How Does Process Work?

scrivomcdivo

What is the process for buying a house?

My fiancee and I have worked out a budget for a home working on a mortgage at 6.5% (possibly higher than what we'll pay but we're happy to use this as a guide as the house cost suits our range). Now, if we find a house and like it, do we then approach a mortgage advisor or do that before we find a house? Likewise, if you look at a house and like it, do you put an offer in before the surveyor looks at the property or after?

Can anyone give me a timeline of the process, ie what we should do first, then what happens next etc etc....?

wishiwasarichgirl

if you know roughly the value of the house you want its worth going to see a mortgage advisor (i think you can get fee-free ones?) to get a "mortgage in principle" i think its called. i was told that this makes you seem more serious to the vendors.

personally, i saw house, liked it, then saw mortgage advisor, was ok'd for martgage, went back to see house again, put in offer, declined by vendors (it was a bit of a cheeky one!) put in offer close to asking price subject to house being taken off market.

only get survey done after offer is accepted, then withdraw/lower offer if anything major crops up in survey.

you also need a solicitor to do all the legal carp. i just went for the one affiliated with the estate agents, probably not the cheapest option but i was a naieve FTB and wanted the handiest option.

after offer is accepted and survey is done i think it was just a case of waiting, i was chain free (renting) but there was quite a long upward chain which caused a few problems and dragged things out (offer accepted end of july, moved in mid november)

solicitors&estate agents organised most stuff, i just supplied the odd payment when requested (seemed like every other week:eek: )

you will need to organise buildings insurance to start the day you're due to move in, think the mortgage company insists on this.

hth

scrivomcdivo

What about paying solicitor fees and mortgage arrangement fees? Can the solicitor be paid post-moving in and can the mortgage fees and surveyor fees be included in the mortgage? ie, the lender adds them into the mortgage repayments?

lilyann1

Yes there are deals out there that allows you to add fees to the mortgage.
Also solicitors need paying on completion,although they will ask for some search fees at the beginning.
I agree with above,go see mortagge advisor to now how much you can borrow,then this allows you to know what price you are looking up to.
Put offer in and once accepted,it is all systems go with getting survey done and then solicitors in place and mortgage offer agreed.

RHemmings

scrivomcdivo wrote:

What is the process for buying a house?

My fiancee and I have worked out a budget for a home working on a mortgage at 6.5% (possibly higher than what we'll pay but we're happy to use this as a guide as the house cost suits our range). Now, if we find a house and like it, do we then approach a mortgage advisor or do that before we find a house? Likewise, if you look at a house and like it, do you put an offer in before the surveyor looks at the property or after?

I think you're very wise to use a mortgage rate much higher than the current rate in your affordability calculations. Too few people do.

scrivomcdivo

We have a combined income of £37000 to increase by £1500 annually. So, we've budgetted for a mortgage repayment of around £550 per month max. With this, we're looking in the price range of £80000 - £90000. Does this sound right? We're happy with the properties we've seen in this price range so, even if it falls cheaper than £550 per month, that'd leave us extra money for savings etc...