So When buying a new build the most important thing is:
Location, Location, Location.
My partner and I wanted to live in different places which wasn't a good thing as one of us was going to end up disappointed!
After searching different sites and looking at loads of show homes, travelling to different places to view certain house types we finally found one we loved.
Before we found The Souter we reserved a 3 bed detached with garage house with Gleeson. It was all rushed as I would literally want to buy every house we looked at. It wasn't in the best area and we knew nothing about the area apart from when we drove down to be nosey. We dropped out last minute and lost our reservation fee which was luckily only a £100, could have been worse.
When we reserved our home the sales lady let us put down £100 also instead of £500 and was really nice and said if the sale didn't go through then she would refund us the money also, bonus! Thankfully it all went through and we now live in our lovely little home.
A good thing to remember is that when buying a house the show homes you look at are all the highest spec and have all the top upgrades. They also use very unpractical furniture like small double beds and small sofas to create space to make the rooms appear bigger.
Also check the surrounding areas what's behind your house? also if there's any land nearby what's it going to be turned into or can it?
Extras!
When I reserved my home I asked the sales lady for upgraded kitchen, six foot fence, turf and also free carpets and flooring throughout as I got told you don't get if you don't ask, which is very true!
I also got £1000 towards legal fees paid for! Which I really can't complain about our sales lady at the time was fantastic that was until the original one came back who had been off sick and she was terrible! But we are so lucky we got to deal and reserve our home with the first one as if not I doubt we would have got any of the extras we got for free.
I choose not to pick many other extras as they are really expensive and it works out a lot cheaper getting someone local to do the jobs for you. We got our own tiller in the kitchen and it was so cheap compared to the prices from Persimmon. Remember to shop around and don't let them make you feel like you have to rush.
Overall...
We are happy with our house, we are just a little bit disappointed with Persimmons customer care team. They are pretty rubbish at times. We heard a lot of bad things about Persimmon but risked it anyways. We haven't had any major issues luckily but when reporting the problems they really have took the mick coming to sort them and replying back to us. This wouldn't put me off buying another house with Persimmon as I've heard all sorts from people who have bought off different sites it's just annoying that you spend all that money on a house and then afterwards it's like they can't be bothered because they have the sale.
