Buying a home stress

[Lunablue765]

Hi we are in the process of buying a house we are first time buyers. I'm finding the process seriously stressful the amount of money we've already parted with is scary with no guarantee of getting the mortgage agreed. Our solicitor is slow i feel like I'm chasing them up constantly and they don't answer my questions direct just skirt around it so I don't know where we actually are.
Anyone else currently taking these tentative steps to owning your own home have you got any ideas how I can cope with the stress?

It's completely normal - it is stressful. You need to accept that quite a lot of stuff is out of your hands and you can't get others involved in the process to do what you want when you want.

What you can do is push forward on the things you can influence, i.e. things you need to do and are involved with and ask when you can expect X by, then you can legitimately chase X if it hasn't happened.

The other thing you can do have a strategy for dealing with any issues that crop up - and think about how anything you propose might come across to the vendor, the EA, etc.

We have had our survey done and we have signed the forms with broker for mortgage application the searches haven't been done the tenant hasn't left the house yet this is all new to me being a first time buying an all

Luna when did you start the process? And how long is the chain you are in? Searches alone can take a month to come back and then enquiries can take a few weeks to answer. The longer the chain you are in the longer the process tends to take and more 'snags' you are likely to hit.

It can be worth chasing your mortgage broker for an update on what's going on as banks can be really poor at communicating (our lender 'paused' processing our application whilst wanting some additional financial information back but never actually told us or our mortgage broker that they needed additional information from us, and we only found out at all when we got our broker to chase why the valuation survey hadn't been done yet)!

The tenant would have had notice served on them by the seller. Ask what date the notice period runs out. It should be on the sellers property information form if you have been sent that yet.

The biggest issue is ensuring the tenant is out before exchange in order to provide you with vacant possession. Push ahead with the mortgage application and ask your solicitor to check the position regarding the tenant before incurring the costs for the searches.

@Minniemountain - you have no idea what the situation is re: the tenant. None of us does. The tenant may have given notice themselves prompting the sale in the first place.

Also, serving the tenant with notice does not necessarily mean they will move out either.

Oh god the tenant didn't want to leave so I think the owner wanted to sell the property. So should searches only be done once the tenant leaves? I've not been sent anything other than the sell memorandum thing from our estate agent. I haven't got a clue

MAke sure the property is sold as ‘vacant possesion’ and there’s no one in the house when you take ownership. And change the locks on the day you get the keys (as a general security measure).

Other than that it’s perfectly normal for tenants to stay on - the LL doesn’t wan to miss out on the rent and the tenant has a bit of time to find a new place.

JoJo I've been told the bank won't lend us the money if the tenant is still in the property. Other than tenant it's chain free

wowfudge I am well aware of both those points, but my suggestion might have given OP a better idea of dates.

You say that you keep chasing the solicitor up - can I ask why you are in a rush? Where are you living at the moment?

house buying takes time. I was just shy of 6 months. Anything under 3months and it will be a miracle.

Its a gamble im afraid and you could easily sink a couple of G on this and it falls through. Its the nature of the beast and not for a risk averse!

The UK system is a joke. In the US it can take under two weeks!