First Time Seller

*Louise*

We bought our place a few years ago, all pretty straightforward being a first time buyer, and the solicitors.estate agents pretty much done everything.

Now we want to move to somewhere bigger, and I'm not sure where to start, it all seems so complicated

What is the best process for second time buyers?
And what's the deal with Stamp duty??

Doozergirl

You should get your house prepared for sale, get it valued by three estate agents and on to the market first. You also need to see an Independent, Whole of Market mortgage broker who will find you the best mortgage as you'll most likely be better off with a new product.

Then you can start viewing properties freely, knowing pretty well how much you can spend. The generally recognised process is that you accept an offer on your house before you make any offers on houses yourselves. It's unlikely that anyone will entertain an unproceedable offer and, IMO, it gives away your hand to early in the game.

Once you have an offer accepted, it runs pretty much the same as it did when you were a FTB but now you are likely to be in the middle of a chain trying to keep everyone happy! Everyone in the chain exchanges on the same day and then completes on the same day.

It's a lot more complicated than that really! Keep asking questions and there's also lots of information in the House Buying and House Selling stickys at the top of this board.

As for SDLT:

There is no Stamp Duty to pay at £125,000 and under
Stamp Duty is 1% of purchase price at £125,001 and over
Stamp Duty is 3% of purchase price at £250,001 and over
Stamp Duty is 4% of purchase price at £500,001 and over