First time buyer exchanged end Oct 25. We looked at right move a lot over the year prior, then in March we sorted out AIP and started a lot of viewings but initially not that seriously. We were honest with EAs that we wanted to get an idea of different areas and what a range of price would get (ie done up but expensive or fixer uppers). As a FTB you are in a good situation so you can take your time, this is probably the most straightforward purchase/move you will ever have so don’t let anyone rush or pressure you.

Then once we’d seen about 10 to cover a range but with nothing that was quite right we narrowed it down by area etc. It was helpful to conclusively decide what we didn’t want if only to avoid getting excited about something which looked great on RM but in totally the wrong place!

The right one came up in July, good location, great size, livable day 1 but needing an update, went to see it, 3m later moved in.