How to begin looking for a Home?

darkvader

Hi,

We are finally getting into a position to look for our first home. Will be late bloomers looking for a good place in our 30s so not choosing a place just to get on the housing ladder.

We are not originally from the UK so dont have family or friends who have experience house hunting so posting my question to this forum. What I believe the process is

1. Meet a mortgage advisor to be sure of what we can borrow. Websites give an rough idea but best to meet a mortgage advisor
2. Look for places, visit interested ones and make an offer
3. I believe we need to have a lawyer on board when placing the offer but not sure?
4. If the seller accepts the offer, contact bank (or banks) for deals?
5. Await their decision. Positive outcome means we proceed with final purchase

The doubts I have
1. When does a survey of the property happen. Should we do one?
2. Can we not meet banks before to understand if they are willing to give us a mortgage so we know our limit?
3. How and when do we get a lawyer on board?
4. Where do I go to meet a mortgage advisor? Will an sales agent office do?
Many more but will stop for now

About us
1. I am on £55k and OH on £18k
2. No outstanding loans or any other mortgage. Pretty clean record
3. We will have about £30k to give as a deposit and looking at spending no more than £200k on our home - so that's a 15% deposit
4. We will have approx £10k set aside for all other fees and furnishings

Any info on next steps or a good place to start reading up is appreciated

Thanks
DV

Cotterell55

I can not stress how much you NEEd to have a survey done, ok it can cost quite a lot to have one done, but it's better to know of any future problems now rather than after you have signed the contract and are "stuck" with the problems. If you have a proper survey and you spot something wrong, you could get some money off the price in order to get the problem sorted. She as if you don't have one and you noticed the problems after signing, then you are stuck with the costs.

Cotterell55

You can get an " agreement in principal " which mean you have has a "it's looking ok" based on your financial status, however this does not mean anything until you get an official mortgage offer from the lender. The agent will have a mortgage advisor, but you're best using you advisor at your bank, as the agents advisor works for the agent, so obviously they want the sale so they will get whatever deal they can for you in order to get a sale, and if that means getting you a poor deal then that is what they will do, with regards to your credit history, believe it or not the more credit cards and loans you have, the better.......BUT ONLY IF YOU HAVE KEPT UP WITH PAYMENTS. The more deposit you have, the better the interest rates will be for you.

Cotterell55

I have literally just bought my first home with my girlfriend so I'm up to date with the latest methods used to buy a home. So feel free to message me with any questions

vectistim

darkvader wrote: »

1. Meet a mortgage advisor to be sure of what we can borrow. Websites give an rough idea but best to meet a mortgage advisor

Best to find an independent one locally that you can see.

2. Look for places, visit interested ones and make an offer
3. I believe we need to have a lawyer on board when placing the offer but not sure?

Once your offer has been accepted you will need a solicitor. Try and get a few recommendations for a solicitor, I'd say avoid the anonymous conveyancing teams suggested by large corporate estate agency firms.

4. If the seller accepts the offer, contact bank (or banks) for deals?

At this stage get back to the broker you spoke to in the first place, deals available will have changed.

5. Await their decision. Positive outcome means we proceed with final purchase

The broker will arrange with the bank and the bank will then do its work and talk to your solicitor.

The doubts I have
1. When does a survey of the property happen. Should we do one?

The lender will want a valuation of the property. They will charge you for this. The lender's valuation is mostly to check the value of the property and will not be a detailed survey of the property it will generally be a one or two page tick box form.
If you buy an old house the chances are the survey will recommend further checks: damp, wood boring beetles, cavity wall ties, electrical system.
If you want you can get a more detailed survey carried out that will actually look at the condition of various elements of the building, this could either be carried out at the same time as the bank's valuation, or you could get another surveyor in to do that bit separately for you.

2. Can we not meet banks before to understand if they are willing to give us a mortgage so we know our limit?

This is what the mortgage broker/advisor will do. Part of an independent advisor's job will be to virtually trawl through all the banks on your behalf.

3. How and when do we get a lawyer on board?

Try and get a few recommendations for local solicitors.

4. Where do I go to meet a mortgage advisor? Will an sales agent office do?
Many more but will stop for now

Corporate estate agents will have inhouse mortgage advice, however this is often their first mortgage job and they will usually be operating a restricted panel of lenders.
Small independent estate agents may have a link to a local independent mortgage advisor able to access (more or less) the whole mortgage market.
There is probably some sort of local property press in which you will probably find solicitors and mortgage advisors advertising.

girl_withno_name

In order to answer some of your questions I think people will need to know - are you in England & Wales or Scotland?

darkvader

Thanks for the replies so far, gives more clarity

We are buying a place in Berkshire and currently reside in Reading

Some more questions
1. How do I get a good solicitor on board? Any recommendations from here?
2. Same goes for a Mortgage advisor, I will pick my local this evening but better a recommendation than a random pick.
3. Mortgage advisers are usually free so I think I must keep an eye for them

Somehow, this feels like the start of the end of my year

DV

Kynthia

I went to the IFA-guide website to find an independent mortgage advisor who would either work commission or for a fee (and then be 'whole of market'). He gave me an idea of how much I can borrow and at what rates and monthly repayments. Next I will ask a few local solicitors to send me a quote for handling my purchase and pick one, unless I have a recommendation.

Then the viewings begin. :-). Once an offer is accepted I believe my advisor will start the ball rolling with the mortgage lender and I will pay the extra to have a full survey. My solicitor will start work on searches, etc.

Good luck.

darkvader

To start things off - there are advisers on this forum.
Can anyone recommend names for first time buyer with 15% LTV and looking for commission only brokers?

Thanks
DV

caeler

I would recommend seeing an independant financial advisor, I'd recommend mine but unless you live nr Taunton, Somerset it won't be much good to you! Chat to friends/colleagues for recommendations, biased.co.uk, make a fall calls, read Martin's guide and ask for 'whole of the market'. The FA made my life so easy, got a great mortgage deal and they did all the work. I paid a fee to them as that is how I preferred to roll. (This is the same as mortgage advisor, you don't need a financial advisor and a mortgage advisor, they offer the same services!)

Same with solicitors, chat to friends/colleagues and ask for recommendations, I personally prefer local solicitor firms as I've had the most success with them, I once went with a conveyencing firm and could NEVER speak to my solicitor, not good.

You do appear naive, so do as much reading as you can about home buying, then you won't be made a fool later. There is lots of info on the main site here so read up! That is exactly what I did when I bought my first property in 2003 and second in 2010.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/mortgages/mortgage-rate-calculator

Also, nothing to stop you looking at moneysupermarket.com and seeing what type of mortgage you could get to give you an idea of rates.

darkvader

Hi Caeler,

As I said, we dont have immediate family here and friends are quote young or quite old so not close to the whats happening in the market now. This is why we dont have a lot of people to ask advice from.
Once of my friends used a solicitor recommended on here which is why I asked the question on any recommendations

Thanks for the links, begun going through a lot of material, used moneysupermarket and now also going through unbiased.co.uk to see who's local to me

BTW - most real estate agents seem to have an advisor in their office - am I right in thinking they are not likely to be whole of market pushing deals that they have closer tie ups with?

Cheers
DV