they are that important to the process especially if you have got any kind of adverse on your report or fear you might have some adverse credit on your report.

So you want to get a copy of your credit reports there are a few different agencies you can go to but the main two I recommend would be Equifax or Experian.

So what is coming up on today's episode?? For the first episode really I wanted to introduce what is it I want to do with the episodes and the series as a whole and introduce myself really and go into a little bit about why I do what I do for a living and why I wanted to get involved in podcasting. I hope you enjoy today but it is just as I say purely an introduction but I felt it necessary to do this right at the start rather than get partway in and realize that hey you guys don't know anything about me or what I might possibly have to offer you all.

If you listen to this podcast and you like what you hear, I would be very grateful if you would take the time to leave me a review as it will really help me out. Because this is a very new podcast I am keen to see it too well and your reviews will definitely help me to get up the rankings on the various platforms and seen/heard by more people. If you are kind enough to leave me a  review I will be very grateful indeed.

So let's get started…

My name is Kylie Meade-Richards and I have been a mortgage and protection specialist for coming up to 6 years at the time of recording this episode. Currently I hold my CeMAP which is a qualification that enables me to assist with residential and buy to let mortgage cases and my equity release qualification which means I can advise and arrange mortgages on equity release cases.

I'm also at this moment in time studying to be a financial advisor because I believe there is more I can do for my clients and I am a huge fan of development. I like to be able to develop personally and professionally. I'm a big believer in always increasing skills and knowledge as much as I can.

In the time I've been in the industry I've worked with many homebuyers, mortgage owners, investors directly by helping them secure finance on property.

But because I love what I do, I also spend a lot of time talking to people who want or need advice with mortgages and money and I noticed more and more that sadly there are a lot of misconceptions around the world of personal finance and especially mortgages which can all too often leave people in precarious situations which they need not have been in.

And my main aim with this podcast is to dispel some of the myths that are created which can sometimes become barriers to people especially when it comes to mortgages and what can and can't be achieved in certain situations.