Searching to find your dream home?
For many, buying a home is likely to be the biggest purchase of your lifetime and it can often be a daunting process. At Longsons, we do our best to educate and help our customers to make the best decisions when purchasing their dream home. Here’s our step-by-step guide which takes you briefly through each step you are likely to come across during the home buying process.
1. Sell your home first (if you need to)
In our mind, there is almost no doubt that selling and making yourself proceedable first, puts you in the strongest position to not only find but secure a property!
2. Have financial arrangements in place
We recommend having financial arrangements in place before you begin to look at properties. Firstly, decide how much do you want to spend? This could well be dependent on how much of a deposit you can get together, it’s important to remember the extra one-off and ongoing costs of buying a home, it’s important to factor these into your budget also.
If you need a mortgage, approach a lender for a mortgage in principle (MIP), this will help as any sellers will see you as a serious buyer!
If you are a cash buyer, prepare a letter from your bank/accountant or solicitor proving you have the funds to purchase when you make an offer.
3. Focus on your must have requirements with your property search
House hunting can be the most fun part of the process for many, but it can also be the most time-consuming and frustrating. It’s not unusual to view several homes that disappoint you and others that you really like only to lose out to another buyer. Patience is key.
Location, location, location…. You could well be paying a considerable premium for the location of the property as well as the property itself, so it’s key to consider what area and location benefits are important to you.
Take as much time as you need to find the right home. We know many people aspire to find their ‘forever home’, we aim to help you along every step of your property journey providing a wealth of local knowledge and a realistic approach to the property market to ensure you find the home that will work best for you and your budget.
4. Arrange a viewing
Most online property search reveals a huge amount of visual detail on the property listing including photography, walk-through videos and virtual tours. These tools are very useful, but it is very important to visit a property in person too! Take your time to view, remember buying a home is one of the biggest and quite often, emotional commitments that you’re likely to ever make, it’s important to take your time. Our experts are there to answer any questions you may have about the property and its location.
5. Making an offer
Once you’ve found the home you want, it’s time to think about your offer. It’s always a good idea to firstly establish the seller’s circumstances and timeframes, ensuring that expectations are set from the start. Moreover, it’s important to be clear with your offer, your reasons of why you have offered a certain amount and what you’d like to be included within that offer. Good communication between all parties is key to reduce the possibility of misplaced assumptions and avoid future disappointment further down the line once an offer is accepted. It certainly helps if the purchaser making an offer can be available to answer any important questions in order to strengthen their position whilst the offer is being considered.
6. Offer accepted – Time to celebrate?
It’s always exciting to hear that your offer has been accepted, however there is still plenty of work to do! Once your offer has been accepted, a ‘memorandum of sale’ will be issued detailing the conditions of the sale and the agreed price. This is sent to both parties and their nominated solicitors for the legal process to begin.
Our dedicated staff work very hard to provide a service that makes the entire process as simple and efficient as possible for all parties concerned, doing our utmost to liaise with all estate agencies and solicitors involved within your chain.
There are several stages to the sales progression following an accepted offer and these stages tend to vary dependant on the property/buyer/vendor etc.
Once you have instructed a solicitor, all parties will be working to the Exchange of Contracts. This process varies dependant on the property being purchased and all other properties involved in the ‘chain’. The exchange of contracts is legally binding and a date for completion will be agreed upon at this stage
Completion of sale, a completion of sale usually occurs approximately 7 days after exchange but can vary depending on circumstances. This is the day when the balance of money is transferred from the buyer to seller via solicitors. The seller’s solicitor will advise us, the agent, when the funds have been received, we can then release the keys to the buyer. The sale is now complete, and the property now belongs to the buyer!
7. We Are Here to Help
This guide is of course just a very basic overview of the buying process, if there is anything you would like to know that is property related, please do not hesitate to contact us here at Longsons and we will do whatever we can to help.
