Step 1 – Sell your own House

Selling your home and buying another are both time consuming and stressful, so it makes sense to do one then the other rather than attempt to do both at the same time. Selling your house first gets that part of the process of house moving out of the way first and also has the added advantage of letting you know where you stand financially as you will know your final selling price. The other advantage is that it gives you the opportunity to find out how a seller thinks, before you are faced with dealing with other sellers.

Step 2 – Decide on Budget

Having sold your house, you will know how much money in total, you have available to spend on another one. This does not mean that you will spend all of the proceeds from the sale on buying another house, it may be that you spend some of your budget buying a house and some of it on renovations or adding to the existing accommodation. Either way, do your sums accurately and work out how much you can realistically afford to pay. Bear in mind that if you are buying a larger property, this will bring with it, bigger energy bills, more maintenance and higher council tax bills payments.

Step 3 - Mortgage in Principle

It is always a good idea to get your mortgage lender to agree in principle to lend you a certain sum of money. It gives you confidence to go into the market knowing that finance will be available for your new home and will hopefully reinforce your budget expectations. The lender will look at your earnings and outgoings on a monthly basis and will calculate how much you should be able to pay in mortgage repayments, thus telling them how much they can safely lend you. By getting an ‘in principle’ agreement in advance, you save time further down the line.  It also signals to sellers and their estate agents that you are a serious buyer.

Step 4 – Decide on Area

Choosing the area in which you may want to live is a very personal choice and depends on a variety of issues. The type of house, the cost of houses in the area and the amenities which you would choose to have close by. Families with young children will have different priorities, schools, play areas and easy commuting may be important. Others may prefer more rural locations with different lifestyles. Have a drive round the areas you are considering, look at the amenities. Check out the condition of the local housing stock and perhaps take a walk around if you are not familiar with an area. All of this will help you get a feel for the area. It can also be useful to check out some of the property that is for sale locally, compere the prices of similar houses with other areas and check how many houses in your price range are for sale. Doing all this in advance will save time later in the process.

Step 5 – Find a Property

The first thing to do when looking for a property is to decide what the property must have, would be nice to have and at the other end of the scale, must not have. Make a list of these, write it down and refer to it each time a property presents itself.

You can find suitable properties either by contacting estate agents in the areas you have identified as being of interest to you, or by searching the many online property sales sites. Sites like OnTheMarket, Rightmove or Zoopla, to name but a few can be found by simply searching for “House sales sites”. On these sites filter down what you are looking for by area, number of bedrooms, price range etc. and save any property details to a folder for ready access when you want to review them.

Whichever way you decide to search for a new home, you will eventually need to view the properties and this can be done by arranging a visit, either through the selling agent or directly with the seller. Once in the property, take your time to have a good look round, ask questions, don’t ever feel pressured to just have a quick look and move on to the next property. You are about to spend at least a six figure sum of money on what could potentially be your home for years to come, so you want to get this right, rather than risk making a wrong move by rushing your decision.

Step 6 – Make an Offer

Once you have found the house of your dreams, you need to take the next step in the buying process by making an offer for the property. At this stage, it is important not to get carried away, but to remember, based on your mortgage lender’s limits and your self-imposed limit what you set your maximum spend at and why you set that as your limit. Don’t get involved in a bidding war which is going to take you above that maximum. Once you have reached your limit, tell the seller that is your final offer and stick to it. There is no pleasure in living in a dream home that you can’t afford, your dream may easily turn into a nightmare.

Step 7- Appoint a Conveyancer

While you were house hunting, you should also have been doing your research on who you were going to use as a Conveyancer. Once your offer has been accepted, get in touch with your Conveyancer of choice to get the ball rolling on the documentation and searches that need to be done. An experienced Conveyancer will know what requires to be done and how to achieve the outcome the legal system demands, with as little fuss and delay as possible. The seller’s agent and solicitor will also need to be introduced to your conveyancer as they will work closely to finalise the necessary documentation. Have as much information as the Conveyancer may need, ready to hand over to them on day one.

Your Conveyancer may raise an issue with the seller’s solicitor on the basis of some issue found in any of the searches he is required have carried out on your behalf, these may be environmental issues, or they may notice a problem with the title of the property itself, maybe an unresolved planning issue or some restrictive covenant attached to the deeds. Conveyancing is potentially the most time consuming element of the house buying process, so it is unwise to hold up the process because the Conveyancer is waiting for you to pass information to them. It is worth noting that the onus is very much on the buyer’s Conveyancer to ensure that all the relevant searches are carried out satisfactorily and that the deeds and titles are all in order, to ensure the security of the buyer.

Step 8 – Instruct a Survey.

If you are raising a mortgage to buy your property, your lender may well organise a survey of the property, for the purpose of valuation and may not give you access to their surveyors report. It is wise to instruct a survey of your own. There a variety of different surveys available to you.

A Building Survey is normally the most in-depth and detailed survey and has obvious advantages for an older property, but does not include a valuation. Very often a Homebuyer’s Survey is the best route to take, as that can include a valuation, based on the findings of the survey. Your Conveyancer will be able to advise you, based on the age and condition of the property in question. The survey should be commissioned as soon as possible to allow time for the preparation of the report and for any problem areas it may highlight to be addressed.

Step 9 – Final Details

This is the stage in the home buying process, where any conditions attached to your offer should be removed and your offer becomes unconditional. The findings of the survey, for instance, may throw up issues which will need remedial work carried out to the property. This may warrant a re-negotiation of the purchase price to reflect any unexpected cost. The fixtures and fitting being left by the seller must be agreed at this stage and dates of entry agreed. It may be worth agreeing many of these issues by speaking directly with the sellers and agreeing housekeeping issues, then passing on your agreed outcomes to your Conveyancer.

Step 10a – Exchange of Contracts

Once the Conveyancer has completed all the required searches and investigations to his satisfaction and the final details of the offer have been presented to and accepted by the seller, final contracts for the agreed sale can be prepared and exchanged for signature by both parties. You will, at this stage, be required to arrange insurance cover for the property, to protect your new investment and to satisfy your lender that their interests are also protected.

Step 10b – Pay Deposit

The payment of a non-returnable deposit equivalent to 10% of the agreed purchase price must be paid as part of the Exchange of Contracts. Once paid, this deposit forms part of a legal contract between the seller and the buyer and if at any time after the deposit is paid, the buyer pulls out of the sale, they will forfeit the entire deposit and can leave themselves open to legal action from the sellers.

Step 11 – Completion

Completion day sees the ownership of the property finally change hands. As with any business transaction, it is only complete when money changes hands and requires all the necessary paperwork to be complete and in place. The buyer’s Conveyancer will pass the monies from the mortgage lender, if appropriate, together with the balance of the funds from the buyer, to the seller’s solicitor and once that has been done, the seller will make the keys available to the buyer and that completes the transaction.

Step 12 – Move in

Having completed the transaction and taken ownership of your new home, the next step in the process is to move into the house. Again, this should have been arranged with a removals company well in advance of the day. Many buyers arrange their removal for the completion day, so once the keys become available the removers can get immediate access to the house. The alternative is to wait till after completion is out of the way, then move in on a more relaxed timescale.

Step 13 – Pay Costs and Fees

Almost in tandem with the completion and distribution of funds, your conveyancer will take his fees, including the local authority search costs from the available funds and will pay other costs such as stamp duty. They will also notify the Land Registry of the change of ownership of the title.

It is recognised that moving house is one of the most stressful things that most people will undertake in their lives. If, like most people, you are involved in a chain, things may not always go to plan. Hold–ups occur in the process due to others having problems, buyers pull out somewhere down the line, or problems occur with deeds or planning issues. But until such times as we find a better system, we have to take all these on the chin and move on. It is this uncertainty in the system that makes it even more important to plan ahead, organise things in advance and hope for as little disruption as possible.