Page 42 - July 2023

AT HOME WITH

Michael and Emma had previously lived in a two-
bedroom tenement flat with beautiful period
features including stripped wood floors, working
window shutters throughout, fireplaces and high
ceilings with cornicing. They were looking to buy
an older property but to their surprise they fell in
love with the new-build home in Dalkeith.

Tenement flat

“I love having a garden – I work on my “There was less back and forth compared to
laptop there when working from home and buying our first property. My wife was pregnant
I can’t wait for my son to be able to play in it and I run my own business so we didn’t have
as he grows up.” loads of time on our hands – Neilsons taking
care of the whole process really helped.
Michael has some advice for other first-time
sellers: “Be organised. We were efficient and “We were lucky with how everything
reached out to a mortgage adviser early on played out as it felt like a daunting time to
so knew what we were working with. buy or sell.”

“I didn’t think we would go for a new build,” “The previous owner spent a lot of time at a
Michael says. “We lived in a tenement flat holiday home and didn’t cook so the kitchen
originally because we loved the architecture feels brand new.”
and character. It would have been good to
get an older property but newer properties are Michael says his favourite thing about his new
more energy-efficient so there are some perks. home is the amount of natural light, adding:
“We were in a ground floor tenement property
“It’s a new property so the previous owner before and now we have a south-facing
didn’t have to renovate it much. We plan to garden and big windows.
do some decorative changes like change the
flooring and wall colours.

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