FTB - Solicitors and surveys!

kne

Im a FTB, just had my offer accepted on a property - Exciting yet daunting!

Looking for some advise please.

What properties should I be looking for in a solicitor? I want this sale to go as quickly as possible as the property is practically empty and only myself and seller in the "chain". Are online solicitors worth it? Are they fast and efficient or would it be worth speaking face to face with someone local?

Also the house was only sold 2 years ago, its a new (~7yrs old) property. What kind of survey should I have done on it? I have already given it a good visual inspection (easy as the house is empty) I will be going for another viewing today and give it another good looking over, test taps and etc (are there any checkforms I can download)! Again are the online surveyors worth using?

Many thanks for your replys!

Heth_2

We are ftbs and have chosen a local solicitor, and a homebuyers survey (our house is about 50 years old). For a property that is just 7 years old I probably wouldn't bother with a more detailed survey like a structural survey, unless I had any doubts about anything. We paid 465 for the valuation+survey, and the mortgage lender organised it. I think it is probably cheaper to get them doen together unless you get a really cheap quote from a different surveyor. I'm not sure what you mean by an online surveyors - to do a survey they will definitely need to visit the property.
We chose a local solicitor because being ftbs we weren't 100% sure about everything in the buying process, and for us it was useful to actually go and see him when we signed the contract and sort out any questions we had. We also liked the idea of being able to go to the physical office down the road if we needed to chase anything, rather than the possibility of dealing with a call centre.

lynzpower

As a FTB a couple of years ago i was as baffled as you are!

I bought a *new* falt so had 10 years builders guarantee.

I firstly went for a "recommended and discounted by my trade union" solicitor. They were absolutely rubbish. They were based miles away in plymouth, me in london. I had to fire them as they sent through someone elses deeds and bank statments to me, and another time sent a complete strangers birth certificate to me. Phoned to give them grief about it and they pretty much said " well theres paperwork all over the place here, mistakes are bound to happpen". So I fired them and lost 350 paid upfront.

I went for a solicitor recommended by my mortgage broker in the end. She was absolutely excellent. Based in St Albans so a bit of a trail for me to get there, but if she needed me to sign anything or gothrough it, we did it in person by me jumping a train to her ofice. I couldnt imagine going through conveyancing as a ftb without that face to face contact, especially if the process ends up drawn out and long as mine did ( from the sellers side, not my side)

Ask around your mates, family. If they can recommend someone, then go for them. Word of mouth is always better I think in this situation than any other sort of advertising.

kne

Thanks a lot, just found out the house still has NHBC warranty until dec 2009 so thats great news!.

After reading what you have said I think I will go for a local solicitor unless there is considerable money to be saved.

Thanks!

Wickedkitten

Make sure whatever solicitor that you do use has a fixed no sale, no pay fee.

kne

Well I have found one called Sirva, the women on the phone sounds very nice. Picks up the phone in a fraction of a second and has gotten back to me every time she said she would. Always handy!

No fee for a purchase failing (apart from searches already carried out). Others I have phoned have been more expensive and you have to pay £50 insurance to get money back if purchase fails!

robwend

i think its a choice thing with this no completion no fee thingy, as you get charged more for that anyway, and it brings the pessimist out in you

Wickedkitten

Hmm, I don't know. Ours is around 700 fixed with no sale, no fee and if that one sale doesn't end up going through, the second set of searches are free as well and thats just standard without the insurance that some of them seem to offer.

B52

We are FTBs as well, and since we wanted to complete asap we used the solicitor and surveryor recommended by our mortgage advisor.

The solicitor is a local one and as someone else said you can easily go to see them/send them paper if need be and we can also check online of the progress report too so it's alright.

As for surveyor we wished we have appointed one ourselves as as the moment we are waiting for the homebuyers survey report but we don't really know which firm is doing this as it is appointed through our lender.

Tassotti

I have used online solicitors, and I think they are fine for remortgages, but not for purcahses. You gnereally get what you pay for and it is worth spending the extra couple of hundred pounds to get a good local one.

As the property is only 7 years old, I would go for a Valuation only. A Homebuyers Report, IMO, isn't worth the paper its written on. It will not tell you anything that you can't spot for yourself..Very basic indeed.

Good luck

FTB83

I'm just in the process of buying a house too - it's three years old and advice from people on this forum said a homebuyers survey would be adequate for the age. It was perfectly fine, I was surprised at how thorough it was - the surveyor checked the loft space, the outside of the house, the boiler and so on. He also took photos of any small cracks (only settlement cracks in this case, phew!) and also any scrapes on the walls (there was only a small cosmetic dent). You can do visual checks yourself, but surveyors will know of possible problems and where to look for these.

As far as solicitors are concerned, I wouldn't go for an online service. As a first time buyer, you really don't know quite what should be happening and when etc. and also, once your offer's accepted, much of the rest of what happens seems to be over the phone, so it's great to be able to actually meet someone (i.e. your solicitor) face to face. This should also save time over an online one as you will not be having to wait for documents to be received in the post, then you sign, and then send off etc. etc. Everything can be done in your meetings. Plus, to your solicitor, you are a face/person, not just a name and number as would be the case on an online service.

Best of luck!