WE HAVE COMPLETED - we are home owners!
If anyone looks back at this thread, as a first time buyer, here's a rough timeline and what we experienced - I know it's long, but I believe that I'd have benefitted from a list like this before I started.
Before kick off - found a school we wanted DD to go to, this narrowed down the search area. Because it's a private school, we didn't have to worry about 'getting in' as long as she was a good match for the school.
We found a Mortgage Broker to work with - based on recommendation.
We found a solicitor to work with - based on recommendation (had sold the last two of my mum's houses).
3 May - Engaged with Mortgage Broker - we used a recommendation (a specific person from a national firm that my friend had used more than once). This is absolutely recommended, without the broker we would not have got the mortgage we did (~4.6% interest) - and instead would have had to settle for a much higher rate. All we paid him was £400 (he gets the rest of his fee from the mortgage provider) - and it was worth more than £400 PER MONTH for 5 years!!
Mortgage broker advised how much we could borrow and went away and found the best rate mortgage for our needs.
Our total mortgage budget was @ £900K - but a mortgage of that value would mean our monthly payments were 80% higher than our London rent, so DH and I decided to go under.
26 May - Made an offer on a house - we had seen around 20 houses at this point, there were two in the final runnings. The first of the two was BEAUTIFUL, but was a probate sale and probate hadn't been granted yet, we knew this could cause a long delay, so we went for the second, we chose it because:
Good ground space - twice the size of our London flat.
Decent garden - not huge, but a nice, established, garden.
Under 5 mins walk to the school - we realised we'd be grateful for this every day.
Good condition - some cosmetic changes will come, but the house is easily 'moveinable' without any work.
House listed at: £785,000
Offer accepted at: £775,000
We justified the offer by looking at similar houses, in the area, and they were approx. 775K.
At this point the Mortgage Broker completed the mortgage application, and we engaged the solicitor, the solicitor has a flat fee of £1,600.
We introduced the solicitor to the estate agent to start the process.
The first thing the solicitor does is organize the 'searches'. This takes a few weeks for the various land registries to get back to her.
20 June - survey - we opted for a buildings survey (RICS 3) - because the house was built in the 1970s, and has been significantly extended in the 1990s and 2000s. The survey process took about a week from booking to getting the report. The price for the survey is based on the price of the house, ours was £640
We chose the surveyors based on reviews, and membership to RICS ('Chartered surveyor' rather than 'Associate surveyor') - and to be honest I chose the one who I liked the best when we chatted on the phone.
The report was largely very positive, the only watchout was potential asbestos in the ceiling in two bathrooms.
29 June - asbestos survey - we had an asbestos surveyor (found on CheckaTrade) take samples from the bathroom ceilings to confirm asbestos. This process took about a week and cost £225 + VAT.
They found some asbestos but it was low risk (the least dangerous type, and in good condition) their advice was to scrim it in, rather than remove, so we'll do that.
Then all sorts of machinations in the backend between the solicitors happened. No idea what, but it all seemed to go smoothly.
Then we all went on holiday and slowed the process down (us and the seller).
28 July - exchanged contracts - for this we had to transfer 77,500 to the solicitor, this would be our fine if we ducked out of the agreement post exchange. This was really reassuring to us, because we knew that even if the seller changed their mind, we'd get some ££.
3 August - completed - to do this we had to transfer the rest of the deposit amount + solicitor fee + stamp duty to the solicitor, they had the get the cash from the mortgage provider (obv the seller had to do the same for their new house, at the same time).
And here we are today - we have the keys (there are SO MANY KEYS). We have visited the house (you can tell they really took pride in their home, so although it wasn't professionally cleaned, it was clean, tidy, and cared for).
On Friday this week we have packers coming to pack the property, and on Saturday we move. The total fee for this is around £2,300. This is really nerve wracking because we're going from online reviews only, so we thought about this really hard - I'm still quite nervous the actual move could go wrong.
Before we started this process, friends said it'd take months and months - and I couldn't see how it would, but it kinda did, despite the fact we have no chain, and the sellers were buying a new build so neither did they. And despite the fact that our solicitor, the estate agent, and our surveyors were all very prompt and professional.