A quick guide to buying your first home

Buying your first home can be an exciting and new experience. However, there are many important financial implications and things to consider before you go ahead and start the purchase process.

It’s important that you get things right from the start, otherwise you may end up spending more money than you have to by making costly mistakes.

Below are some important considerations and tips to get you started on the right track to buying your very first home.

Establish an affordable budget – How much
can you borrow?

Before you go house hunting its important that you establish a ‘budget’ and that you find out how much you are likely to be able to borrow to buy your first home. This makes perfect sense as you don’t want to waste time looking at houses you can’t afford to buy.

This is the reason we developed our popular mortgage calculator tools to provide you with an estimate of what a lender is likely to lend to you either as an individual or via a joint application.

Our calculator tools will also tell you how much of a deposit you’ll need, what your repayments will be and if you need to pay any stamp duty on your purchase. The amount you have to pay will depend on the type of mortgage product you choose. Our mortgage advisors will be able advise you of this and will discuss your options if you choose to go ahead.

Getting a decision in principle

This is your initial loan application and it is here that you will specify a particular mortgage product and rate. Getting a successful decision in principle means that your lender will provisionally agree to lend you the money you have asked for subject to a successful survey report and other conditions. At this point the lender will carry out a credit check and will ensure that you are credit worthy for the amount you have applied for.

Your mortgage advisor/broker will be able to carry out a decision in principle upon your behalf and this should be done before you make any offers to purchase a property. It is the initial check to ensure that you are able to borrow the amount of money you require.

Some estate agents may ask to see your decision in principle before they will consider your offer or put it forward to the seller to consider.

Submitting a mortgage application and getting an offer from your lender

After you have made a successful offer to buy a property you will then be required to make a full mortgage application. It is at this point you should also instruct your conveyancing solicitor to get underway with the searches and the neccessary checks.

Your mortgage lender will then arrange for a valuation and RICS surveyors report of the property to ensure that it is suitable security to lend against. This will include checking that the value is the same amount as what you are buying the property for and that it is in a good state of repair.

Choosing the right conveyancing solicitors

You’ll find it difficult to buy your dream home unless you have a conveyancing solicitor to handle the legal requirements of your home purchase. You can do it DIY, but it’s not recommended if you have never done this before. In our opinion it’s not worth the risk.

The best and often the most affordable conveyancers are generally found on the internet and they can handle your case and all the neccessary communication by telephone, email and post. They generally only deal with conveyancing (exclusively) and are very competitive while still providing a high standard of service to their clients.

Buying a property is an important responsibility and getting the right conveyancing is equally important to ensure you get a smooth and hassle free transaction. Many things can go wrong with a house sale and often do. A good conveyancer will ensure things get back on track and are worth their weight in gold when problems arise.

As a guide your conveyancing solicitor will carry out the following tasks:

• Handle all the money transactions from your mortgage company, yourself and the sellers solicitor.
• Carry out all the neccessary searches on the property you wish to buy. They will check that everything is in order. This will include flood searches, environmental reports & planning reports and more.
• Produce the exchange of contracts and the neccessary legal documents.
• Arrange for the exchange of contracts and a completion date.
• Register your interest in the property at the land registry.

Your conveyancer will also be able to advise you if there are any reasons as to why you shouldn’t buy the property. For example, they may highlight that there may be planning restrictions, a history of flooding in the area or other risks that may become apparent within the searches.

We can provide you a conveyancing quote from over 300 approved and recommended conveyancers. With our popular eConveyancing system you can compare actual quotes and get reviews from previous customers online all in one place.

Congratulations – completing the sale and moving in to your new home

After you have received a successful mortgage offer and your conveyancing solicitor has carried out all of their checks and searches you will then be required to exchange contracts with the seller. Your solicitor will advise you when you are ready to do this. It is at this point that you will be required to pay your deposit and sign the contract of sale. This then becomes legally binding and if you decide to ‘pull out’ of the sale after this point you may lose your deposit amount.

You will then arrange a ‘completion date’ and is the final step to buying your first property. This is the date at which all the money exchanges hands and you will get the keys to your new home. Generally completions happen on a friday (and a week or so after you have exchanged contracts) which then gives you the weekend to move in and get settled.