First-Time Buyers, it’s a pain and the most stressful things that you’ll ever do when it comes to buying a home, but knowing how you will make the ride much smoother
The 25 home buying steps include….
This guide walks you through the 25 steps to buying a home, including timescales.
How long does buying a home take?
Can you afford the property?
Finding the right Mortgage
Getting a Property Surveyed
Sorting out Building Insurance
Negotiating a Completion date
Signing the Transfer deed
How long does it take to buy a house?
In England alone, the time it takes to buy a home when you’ve already had money saved up is 6 weeks to 8 months, but timescales vary depending on the buyer and seller’s circumstances, plus conveying problems can arise and add delays.
Find a Property: Research the area, scour estate agents and search websites for the property that best suits you. This can be a heart aching part of the property market, finding the perfect house to then find out that its way out of your current budget or it’s already been sold.
Put in an offer: Once you find a house, the next step is to tell the seller asap that you are willing to pay and any conditions. The offer to exchange can take up to 4 to 12 weeks.
It’s accepted: YAY! But first you have to survey and check the property’s condition. Your Solicitor will check any legal issues that may come up, don’t worry you are not on your own.
The Exchange: You pay the deposit, you can feel the house keys on your fingertips, but you can’t back out now. The Exchange to sale usually takes up to another 4 weeks.
Completion: It starts to get more real, you hand over the rest of the cash in exchange for the keys and deeds. The Property is officially yours. Take note, nobody is legally bound to complete the deal until exchange of the contracts.
As Stephen Kerrigan, your Mortgage Advisor was saying, there is no point getting excited about a property of your dreams. If you have no idea if you can afford the house, then avoid it! We don’t like to see you disappointed – like we said, this is a heart aching process and it can cause you to be upset if that dream house is just a dream.
Make sure that you have the correct:
Have the upfront funds you’ll need, and can borrow the additional cash when you need it. If you have, give yourself a pat on the back, you’re well on your way to being on the property ladder. Mortgages Remortgages – Doncaster Fee Free Mortgage Advisor can help you tot up how much you might be able to borrow, based on your income.
Being more confident and attractive to estate agents and sellers can help you boost you chances at getting a mortgage, it’s much like a property version of Tinder – you can swipe left or right on the property, while the estate agents/sellers can do the same to you.
If your wringing your hands over how much to offer, consider asking Stephen Kerrigan your Fee Free Advisor in Doncaster, he has over 30 years’ experience and he can help you get the best offer for a mortgage and property. You’re more than likely to get a more response if you post a link to the home’s advertisement on one of the big property search sites, such as Rightmove. But do remember this is a public forum, and there’s a chance you could give away your tactics to the seller.
Don’t Spend more than what you can afford
Don’t get over-excited and over extend yourself! Remember, all the additional costs you will need to cover such as, all the bills you will need to save up for. To avoid getting the keys to a stripped-bare house, ask the seller for a list of all the fixtures and fittings included in the purchase of your new home, even down to the light fittings, TV aerial cable screws, bins and the fire grate.
Milestone – the offer is accepted
It’s time to have a mini celebration, but don’t get the wine out just yet, there is still loads to do and nobody is contractually obliged yet so don’t get carried away with the celebrations just yet. You and the seller are not legally tied down to complete the purchase until you have reached exchange of contracts, there is always a risk of being gazumped from another First-Time Buyer.
When another buyer offers more money than you, your seller can renege on the deal you had with them. You could ask for them to ‘take it off the market’ as a condition of your offer, reducing the risk of the house attracting more attention. Although, it’s not fool proof. Unfortunately, there is little you can do to avoid either of these, as they’re both dependent on the actions of the seller, and it could end up losing you a lot of money, especially if it happens just before the exchange of the contracts.
The best thing you can do is to be as quick as you possibly can between having your offer accepted and contacts exchanged, you can always ask a Mortgage Advisor from Mortgages Remortgages to hurry things up.
An agreement in principle is usually only valid for 30 to 90 days depending on the lender so if your search took a while, it might be expired. Don’t worry though, if you got accepted before and followed our guide steps, you’ll probably be accepted again. You shouldn’t automatically go back to the first lender anyway. The range of mortgage products on offer can change on daily basis, so it is worth a check on the market to see if you can see a better deal.
It is worth the extra effort to do another check, getting a 4% deal instead of a 3% on a £150,000 repayment mortgage over 25 years will cost you more.
