First time buyer confused!

[CunningAtBothEnds]

Could one of you please be kind enough to talk me through the buying process?

We have seen a beautiful house, perfect for us, and have had our offer accepted on it, feel we got a fair price etc. This was friday

Have sent our AIP to agents, they have taken the property off the market, showing as "sold stc" on right move.

They have assured me no one else will be allowed to view etc, but im worried its a lie!

With that in mind im being really proactive about solicitors, paper work etc. we are seeing our broker tues to get the mortgage sorted, taking in our prof of ID to agents mon etc, but it suddenly occurs to me I've no clue about the process?!

What happens when? When does the survey happen? Its no forward chain (seller going into rented), how soon is completion likely to be?) we are hoping August as that suits us financially and from a moving perspective. Realistically July- Sept would be ok, but we have to give notice here of a month so am nervous of it going wrong and ending up stuck with two kids a cat and a load of furniture, it feels like a huge risk!

[LIZS]

Survey is usually one of the first steps , as your funding is relying on its outcome if you need a mortgage and may raise issues with purchase price. Tell your solicitor you would like to complete in August and ask that you exchange in time for you to issue notice. They have to do Searches (checking for planning issues, flooding history, legal title etc), ask for Fixtures and Fittings list and Vendor questionnaire, follow up any queries such as certificates for work (ie are replacement windows FENSA registered, building regulations) and draw up the contract and ensure your funds are available in time.

[nocake]

There's no reason the agents should show the house to anyone else now. They've got a buyer so it's just more work for them to try and find a second buyer. If you're worried keep an eye on Rightmove to make sure it has been marked as sold or under offer. You could also get a friend to phone the agent and express an interest in the house to see what they say.

The survey will be organised by your mortgage lender. Make sure you tell them what sort you want (valuation, homebuyer's report or full survey). Do you have a solicitor? Get them to explain the process and tell you exactly how much it will cost before you start (and preferably before you agree to them representing you).

It can take as little as 8 weeks so August should be acheivable, as long as your solicitor gets the process moving and doesn't faff about.

[Steffanoid]

so I just bought my first house, from the offer being acc to us moving in (this was over Christmas) it was about 7 weeks, including the 2 off, your solicitor will want some money for the land registery checks and bits and Bob's like that, theres some to and fro with the person who you're buying from, I told my solicitor when I wanted to move in cause what happens is you pay for the month comings mortgage plus and days extra, so we paid for Feb plus 2 days cause we completedon the 28th.

not sure if things happened a little quicker for me cause the solicitor on my end is my solicitor for everything for.me and family and did the home buying stuff for me even though normally he's a business solicitor at the moment iyswim.

HTH

[CunningAtBothEnds]

Thank you all I will take note of all your points, im not worried about the time frame (the longer it takes the more we save) but if we can set a completion date thats useful, as im due back to work beginning of sept. only got married two weeks ago so not sure that the maiden name / ID issue could hold things up?

Wrt first mortgage payment, say we completed on 1/8/13, is it right that our deposit covers that months payment?

Re the survey, my gut feeling is to go for the middle of the road option, can anyone explain the difference?

Its such a confusing process so thank you all

[LIZS]

Valuation - just a look for mortgage purposes and will only highlight the obvious flaws and risk to resale, and compare to other similar property sales in area
Home Buyers- will look superficially and raise any issues about date of wiring, structure of building /extensions, age of heating system/roof , any evident damp, may have a quick look around loft.
Full structural - looks at the fabric of the building. under carpets and behind furniture.

[financialwizard]

The ID won't hold anything up as long as you also provide your marriage certificate.

You need to give the Estate Agent your solicitor details or they will think you are messing around (you would be amazed the amount of people that offer that are not serious).

Once you have given ID to the EA and have instructed your solicitors the solicitor will do a draft contract and send that to the vendors solicitors. From then on in you will get fixtures/fittings, searches will be done of which there may be questions that your solicitor will want the answer to.

Mortgage wise you will need to go and see your broker to go through a full mortgage application. Once you have gone through the application the lender will normally underwrite you and your husband before requesting a valuation. Once the valuation has been done you can expect to receive a mortgage offer within about 3 working days. After that if the legal side is all tied up and there are no conditions on the mortgage it should be fairly quick to exchange and completion.

[CunningAtBothEnds]

Thank you you have made it so much clearer! I feel less scared!

[Notyetthere]

1st time buyer here just exchanged on wed 15th May. Here is what happened in our straight forward purchase;
23rd feb - Get AIP
24th feb - 22nd March - Search for property
28th March - Offer accepted on a house
2nd April - Full mortgage application
2nd April - Solicitor appointed
Underwriting process only took 24hrs!
3rd April - Valuation/homebuyers survey instructed
3rd April - Sales memorandum issued to our solicitor by EA
5th April - Draft contract/docs/fixtures and fittings/specific property info sent to our solicitor. Ours had warranties etc for new windows, extensions, etc. 10th April - Solicitor raised queries from this pack.
15th April - Searches instructed- environmental, drainage and LA search. We also had chancel liability search. We received all of these by email and we did not have any queries from them.
16th April - Survey satisfactory/ mortgage offer issued to us. Your solicitor will also get a copy
8th May- Contracts sent to us to sign
Discuss dates for exchange and completion with solicitor and all parties. I believe this could be raised a lot earlier in the process so that you know whether the timescales suit you or not.
11th May- transfer deposit and final solicitor fees to their client account.
15th May - Contracts exchanged- we had to have home insurance from exchange. Our insurance company provided free buildings insurance between exchange and completion and the whole policy will kick in on completion.
Completion on 7th June

Hope this helps

[CunningAtBothEnds]

Thats great thanks to see it in real time as it were