Step by step what would happen:
a) get your house valued by a few estate agents. Let’s say the average valuation is £200k.
b) speak to a mortgage advisor and work out what they would lend you. It’s not just a case of what they would lend you, but also how much repayments cost. Aka - they might lend you £400k, but if the monthly repayments on that are £5k a month you probably don’t want that! So you need to decide how much you’re willing to pay monthly and what you can get for that. Lots to discuss such as fixed interest rates, length of mortgage etc.
c) that will give you a rough budget of value of houses you can look at. Let’s say you’re comfortable with a mortgage of £200k. So you can look around £400k mark, but also factor in extra costs such as stamp duty (lots of online calculators), agent fees, moving and legal costs, work needed on house, survey costs. So you may want to look at places from £350-£450k as you can offer lower.
d) you sign up with an estate agent to market your property at a value. If someone offers you can decide it you want to accept or not. They may offer under asking, but be in a very good position. (Ie not have a long chain beneath them) so you may accept it.
e) once you have an offer on yours it’s likely only then you will be allowed to offer on another property (sometimes you can’t even view until yours is under offer
f) you find a property you like and offer on it. You should take into account what prices others have sold for nearby and the state of the house.
g) then you appoint and pay for a solicitor and a survey. The surveyor will go and look at the house in detail and look for any problems and advise whether in their opinion there are issues you need to be aware of. You pay for these.
You will also get your mortgage set up at this point.
h) the solicitor will liaise with the buyers solicitor which can take aggggges as they need to iron out a million little things, from checking if the house is in flood zones, and questioning every tiny things in the deeds to make sure you’re not exposed to anything.
i) once the whole chain is ready and sorted you will “exchange”. This can take a loooong time with a long chain, as your buyer may have someone buying their house, and someone buying their house etc. And everyone needs to be completely ready. A couple of days before this you will need to transfer 10% of the house purchase price to the solicitor as a deposit. As you’re upgrading you’ll need to pay the excess on top of the 10% your buyer will transfer for yours I think. Once you exchange you are legally obliged to buy the house. On the day of exchange a completion date will be agreed. This could range from a day to a couple of weeks.
j) once you’ve exchanged you book movers etc and get your ducks in a line. A couple of days before completion date you will transfer the balance of deposit if needed to the solicitor if you’re buying a more expensive house if needed, depending on what mortgage you went for.
k) on day of completion you move all your belongings out. The money will move from the bottom of the chain up and once your money hits the account of the people you’re buying from (or solicitors) then the house is legally yours. You pick up keys from estate agent and move in!
l) completion day can be stressful in long chains as your purchasers money may hit your solicitors account and the house is legally theirs but there may be a bit of a delay until your money hits the house you’re buying!
m) it’s important to note u til the point of exchange anyone can pull out of the purchase at any point. This does happen and it’s very upsetting as if the chain breaks you will have already sunk money for surveys and lawyers on a house you may not end up buying. It’s a shit system but it is what it is. Just be prepared for it.
house buying is stressful there’s no doubt about it. You rely on a lot of other people not changing their mind often. The survey could bring up things like damp on a house which would need a lot of work so you may need to renegotiate the price etc. It can take a long time!