How to begin looking for a Home?

caeler

I realised what you said about not having friends so I updated my post to include colleagues, colleagues love to talk about this sort of stuff!

Whatever you do DON'T see the advisor linked to your estate agent, it is a conflict of interest, it won't be independant and they will only sell you products which they potentially get a fee from. Also they will know your budget and being the suspicious sort I'd imagine they'd tell your estate agent you could afford more on any offers you make!

DVardysShadow

darkvader wrote: »

.... 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

You need to be certain about your record.

Late payments? Defaults? CCJ's?

None of these are a total showstopper, but you do need to be clear about the question because they will restrict your choice of lenders.

Doshwaster

darkvader wrote: »

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

I much preferred having a local solitictor and mortgage adviser. That way I could pop in if there were any problems. The two I chose were in the same street and knew each other well which really helped the process go smoothly/

Try taking an afternoon off work and wander down your local high street. Pop into a few solicitor offices and say "I'm about to buy a house. Can you tell me about your professional services?" They should be able to give you a rough quote based upon the approximate price of property you are looking at. See what vibe you get from them. The solicitor I chose wasn't the cheapest but I trusted her more than the dodgy chap around the corner who have me a handwritten quote on the back of an envelope.

Same goes for financial advisers. Many will give you an initial consultation for free and will explain their fee structures. Go to 3 or 4 and see who you would like to deal with.

Alternatively, you can save money and go online. But this is the biggest and most stressful financial decision in your life so I think it's better to be dealing with people you know and trust rather than an anonymous call centre.

caeler

Great advice from DVardysShadow, to access your credit report use this link: http://www.equifax.co.uk/Products/credit/statutory-report.html This is the £2 statutory credit report, you can access it immediately and it is all you really need, no need to pay any more!

G_M

Use Amazon, or Waterstones, or better still your local library (free).

There are a number of books that will take you step by step through the house buying process.

A forum like this is good for getting answers to specific problems, but you need a good overview of the process, and then also a book will be there throughout the process to refer to.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sell-House-Which-Essential-Guides/dp/1844900568

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Buy-House-Phil-Spencer/dp/0718147340

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buying-House-Step-step-Guide/dp/1857032926

darkvader

DVardysShadow wrote: »

You need to be certain about your record.

Late payments? Defaults? CCJ's?

None of these are a total showstopper, but you do need to be clear about the question because they will restrict your choice of lenders.

Thanks for highlighting these - luckily both of us are far removed for all of this - no late payments, defaults or CCJs till date

DV

darkvader

Thanks again Caeler for that link, we will use it closer to our date. As I said, its now education time for me so I am using 2012 to
1. Educate myself
2. Clearly know my way around
3. Smarten my view point to ask the right questions
4. Narrow down the area we want to buy our home

The real hunt for property starts in 2013

And thanks G_M, I will definitely purchase one of the books

DV

Doshwaster

G_M wrote: »

Use Amazon, or Waterstones, or better still your local library (free).

There are a number of books that will take you step by step through the house buying process.

A forum like this is good for getting answers to specific problems, but you need a good overview of the process, and then also a book will be there throughout the process to refer to.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sell-House-Which-Essential-Guides/dp/1844900568

http://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Buy-House-Phil-Spencer/dp/0718147340

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Buying-House-Step-step-Guide/dp/1857032926

For these books I'd just buy a used copy for 1p - many people buy them when they are starting to buy a house then sell them again. I liked the Phil Spencer one as it really is a basic introduction - the best 1p (plus postage) I ever spent.

robatwork

Although you may want to take out a mortgage should you want to buy the Phil Spencer book new!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listing/0718147340/ref=dp_olp_new?ie=UTF8&condition=new