The Home Buying Process

Choose where you want to live and how much you want to spend. It may be useful to speak to a mortgage broker who could tell you how much you may be able to borrow and what the monthly costs would be.

Usually Nil

Contact estate agents in your chosen area or search the property portals to find properties you want to view. (Some estate agents now ask if you have been approved for a mortgage before allowing viewings)

Nil

Get quotes for purchasing your chosen property from a handful of conveyancers or solicitors. (Not all solicitors are accepted by Lenders. Your mortgage adviser may be able to get competitive quotes from acceptable solicitors).

Nil

When you have found the property you want to buy and the vendor has accepted your offer, you should contact your mortgage adviser and solicitor

A deposit of approx £200-300 to the solicitor to cover search fees.

Complete the FULL mortgage application and supply the requested documentation to your mortgage broker/lender. Lenders normally ask for proof of your last 12 months mortgage/rent payments. This may have to be ordered if yours is not available and can take several days. A charge may also be payable.

Valuation fee of approx £200-500Usually non refundable after instruction.

The lender usually requires a basic valuation for mortgage purposes only, (this only confirms adequate security for the lender). It may not detect severe problems with property you are considering. You may consider a basic homebuyer’s report or full structural survey. The latter is advisable for older properties.

Depends on the value of the property but expect to pay between £250 and £500 for a homebuyer’s report and up to £1,000 for a full survey.

If the survey comes back “OK” you will receive a formal Offer of Loan from the lender, subject to all other requirements being met. A copy of the offer will be sent to your solicitor and then you will be ready to exchange contracts and agree a date for completion.

Deposit, ideally 10% of the purchase price – paid into your solicitor’s account and he or she sends it to the seller on exchange of contracts. If you pull out after this stage you will normally lose the deposit.

Between exchange and completion your mortgage lender will transfer the amount of your mortgage into your solicitor’s account, which will be sent to the seller’s solicitor on completion day. The solicitor does the necessary paperwork to register you with Land Registry as the owner.

Your solicitor’s bill - normally about £350 to £600 Plus VAT. Other charges may be applicable e.g. if the property is leasehold.

Stamp Duty is paid by your solicitor from funds you have deposited.

Zero to £125,000 non payable.
£125,001 to £25000 is 1%.
£250001 to £500,000 is 3%.
Above £500,000 is 4%

You now start your mortgage payments.

Monthly payments

Your broker’s work is complete. A good broker will ask if they can keep you informed of rate changes etc that may be of interest to you in the future.

The broker’s fee – sometimes free but can be up to 4% of the loan amount or even more.

You hire a removal company to move your stuff to your new house.

Anything from £200 upwards depending on