FTB - talk me through it like I'm very very slow

[TitsDown]

About to put an offer in.

Substantial deposit (30%). Independent broker recommended by friend is happy I'm good up to asking price (but don't have mortgage in principle yet, says he can get it in an hour when offer accepted). I'm on mat leave so he says he just needs to be picky about lenders as some are ok with that, and some aren't.

At what point do I need to instruct a solicitor? Presumably when/if the offer is accepted? Will I be at a disadvantage if I use an independent, rather than EA, broker/conveyancer?

I feel naive and a little bit unsure.

Going to offer on Mon, can someone talk me through when I get various professionals involved and the best way to go about it?

Oh congrats tit! Exciting!

Congratulations! I've just been through it (moved in to new place in January) and it was a bit of a nightmare but I'm now settling in.

I used an independent broker; his fee was £250 but he had access to lots of intermediary-only deals and was able to find me a very good rate (I had one late payment on my credit file plus have moved around a lot and some lenders won't countenance either of those things). He was really helpful and also advised me when my first purchase attempt fell through (terrible survey).

Depending on how fast you want to move, you might want to hold off on commissioning searches until your survey comes back and you're happy with what it says. I lost £400 on my first purchase attempt because the solicitor commissioned the searches immediately and then the survey came back with a minimum of £20k's worth of work (the house was only worth £100k). With my successful purchase I held off on searches until I was happy with the survey results; my solicitor warned that it would delay the purchase but the reality was the searches were back within a few days so it didn't make much difference.

The EA did bugger all during the purchase process; my solicitors led proceedings and the vendor's solicitors were great too.

I went with the lender's surveyor both times; the first chap was extremely thorough (and had the EA accusing him of incompetence when I pulled out after reading his survey); the second was less so and actually held things up because he failed to update the lender several times, delaying my mortgage offer. I went for a homebuyer's survey both times.

Wow thanks kernowgirl

That's soooo useful.

It's all with the vendor's solicitor now. And I've had one broker push off on holiday and another one just not bother to return my calls or email me the summary he promised, so am going to try another recommendation, but after the bank hol as I'm waiting for confirmation of a pay review from work. I figure a couple of days won't hurt (!!)

Was that the chap I recommended you? How embarrassing.

Don't worry rainbow. It wasn't him, it was another recommendation from a friend. I'm going to call your guy when I've got the nod from work.

Ah,OK! Whoever you go with I hope it is a smooth experience. :)