Naive seller

red77

Any advice welcome please, We would like to sell our house this would be the first time we have sold so what order do we do things in.
i.e valuation, soliciters ,extra mortgage required for next property,bid on next house .help please .:eek:

ono_no_komachi

The first step is to get at least 3 valuations from different estate agents. If you can, ask around friends and neighbours if they have any recommendations. Word of mouth is very valuable!

If you haven't yet started viewing other properties, I would wait until you have some significant interest in yours (we waited till we had two people wanting to make offers but both waiting to sell their own properties). Otherwise you risk finding the house of your dreams, then waiting months to sell yours and finding the dream house is off the market.

You will need to instruct a solicitor as soon as you accept an offer on your property. Before this point any offer you make on another property will not be proceedable, so this is when you can think about making an offer on a property you like.

Your budget will be dependent on the price you have achieved on your property, so you could also wait until you have accepted an offer before asking an IFA to sort you out a mortgage in principle. They will let you know how much you can borrow on your new mortgage (though I'd advise against going to the maximum they say you can afford and tempering your budget accordingly).

Having a mortgage in principle will help when you make an offer on another property as it will provide evidence that you are financially in a position to make the offer (which a good EA will ask for).

If you have an offer accepted on a property, the vendors' EA will also ask you for your solicitor's details. It makes sense to use the same ones for your purchase as you are using for your sale (sorry if this is stating the bleedin' obvious!)

Next your buyer should arrange for a survey on your current property, and your lender should offer you a choice of surveys on the one you want to buy (basic valuation, homebuyer's, or full structural - I have always gone for the full structural myself).

The solicitors should in the meantime be getting on with searches (though I think some will wait till surveys have at least been booked, if not done, in order to make sure all parties are committed) and raising any necessary queries.

I'm less sure about the next steps as this is the stage we are at! But as far as I know, the only things left after that are exchange of contracts (after which no party can back out without penalties) and completion (which is when you get to move in!)

Sorry for being so long-winded!

freebo_2

Roughly...

1) Get your finance in place so you know how much you can/wan to borrow.

2) Appoint an Estate Agent: Get three EA's round for valuations, price your property on the basis of all three (average?). Choose an EA and haggle with them over their fee, don't sign a contract for too long (1 month, 2 max) so you can change if you're not happy.

3) View houses, don't fall in love with anything until you have an offer on yours - some people don't view until they're under offer for this reason.

4) When you have an acceptable offer, agree your purchase by offering on your chosen property.

5) When sale & purchase agreed appoint a solicitor.

Then you're into surveys, searches, mortgage offers etc, sols should advise on this.

Eventually you have exchange & completion date(s), book removal men and away you go - hopefully.

Good luck, it can be a stressfull time!

red77

Thanks for the info , I will digest it all and then hopefully start the ball rolling asap. thanks again.

caileag

All the advice above is great - provided you are in England or Wales! If you are in Scotland, the process (and hence order) is different...

However, like the posters, I assume you are in E&W. So, all I can add is - Good Luck!