One first-time buyer, who bought her two-bedroom home at age 24, says young people should be willing to “make sacrifices” to move up the real estate ladder.
Manchester-born Sarah Yates, now 27, has been saving for a house and working for a newspaper since she was 14.
Sarah was ““fortunate enough” to live with her mother and father until she bought her first home, she told the Manchester Evening News.
“I started looking to get on the property ladder when I was about 24,” she added, reports RTE.
Sarah, who is now a reporter. she worked at a newspaper during college, when she quit after a classmate “mocked” her. She then took a job at Clarke’s before getting her first job as a reporter at the age of 19.
For other young people looking to buy their first home, Sarah says people should be willing to make the sacrifices.
She added that taking on a second job can be beneficial, but some evenings may need to be skipped.
The reporter made her first bid for a £120,000 house in her hometown of Hazel Grove, but she was beaten into the property by another buyer.
Realizing that her £145,000 budget was low, she Sarah began looking for houses in the Greater Manchester suburb of Edgeley, which she described as an ‘up and coming area’.
She said, “It was in an absolute state, it was run down and everything needed doing to it, but that appealed to me because I liked the idea of being able to put my own stamp on it. I wanted somewhere where I could completely do up the kitchen and bathroom, paint the walls and put new flooring in everywhere,” reports Metro.
Sarah believes she got a good deal buying the house just before the lockdown, when there was great economic uncertainty and people were worried about their job security.
Instead of going to an agent, Sarah found the best deal using Martin Lewis’ mortgage calculator on her Money Saving Expert’s website.
Cutting out the middleman, she says, has helped her save extra money.
She bought the cheapest products, learned how to close windows from YouTube tutorials, and paid family and friends to help with the chores.
She has also rented one of the bedrooms to her cousin to her.
The result is a minimalist aesthetic that she likes to keep “light and airy.”
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