The process of buying a house

Harry_Powell

Purely theorically, once you've found a house that both yourself and girlfriend, especially girlfriend (who may or may not be the most picky, indecisive and annoying house hunting mate in the world ever), really like and you put in a derisory offer that is rejected out of hand, then you put in a slightly better offer that is hummed and hawed over for a couple of days and is then accepted, say in the last hour.

What do I (or rather, what does the hypothetical case) do next! :eek:

princessamy86

Your theoretical friend would speak to his mortgage advisor and start the ball rolling with the application, possibly paying for his survey also. Because his girlfriend has been picky and annoying, he would set her the task of researching solicitors and make her decide which is going to be the best value for money, on a no sale no fee basis. She might like to search this board, there's lots of advice here! Your friend and his girlfriend need to instruct the solicitors and tell the agent, then you can relax a bit until your survey has been done. Depending on the condition and age of the property, it might be wise for your friend to have a homebuyers survey and/or full structural, again, do a search. Hope that helps!

BenL

Make sure the bank/building society will lend you enough money and you have enough deposit to be accepted for the deal.

Strictly speaking the above steps and checking of affordability and agreement in principle would have been agreed before starting to view houses.

Tell the selected mortgage company so they can take your money for a survey and send someone round to survey the price to protect their interests.

Next up, find a conveyencer to start searches.

princessamy86

I'm interested to know why this is a purely theoretical situation?? (I'm very nosey )

Harry_Powell

Sorry, I should have said that I had a chat with my bank and checked out some online mortgage sites to make sure that I can afford the amount I offered (including deposit).

I think I'll get onto the solicitor because my GF will take forever to choose one and totally stress me out. The estate agent I put the offer into has asked me if I'd like to speak to their mortgage advisor. I said I'd think about it, but was wondering if I should? Any opinions?

Also, do I do searches or are they included with the HIPS, if not, then what is on the HIPS?

Harry_Powell

princessamy86 wrote: »

I'm interested to know why this is a purely theoretical situation?? (I'm very nosey )

I am afraid of all the "Don't buy yet you fool, the crash has only just started" and "You'll be buying into negative equity, you idiot, wait 5 years until the market has bottomed!" type comments that I've seen others receive on here.

I've come clean though now.

princessamy86

Is the EA mortgage advisor an independent, whole of market one? If not, don't bother, if it is, and you can have a free appointment, then go for it. As a general rule I think we're quite nice on here! Ignore anyone who isn't! Have you read Martin's mortgage guide? Best place to start. The general consensus on here with solicitors is to get a price of an online one, and a price from a couple of local ones. You do seem to get what you pay for, so aiming for a mid price one is probably best, even more so if you can get a recommendation off someone. If you tell us whereabouts you are based someone may be able to recommend one for the area.

Harry_Powell

I'm buying in a UB4 post code. So the solicitor sorts out all the searches and legal stuff and holds the money when we exchange, the bank/building society does the valuation and mortgage and we bite our nails and wait for it all to go through. Is that everything or did I miss a stage?

The house we're buying is vacant possession and we're FTB so there won't be a chain, does anyone know how long it usually takes for everything to go through?

sorry, I don't know about the estate agent (full market, etc). I was thinking about an IFA because I'd like to put in place other stuff such as life/home insurance, I have a fledgling pension I'd like them to look at and thought I could get it done in one place - has anyone else done this, was it OK?

princessamy86

If you're thinking about other things such as pensions then I think an IFA is the way forward, again, recommendations for local ones are a good place to start. Don't know where UB4 is unfortunately! Definitely not near me. You're spot on with the stuff above, if everything goes very smoothly, with no chain it can be around 6 to 8 weeks. That's obviously dependent on all sorts of things, but when you instruct your solicitor tell them you would like to be in for the end of October and see what they can do.

PasturesNew

Usually you just get your mortgage sorted/chosen, then just supply whatever paperwork the broker asks for ... and hire a solicitor and supply whatever paperwork he asks for.

Sign anything they give you ... and then at some future point you get a phone call saying the house is yours.

That's the minimum effort route anyway. Solicitor will organise/get/check things like searches etc.

Harry_Powell

If I see a good deal on a mortgage (we want a fixed one), will the mortgage company hold that deal for us even though we're only just starting and given that it'll take anything upto 2 months before we actually exchange?

p.s. UB4 is Hayes. A bit further out from London than I would have liked and a lot further out than where we are now, but good links to Central London (where I work) and Heathrow (where my GF works).