FTB - help me understand the steps!

[newtothehousingmarket]

DH & I are first time buyers looking for a property in the outskirts of London but I'll be honest, I'm totally baffled by the house buying process so looking for someone to explain it to me in as simple terms as possible!

We have an agreement in principle and have started viewing properties, but what are the next steps? Offers (how do you know how much to offer - below/at/above asking? Do you do this in writing to the EA? What are the tips and tricks around putting an offer on a property? What happens when (if!) said offer gets accepted? At what stage do you need a solicitor and how do you go about getting one? Is conveyancing the same thing as a solicitor or something different? What about a survey, who does that/when? What else goes into the process that I need to be aware of?

Sorry for all the questions but I feel extremely overwhelmed by the whole process and would love some insight from those of you who are seasoned in the art of buying a property!

TIA

Get quotes from solicitors now. Once your offer is accepted you'll need to give the name of your solicitor to the estate agent.

Personally, I use this order:

1. Offer on house is accepted
2. Give solicitor details to estate agent
3. Inform solicitor to expect memorandum of sale BUT not to work on it yet
4. Start mortgage application
5. Get a homebuyers survey
6. Get results of survey, panic slightly.
7. Decide if house is still worth what you offered
8. Agree purchase price via estate agent
9. Instruct solicitor to start work

10. Weeks go by. You sign some stuff, answer some questions, wait in the dark for an age. 11. You get a fixtures and fittings list, a draft contract, search results 12. Decide if 11 is all fine 13. Agree exchange date. 14. Rearrange exchange date 15. Exchange date moves again 16. Exchange contracts - at this point you pay your deposit and can hand in your notice on your rental. 17. Complete purchase.

Time between exchange and completion is dependent on several factors - what others in the chain want, political and viral climate (you can't move if covid positive!).

Once you've exchanged you cannot back out, it's a done deal.

How long between 1 and 17 is as long a piece of string. Determined by how long the chain is and how slow your solicitor is!

Happy to expand on the above if needed.

We've bought and sold a fair amount.

This is extremely helpful @JoborPlay thank you - bonus points for making me chuckle too!

First question I have - how do I go about finding a solicitor, will a google search do? Anything I should look out for?

Homebuyers survey - who carries this out? The solicitor or do I need to find someone else to do this?

Step 7 - can you renegotiate the offer at this stage based on survey results?

What if for whatever reason you or the seller decide to pull out - can this be done at any point before you exchange? Does it have to be for a valid reason or could a simple 'changed my mind' cause the whole thing to collapse?

Sorry if these are stupid questions!

Some estate agents will “encourage” you to use their solicitors. Personally I prefer to use a local one, one that isn’t a massive conveyancing factory and that you can call in easily. Ring round those local to you, there’s no shortage, they will give you a quote over the phone.

The survey IME varies depending on the mortgage provider. Nationwide sent details when DS applied for his mortgage pre Covid and they used Countrywide. Skipton just did a desktop valuation during Covid, no mention of a homebuyers report being required so she called Countrwide and a couple of other companies direct and arranged a survey. Can’t remember who she used now.

Step7, you can try! It depends on the results, very few Reports will come up with all green lights, expect some arse covering advice about repairs that may not be that urgent. Often obvious red flags will have been accounted for in the original valuation so don’t expect a seller to fall over themselves to put replace all the guttering or give a discount off the original price because they’re leaking.

And yes, you can pull out in England up to exchange, as can they. No reasons given, although it’s only fair there are good reasons as by this stage people have already invested a significant amount of time and money.

@newtothehousingmarket congratulations on being in a position to buy your first home. You have a great list of what to expect posted upthread.

Re:solicitors it is never a great idea to go with the cheapest and you need some sort of recourse if a mistake is made (rare, but no point crying over spilt milk) I’d ask your EA for the name of the solicitors who are the most efficient and who they think will be able to handhold your a bit more. Not the firm they just get referrals from. Then Google that firm and check reviews…walk away and find someone else if they are not great. Or ask on a local FB page.

Re properties, are you buying a house or flat? If it’s a house and older or in an ex-mining/flood risk zone etc I’d certainly pay for my own survey but remember this is a sunk cost if the sale falls through. If it’s a flat, you need to check the length of the lease (assuming leasehold not freehold) , the service charge costs and also the ground rent costs. Plus nowadays cladding issues. Ask plenty of questions of everyone, get all your paperwork in one place - p60’s/payslips etc, pay attention to the fixtures/fittings list and make sure you get buildings insurance quotes in plenty of time before exchange. Don’t forget to visit the property at different times of the day to check you aren’t missing a chaotic school run parking/noise issue but be realistic- it’s normal to feel nervous when you are buying a home, nothing is perfect but being organised and carrying out your own due diligence will definitely help you feel more in control. All the best to you.

If ur not worried about having a solicitor close to you. Pm me. And I can give you the name of the person I am using. They do everything online even checking id. And they have been just amazing. And really quick. Always answer the phone and emails which I have heard most of them don’t do.

@SpeakingFranglais thanks for this - when you say original valuation, is that the valuation the seller does to get the house on the market or something else? If it is, does the buyer get access to this at some point or is this why you should do your own survey?

Also kind of scary that the whole thing can fall through at any point before exchange!

@Netaporter we're looking at both houses and flats to be honest. Ideally I'd like a freehold house, but unfortunately prices in London are no joke so we are looking at flats too. Re length of lease, do you know if it should be over a certain period and if not I'm assuming we should be asking if/how it can be extended?

Re buildings insurance - is this something that you need if buying a flat as well or only if buying a house?

Thanks for all this info everyone!

@newtothehousingmarket

From memory any lease under 72 years I think is unmortagable but you’d need to check with your lender. You also need to ensure your solicitor requests completion of an LPE1 and LPE2 which confirms that the service charges and maintenance charges are all up to date or you will be liable once the lease is assigned to you. You should also enquire about any major works notifications that may have been issued- roof, shared area decorations/ window replacements that sort of thing. These can be ordered by the leaseholder as part of your schedule and you may not have a say in the cost/ contractor etc and the amount will fall outside of the service charge. Buildings insurance is organised by you if you are the freeholder but if you are a leaseholder it is the responsibility of the freeholder who will recharge you your share but you will not be able to choose the provider. Just make a note of the charges and check they seem reasonable. You can extend a lease but it is obviously chargeable and you need the leaseholder to agree. If it is a short lease, the chances are the vendor will have organised this prior to sale to increase their chances of a sale. The leaseholder will set the price of this.

And yes, the great issue with buying a house in England is that everything holds by the thinnest thread until exchange… so if you get a vibe that the vendor is unlikely to proceed then walk away before you throw more money at it. Remember you are the most valuable part of the chain - a FTB at the bottom is w gift to everyone else!

Solicitor - do not ask the estate agent. They'll give you the name of the one they get a kick back from. Ask for recommendations on your local Facebook page or through friends and family in the area. TBH, we've used several different ones and found them all much of a muchness.

Yes, it can all fall through before exchange. It's why I don't recommend getting the solicitor to start work before the survey. If the survey shows lots of issues and you decide to pull out or you try and renegotiate but the seller won't and you pull out, you have to pay the solicitor money for the work they've done up to that point.

When buying our first house we spent £££ on NOT buying houses - survey costs and solicitor fees before we worked out to get the survey done first.

The mortgage lender will do a survey - this is a valuation survey and for their benefit. Some mortgage lenders will allow you to pay to upgrade the survey to a home buyers survey. Personally I prefer to organise my own - I found the surveyor through the RICS website and have used them for all my houses.

First question I have - how do I go about finding a solicitor, will a google search do? Anything I should look out for?

The Estate Agents will have links to Solicitors that they use - I've always just gone with them.

@Paranoidandroidmarvin thanks will pm you now, def worth getting in touch with them even just for a quote.

@Netaporter @JoborPlay thank you so much for all this info, honestly so invaluable speaking to people that have gone through it. So much easier to understand than reading any 'guide for FTB' online!

I cannot stress enough not to hand your notice in until exchange. Budget in having to pay mortgage and rent. It's frustrating but so much less stressful than worrying you'll be homeless.

As FTB you are literally bottom of the chain. Breaking the chain (I e. Your sellers or their sellers moving into rented) is really rare because it's actually quite complicated.

Also, don't expect regular updates from your solicitor. They'll have several hundred conveyancings in addition to yours.