First time buyer, Need opinion on when to instruct a solicitor

mpr87

Hi all,



made an offer on a house on Saturday and after chasing the EA yday evening it turns out the offer was accepted and they had just forgotten to ring us back. (not sure that fills me with confidence but ok... good news)



basically our vender is looking to buy an empty property with the same EA. When i was told my offer was accepted she did tell me this but explained their offer hadn't been accepted yet.



When we viewed the house the vendor was nice and honest enough and seemed to suggest that if they don't/can't get the house they are after then they are happy to stay where they are so this is the reason for my "doubts"


We've sent all our documents/AIP to the EA and they have confirmed the property has now been listed as SSTC which is fine. They've now asked for my solicitors details.



At this stage i've had quotes but have not yet instructed a solicitor.
as a ftb maybe i'm being overly cautious but part of me feels like i should be waiting until i know that our venders offer on the house they are after has been accepted.


Is this a reasonable way to look at it?



I was thinking about ringing the EA first of all to see if I can get an update in respect of our vendors offer but i'm not sure if this is the right way to go about things? Am I being reasonable asking this sort of information?



Ultimately i plan on getting a buyer protection policy so should our vendor have issues or pull out of the sale I'd hope we won't lose to much financially but i'm consious of diving right in when i'm not confident the chain will even complete.



Martin,

Bossypants

You should definitely wait until the chain is complete before instructing a solicitor to proceed, and ideally also get your survey results in (if you are getting one). Having said that, you can still go ahead and select a solicitor at this stage, so that the EA can send out the memo of sale. This is a common situation, the EA will just file the memo until you are ready to fully instruct them.

ACG

Pick a solicitor, ask them to open a file for you but not to do any work until you ask them to. You will need a solicitor for your application anyway.

Get your application in and under way.

Once it is offered, see where they are up to. If they have not moved any further forward then hold fire until they make some movement on the proeprty they want to buy.

mpr87

Thanks for the tips. Spoke to the EA yday and they still haven't had their offer accepted which does worry me as I wouldn't have thought it should take so long.



Anyway Mortgage application etc is going in on saturday and we will then pick a solicitor and see what happens. Having seen the house our vendor is offering on online I have a horrible feeling they are not putting in decent enough offers and are trying to bite of more than they can chew. We're buying at 165 and the one they want is up at 265 which seems a big jump to me. Just gotta go with the flow i guess.