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Buying Guide

You’ve found your ideal next new home or investment property, but what happens next?

Putting in an Offer

Once you have confirmed both verbally and by email your offer, and satisfied us that you have the financial means to proceed with the purchase, we will put your offer to our vendor.

If you haven’t already done so, now is a good time to instruct a conveyancing solicitor and notify them of your intentions

Should our vendor accept your offer, your chosen property will become SOLD ‘Subject to Contract’.

Offer Accepted

Things gets very busy at this stage with solicitors, mortgage providers and surveyors.

If you require a mortgage, you will need to organise a mortgage survey with your lender before your mortgage will be approved.

Land Registry checks will also be required to make sure no charge has been made against your property that would make it illegal to sell, and that the vendor owners the title deeds is legally entitled to do so.

These searches will also discover if there are any local development plans that may impact your property in the future, as well as flood or environmental damage risks, and previous or proposed mining that could affect the structure of your property.

Anti-Money Laundering checks will also be required before exchange. This is a mandatory legal requirement to ensure your funds are coming from legal channels.

During this time, your vendor’s solicitor will be drafting the sales contract and there could be many negotiations between both party’s solicitors over what is in the contract.

This will include terms and conditions and what is or isn’t included in the sale such as fixtures and fittings. Things like curtains, carpets, built-in white goods, and even garden sheds will be either included or excluded and there may be further negations required before both parties agree on the contract.

Once all of this has been completed, you can then progress to ‘Exchange of Contracts’.

Exchange of Contracts

This is the point where contracts have been agreed on by both sides and are ready to be signed and exchanged.

Once this has been done, you are committed legally to buy your chosen property and our vendor is committed to selling it.

You must now also pay a 10% deposit to the vendors solicitor (this is usually 10% of the purchase price) which is held by them until completion.

The date on which the sale must be completed is also agreed at this point so you will know when you need to get packing and be ready to take possession of the property.

Completion

Completion day is when the balance of the sale price, minus your deposit is paid to the vendor’s solicitor, the title deeds are transferred into your name and you get to pick up the keys to your new home.

You may also need to visit your solicitor’s office and sign a Purchase Completion Statement which confirms payments and monies retained for things such as Stamp Duty, if applicable.

Congratulations! You have now purchased your new home.

Post Completion

You solicitor still has a few jobs to complete once completion day has passed. This includes paying your Stamp Duty to HM Revenue and Customs.

They will also register you as the new owner with HM Land Registry.

If you purchased the property through a mortage lender, your solicitor will the pass the title deeds on to your lender.

If you are a cash buyer, they will send them to you,