This is What I Own – our weekly property series.
Last time we were in Derby – but this week we’re travelling over to Lincolnshire to chat to Laura Miller.
She moved into her property in 2021 using her savings and the profit from her previous home, a three-storey townhouse, for the deposit.
Here’s what she has to say about her buying experience…
Tell us about yourself, Laura.
I’m 35 and an operations director, from Lincolnshire.
Where is your property? What do you think of the area?
The quiet village of Haconby, South Lincolnshire. It’s a really friendly and welcoming village with a great sense of community.
When did you move in?
January 2021.
How much does your property cost?
£595,000.
How much was your deposit?
£125,000.
What is the monthly cost of living here now; both mortgage and bills?
£2,100.
How did you save up for your deposit?
Savings and profit from sale of our previous home.
What was the process of getting a mortgage like for you? Did you find any parts challenging?
We are lucky to have a great mortgage advisor who made the process easy and did all the leg work for us. The only challenge was that we wanted to borrow five times our earnings – which limited the amount of lenders we could access. But once we secured a deal, the process was straightforward.
Where did you live before this – were you renting or living with family?
It was a smaller, owned property that was closer to the town. It was a three-storey townhouse with a small garden – so not ideal for our growing family.
What made you want to buy rather than renting?
For future investment and security.
How did you find this property? What made you choose it?
Rightmove. We’d looked at the listing several times before enquiring, as it was over our top budget, but something kept drawing me back to it.
Initially, we wanted and older property, with character that we could renovate – so this new build didn’t fit the criteria really. But the open plan living space, good size home office and village location just kept drawing us in.
It was also being built by a small, local builder with a great reputation so we knew it wouldn’t come with the usual new build struggles around snagging that you hear about. The fact it would be a low-maintenance and very energy efficient (air source heat pump) home seemed like a sensible option knowing that we have a young family that takes all our time – and both work full-time in high pressure jobs.
How have you made the property feel like home?
Despite being a new build, we have decorated almost every room to add our stamp – as well as landscaping the garden to really utilise the space available.
What’s the inspiration for your interior decor style?
Modern but comfortable. It’s important to us that – although we want our home to look good – it also needs to be family-friendly, welcoming for guests, and hard-working, so we focused on getting plenty of storage to enable us to tidy all those pesky toys away at the end of the day.
What’s your favourite room and why?
My eldest son’s safari bedroom – especially the homemade jungle animal ceiling feature.
He’s getting a little too old for it now, and would probably prefer a superhero room, but I want to hold on to it for as long as I can as I just love it.
Do you feel like you have enough space?
Yes, we’re very lucky.
Do you have plans to change the property?
Eventually we’d like to change the garden room to have bifold doors rather than patio doors to open it right out into the garden. At the same time we’ll likely add doors in between that and the lounge – so that when the children are older, they can have friends over in private while we hide in the ‘adult’ lounge.
Are there any problems with the property that you have to deal with?
No, any small snags we’ve had were swiftly dealt with by our developers – they were brilliant.
What do you want people to know about buying a home?
Take your time and see them in real-life. Looking on Rightmove doesn’t give you a true feel for the space, location and general state of the house. We saw some that looked pristine online but shabby in real-life – amazing what a good photo can do.
You’ve also got to love a house. It may tick all your boxes but if you don’t get the ‘feeling’, keep looking. It’s a lot of money to spend and a big investment so it needs to be love.
Do you want to feature in What I Own?
What I Own is a Metro.co.uk series that takes you inside people’s properties, to take an honest look at what it’s like to buy a home in the UK. If you own your home and would be up for sharing your story, please email [email protected].
You’ll also need to be okay with sharing how much you’ve paid to live there and how you afforded the deposit, as that’s pretty important.
What are your plans for the future, in terms of housing? Do you plan to stay here long term?
We bought it as our ‘forever home’ but things change so we will see. If we do move it’ll be for an older, period property with land I would expect – but it will definitely still be within five miles of here. We like being close to our friends and family.
Shall we take a look around?
Do you have a story to share?
Get in touch by emailing [email protected].
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