Buying for the first time!

[CharlieBrown65]

My boyfriend is selling his house so we can buy one together. He put it on the market last night and already has 16 viewings booked and an offer! We're spending the weekend viewing houses ourselves.

I'm now starting to feel overwhelmed with all the stuff you need to sort afterwards. Can any one help with the order of things once we've put an offer in like survey, solicitors? I've tried to look online but there's so much out there it frazzled my mind 😂
Any help would be amazing!

You'll need a decision in principle if you're getting a mortgage - find a mortgage broker to help with this as they make the process much easier.

You'll need to find a solicitor - ask around for recommendations and quotes, that way you're ready to go when you've had an offer and have somewhere ready to buy.

You'll need to consider "how" you are buying the house if you are making uneven contributions (e.g. if your boyfriend has more in equity than you have as a deposit).

Also I'd spend some time digging out any documents related to the property e.g. certificates for any building work, gas service history etc. as you'll need to supply these via your solicitor.

I'd wait until your chain is complete to instruct a survey on your new property.

Once you have an offer on the current property and have found somewhere to buy and had an offer accepted you'll be able to apply for your mortgage. Again I'd wait until the chain is complete before doing this.

You've probably considered this but make sure you have enough cash to pay for the sale/purchase - although your haven't owned property before because you're buying with someone who has you'll still need to pay stamp duty.

We are currently buying/selling and it seems to be flurries of activity interspersed with waiting for updates.

This is so helpful thank you! We have a big deposit so I'm sure we can afford it. I've made note so I've got a little checklist 😂 thank you again!