Anxious FTB - what, when, and who?

CarrieVS

I've had an offer accepted on a house, and as I've never done anything like this before I'm very scared and anxious that I'm going to mess up (or delay the process until the vendor gets fed up) and lose the sale. Or worse, buy the house without noticing major problems.

Current progress:
- no chain
- offer accepted, memorandum of sale sent out by estate agent
- decision in principle from my mortgage lender, starting full application process
- instructed a solicitor and waiting to receive documents from them by post (which I presume will include requests to send them ID and pay for searches.)

I have about five million and three questions but I'll try and stick to the critical ones.

My current questions are mostly about surveysansweredat the end of the thread:

1. The lender wants contact details of someone who will let their valuer in. I take it this should be the vendor or whoever they choose?
2. I now have the vendor's contact information through the memorandum of sale: is it normal to continue to address all queries through the estate agent, or would it be appropriate to contact the vendor directly for anything? (Particularly for the above query, but in general too.)
3. Assuming I arrange my own survey, how soon in the process should I be instructing a surveyor? Would it be precipitous to do it now?
   
4. Views on using the lender's surveyor? They will upgrade their valuation to a Homebuyer's Report for £275 which is slightly lower than the quotes I've had for arranging it myself, one less thing for me to arrange, but means I can't choose the surveyor. Would you guys trust the lender to have a reliable surveyor, or am I taking a risk here?
5. 1950s property, standard construction, looks to be in mostly good condition (to an untrained eye) except that the roof will clearly need some work - probably just the tiles and nothing structural. Does this sound like a candidate for a full Building Survey, or Homebuyer's Report, or borderline?

All advice greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance.

lisyloo

1. Yes, it's up to the vendor.
2. Go through the estate agent/your solicitor. This is to make sure there is no confusion. For example with regards to what is being left there will be a form so there is no confusion.
4. I'd trust the lender. After all they are putting their money where their mouth is. You are taking a slight risk in that the surveyor works for the lender and not for you so you may be quite limited in asking questions. If it's only slightly lower and you want them working for you and to be able to query things, then pay for your own.

Surrey_EA

1. When buying through an estate agent, provide the agents details to the mortgage lender to pass on to the surveyors.

2. Sometimes vendors are not keen to be contacted direct, and sometimes the agent is useless and/or unhelpful. Begin by putting queries to the agent, only go direct to the owner if you're having an issue obtaining a response.

3. Some buyers prefer to wait until they receive their mortgage offer before committing to the expense of a private survey, should they be worried about the mortgage application being successful. Don't leave it too long though, not unreasonably the vendor might be a little put out if you book a survey when you're far down the process and they thing exchange is imminent.

4. The lender is unlikely to be using an unreliable surveyor. However, I would still prefer to identify and instruct my own surveyor, even if it ended up costing me a little more.

5. I suspect most would say a homebuyers is sufficient in these circumstances.

Is the chain complete? (Does the vendor of the property you wish to buy have somewhere to move to?)

Don't commit to spending money either with solicitors, surveyors or the mortgage lender until the chain is complete.

Slithery

CarrieVS wrote: »

The lender wants contact details of someone who will let their valuer in. I take it this should be the vendor or whoever they choose?

Give your lender the EA's details, they will liase with the vendor for you.

I now have the vendor's contact information through the memorandum of sale: is it normal to continue to address all queries through the estate agent, or would it be appropriate to contact the vendor directly for anything? (Particularly for the above query, but in general too.)

Go through the EA for everything, unless the vendor has specifically stated to you that it's OK to contact them directly.

Views on using the lender's surveyor? They will upgrade their valuation to a Homebuyer's Report for £275 which is slightly lower than the quotes I've had for arranging it myself, one less thing for me to arrange, but means I can't choose the surveyor. Would you guys trust the lender to have a reliable surveyor, or am I taking a risk here?

Trusting the surveyor isn't the issue here. Although it will be cheaper to upgrade the lenders survey this means that everything that they report on will also be passed to the lender which could alter their decision. If you instruct your own surveyor then only you get to see the report.

The general state of the property would be the deciding factor for me on whether or not to get my own additional survey if having to get a mortgage (then again, I've had nothing more than the valuation on the last few purchases I've been involved with).

CarrieVS

Thank you all!

@Surrey_EA: there is no chain - property was an investment and is currently vacant.

G_M

CarrieVS wrote: »

........
I have about five million and three questions but I'll try and stick to .......

Get yourself a book on house-buying.


Your local library will even lend you one free.


That will save you starting five million and three different threads on the forum........

CarrieVS

G_M wrote: »

That will save you starting five million and three different threads on the forum........

Well that's why I made the title of this one non-specific. I will see if any of the local libraries have a copy of House Buying for Dummies though, that's a good idea.

CarrieVS

Current progress:
- Initial paperwork returned to my solicitor and ID verified yesterday.
- Mortgage offer came through today.
- Chosen a surveyor and in the process of booking a survey.

I'm a bit confused by the mortgage offer.

It was only three days between submitting the full application (having received a decision in principle) and getting the offer. They haven't asked me for any proof of anything apart from a couple of bank statements which they wanted to see before approving the DIP. (They haven't bothered with a physical valuation but I know that's not unusual.)

Is that normal?

I'd been under the impression that I'd only get an offer after they verified my income and so on, but I haven't been asked for payslips. The offer says:

We are committed to making this loan before the offer expires unless:
• there is a material change in your personal or financial circumstances
• there is a material change in the value of the Property
• we have reason to believe you’ve given false information about you or the Property
• the conveyancer raises any issue which makes the Property unacceptable to us.

but it doesn't say anything about them intending to verify anything about my current finances or being subject to me providing evidence.

I'd like to be happy that it came through so quickly and without fuss but now I'm starting to worry there might've been a mistake.

G_M

Chill.

Assuming this is a firm offer, not some kind of MIP, just be thankful things are moving smoothly.


Most people get stressed when their mortgage is declined. Don't get stressed by approval!

datlex

CarrieVS wrote: »

I've had an offer accepted on a house, and as I've never done anything like this before I'm very scared and anxious that I'm going to mess up (or delay the process until the vendor gets fed up) and lose the sale. Or worse, buy the house without noticing major problems.

Current progress:
- no chainmy FTB purchase was no chain makes life easier as not got several groups to deal with
- offer accepted, memorandum of sale sent out by estate agent
- decision in principle from my mortgage lender, starting full application process
- instructed a solicitor and waiting to receive documents from them by post (which I presume will include requests to send them ID and pay for searches.) So not a local one? I used local was really useful as was able to save time by going in with my proof of deposit and to sign things

I have about five million and three questions but I'll try and stick to the critical ones.

My current questions are mostly about surveysanswered:

1. The lender wants contact details of someone who will let their valuer in. I take it this should be the vendor or whoever they choose? Give lender name of estate agent, they should help arange
2. I now have the vendor's contact information through the memorandum of sale: is it normal to continue to address all queries through the estate agent, or would it be appropriate to contact the vendor directly for anything? (Particularly for the above query, but in general too.) I would go via the estate agent, they are being paid after all.
3. Assuming I arrange my own survey, how soon in the process should I be instructing a surveyor? Would it be precipitous to do it now? Depends if you are doing a separate survey to valuation
   
4. Views on using the lender's surveyor? They will upgrade their valuation to a Homebuyer's Report for £275 which is slightly lower than the quotes I've had for arranging it myself, one less thing for me to arrange, but means I can't choose the surveyor. Would you guys trust the lender to have a reliable surveyor, or am I taking a risk here? I would expect the lender to have a reliable surveyor
5. 1950s property, standard construction, looks to be in mostly good condition (to an untrained eye) except that the roof will clearly need some work - probably just the tiles and nothing structural. Does this sound like a candidate for a full Building Survey, or Homebuyer's Report, or borderline? Mine is similar age level 2 survey was sufficient, it covered damp and subsidence (not that I had either of those)

All advice greatly appreciated, many thanks in advance.

Good luck with you new home. Be prepared the survey may lead to further costs (not repairs). I had to get a shale survey done here following my survey as it was brought up in the survey.

CarrieVS

@datlex it is a local solicitor actually - ten minutes walk from my workplace. They just said they would post things and I didn't think to ask if they could email them for me to print myself or have me come round to pick them up, until it was already in the post. It certainly saved some time to be able to take it all back to the office in my lunch break.