1st time buyer: I made my offer :S

jonnyboyuk

i'm new to the forum! my name is Jon and i came around here to read all sort of advices buying a property!
been looking for a while and found a nice studio flat in a nice area in islington (london)…so i made my offer! i live by myself so i think a studio flat will make it for now
somehow i got the details of the current owner - apparently is a big landlord of the area…and when i google his name he seems to be well known for his flouted planning laws….
i really like the property though but I'm a bit worried… if the offer got through and the surveyor/solicitor point out various issues how should i move?
first time buyer so a bit lost….

silvercar

Your solicitor will lead you, so make sure you choose someone that is personally recommended to you and not the estate agent's best buddy.

Do you need a mortgage? Check carefully that your lender will lend on studios as not all will.

jonnyboyuk

yeah i have sorted everything with the bank and the mortgage is been agreed. so once the offer is accepted what's the best for me? finding out a solicitor? also how can i find a good one? i don't have many friends who actually bought properties is it going to be good enough to find one on internet? i think there is a certain transparency in these modern days where with a good research you can actually find out what people experience…. as far as i understood it would be good to find a local one so it's more likely to be more 'hands on' the borough?

DettaWalker

We got our solicitor from http://www.fridaysmove.com/ and would do it again. It saved us a lot of money when our 1st purchase fell through and our deposit was refunded. In other words, we lost no money despite our solicitors having engaged when the property did fall through.

jonnyboyuk

oh that sounds good! thanks for this!

Dan-Dan

Would be looking to use a solicitor local to me and the area , if possible rather than online quotes like that

You can still weigh up the costs yourself , dont let the Internet replace a real life solicitors office you can go into

kitty_kins

We used Quality Talbots Solicitors. They were fairly local to us (Midlands) but we never actually met them as they posted all documents to us and we spoke via telephone and email. This worked really well for us so don't be put off by distance I agree with Dan-Dan though, we always knew that if we NEEDED to, we could pop in and see them even if it was a 40 minute drive away.

We were first time buyers too

Pixie5740

You can find a local solicitor through the Law Society.

http://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/

You can get the contract details of several local solicitors and then phone them to get a couple of quotes and get a feel for which one you want to engage.