First time buyer help pls

[DumbledoresArmy]

Any words of advice would be great!

I'm currently waiting for an offer of mortgage from Nationwide. They've said I might not hear for 2 weeks yet!!

The valuation was done this week & it has come back lower in value than what i originally applied for therefore I won't need to borrow as much.
Will this affect offer of mortgage greatly?

Also when is best to instruct solicitor to start surveys? I was going to wait until mortgage offer but concerned as that's going to be at least another 2 weeks.
Worried about vendor left waiting to hear further news.
Is this time scale acceptable?

Forgive my innocence!!

The valuation has come back lower? So you need to go back to the vendor and agree a lower price. They may decide they can get more and reject your offer. They don't need to accept the valuation.

The mortgage company will normally only lend you up to 95% of the valuation. Once you've agreed a lower price with the vendor, you go back to the mortgage company and get a revised (lower) offer. That shouldn't take as long because they've already done credit checks etc.
Once everyone is agreed on a price and a mortgage offer to match that price is in place, and the vendor has taken the house off the market, then you instruct a solicitor.Have you already chosen one? If not, ring around and get a few quotes in advance.

Good luck

Thanks. Yes I've got a solicitor. They've sent me docs & just waiting until I instruct survey.

We asked ours NOT to start surveys but they ignored us and did anyway! I was furious when I realised they had cashed the cheque they'd asked to "hold" for us. However DP says I should be grateful as mortgage offer did come out fine in the end and it put us ahead of the game at that point.
We had Santander and they took about 10 days (before xmas) to make an offer. They have an online tracking system where you can see how long it's taking them to process people's applications in real time. It was reassuring. Maybe Nationwide have similar? If there really is a 2 week queue then there's nothing you or the vendor can do, you just have to hang in there. I wouldn't let them start sruveys yet though if you're going to have to go through haggling the asking price.
Good luck!