FTB help with process please

gtr2869

Hi,

We have had an offer accepted on a house and our FTB so are a bit confused by the next steps. We have used a mortgage broker and have been told our mortgage offer has been accepted however we have not had the paperwork through for this.

We are now being hassled by the EA and solicitors to pay for search fees. Should we wait until we have the paperwork through for the mortgage? 

We also want a full survey done on the property. What do we pay for first searches or survey? Or can they be done at the same time?

any help is much appreciated!

pinkteapot

Has the bank done its valuation survey? If not, it's unlikely your mortgage has been approved. 

Are you using the valuation survey, upgrading it to Homebuyers, or ordering your own separate survey? 

In any event, everything can be done simultaneously - I've always paid my solicitor the money to start work (and order the searches) while the mortgage application goes through. The searches coming back is often the slowest part of the process so you want to get that underway. 

jimbo2108

HI,
I've recently just bought my first house (did it all myself). I got the mortgage offer after i engaged the solicitors to start searches. The mortgage may have been accepted but subject to valuation? I got my mortgage deed 2 weeks before exchanging. Engage solicitors sooner then later so they can check all the paperwork, order searches (which can take time) and all the other solicitor things.

Regards,

Slithery

jimbo2108 said:

HI,
I've recently just bought my first house (did it all myself).

If you used a solicitor then you didn't 'do it all yourself'

SameOldRoundabout

It’s fairly standard to instruct a solicitor straight away but not pay for searches until you have a mortgage offer in place. Has the mortgage company done the valuation survey? They should have offered you the option to pay to upgrade to a homebuyers or full survey. If they didn’t you can commission your own now. I wouldn’t be paying out until I knew an offer was in the post. If the application has definitely 100% been successful then yes, pay for searches and instruct a surveyor. 

jimbo2108

Slithery said:

jimbo2108 said:

HI,
I've recently just bought my first house (did it all myself).

If you used a solicitor then you didn't 'do it all yourself'

Haha, good point! On the mortgage side I did it all myself didn't want to pay someone upwards of £300.00 + to do something that I could do myself

notrouble

jimbo2108 said:

Slithery said:

jimbo2108 said:

HI,
I've recently just bought my first house (did it all myself).

If you used a solicitor then you didn't 'do it all yourself'

Haha, good point! On the mortgage side I did it all myself didn't want to pay someone upwards of £300.00 + to do something that I could do myself

Then why not carry that approach forward and do the survey yourself too? And the conveyancing?

The answer of course is that different people have different skill-sets and spare time, so will pay professionals when they have to. I can change the oil in my car and "don't want to pay someone upwards of £100.00 + to do something that I could do myself ", but I know many people would not try to do this!

gtr2869 - you are embarking on a major financial commitment. Make sure you fully understand what is inolved (whether you get professionls to help or DIY!) and what the key steps (and potential pitfalls!) are. There are whole books on the subject, free at the library eg

https://www.amazon.co.uk/How-Your-First-Home-Sell/dp/0091935377?SubscriptionId=AKIAILSHYYTFIVPWUY6Q&tag=duckduckgo-ffsb-uk-21&linkCode=xm2&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0091935377

bob_the_dinosaur

Depending on who your lender is- your mortgage valuation could be someone looking at the house on Googlemaps.  Ask your broker what the situation is with that, if they are worth their salt then they will have an idea of what normally happens (or should be finding out).  

AdrianC

gtr2869 said:

We have had an offer accepted on a house and our FTB so are a bit confused by the next steps. We have used a mortgage broker and have been told our mortgage offer has been accepted however we have not had the paperwork through for this.

We are now being hassled by the EA and solicitors to pay for search fees. Should we wait until we have the paperwork through for the mortgage? 

We also want a full survey done on the property. What do we pay for first searches or survey? Or can they be done at the same time?

The main question is "What are your priorities and fears?"

Are you worried the mortgage may not get approved? Then don't spend on searches and survey until you've got it through.
Are you worried the searches may find a showstopper? Do them first.
Are you worried the survey may find problems? Do that first.
Are you just gagging to get moved asap, and aren't too bothered about the risk of it falling through? Do everything in parallel.

steampowered

Personally I've always paid for the searches straight away. I'd rather risk losing £300 if the sale falls through than risk causing additional delay to the process.

Depends how much £300 is worth to you really.

iampetesmith

When we bought our first home, the order of events was pretty much this:

• Get a mortgage in principle from the bank (doesn't mean they'll give you a mortgage, but estate agents want to see this to show that you're not a timewaster)
• Start looking at houses within our budget, using the amount on the mortgage in principle as a guide
• Make an offer for what you think the house is worth to you (could be the asking price, could be a bit under or over, whatever) and see if it gets accepted

Hopefully that's where you're up to, so here's what we did next:

• Got a couple of quotes from solicitors then instructed one. We did this straight away so that we didn't hold the process up, you're serious about buying the house so may as well get the ball rolling and sort out other things as they arise. It was £375 for the searches which we paid straight away, then nothing else until completion so even if the sale fell through we'd only pay £375
• Put in the full mortgage application as this can take a few weeks, so this can be done while the searches are being carried out
• Problem 1 - mortgage application was rejected due to some paperwork not having the correct address on it, so the same day I went off to a broker (Habito, online and free) and told them the story, gave them all the details, did a full application and let them sort out the new mortgage
  
• While this is going on, the solicitor is still sorting out the searches and waiting for the draft contract pack from the vendor's solicitor
• All the searches come back and we get the draft contract pack. We sign all the paperwork and return it while we wait for the mortgage offer
• The mortgage lender arrange a valuation survey for the house (this is arranged between the EA, vendor and surveyor so you don't need to do anything)
• Problem 2 - mortgage lender down-valued the house by £5k, so we had to renegotiate the price and wait overnight while the vendor discussed it with his wife. He accepted so the mortgage was approved and then all the paperwork was changed to reflect the new price, which we signed and returned again
  
• The longest part - solicitors raised all the enquiries with the vendor's solicitors. Cue a couple of months of waiting for answers, backwards and forwards until all the information was provided to their satisfaction
• Problem 3 - the sellers at the top of the chain need to get someone's name removed from the title deed. Nothing to do with us, so we're stuck waiting. And waiting. And waiting...turns out there is a month's cooling-off period that has to lapse before the changes can be made
  
• I get a hint from the EA and solicitor that the cooling-off period is almost up, so I sent my deposit and solicitors fees (ie. the final bill) over to the solicitor ready for exchange. Note - the HTB bonus was deducted from this by the solicitor, they can't request the HTB bonus until we've exchanged but they knocked the amount off the bill. Not all solicitors do this, sometimes you'll get it refunded after completion
• Changes are finally made with the Land Registry so everyone can exchange contracts. This went surprisingly smoothly as sometimes there are delays here too, but ours happened on the day it was planned with completion set in stone for 6 days later
• Solicitor drew down the mortgage funds the day before completion so it was all ready
• Completion day went without a hitch, slight delay waiting for our vendor's solicitor to confirm that they had the funds as she was in a meeting, but this was confirmed around lunchtime and the keys were released. Just had to wait for the vendor to take them to the estate agent as he had to load up another van first

Hopefully this will give you a good idea of what to expect, the process took us around 5 and a half months altogether but it can be quicker or it can be longer, it all depends on your chain.

Good luck, I'm sure you're very excited.