Getting a Mortgage

One of the first things you should do is to arrange a meeting with a mortgage broker or financial advisor. You should discuss how much you could borrow and what you want to borrow. Always think about what you can afford. Please remember to take into account the other costs incurred in buying a home not just the mortgage repayments.

• Mortgage repayments
• Deposit
• Surveys
• Solicitor's Fees
• Stamp Duty

Also general living expenses can go amiss if not taken into consideration. Such as,

• Council Tax
• Electricity & Gas Bills
• Phone Bills

If this could potentially be your first time to purchase your home, you may need to buy a lot of furniture and kitchen appliances at once. This can become very costly. Prospective buyers can very easily underrate how important a holiday can be. Remember buying a house can sometimes be a long drawn out process and you might feel like a holiday after all!

Getting a mortgage agreed in principle is a good start! If you find that perfect property that you've been looking for, you can make a firm offer. Should the owner accept your offer you can proceed with a survey. Failing to have a mortgage agreed in principle, could result in loss of the property to a third party in a stronger position. Having a certificate of the mortgage offer agreed in principle subject to survey, could persuade the owner to accept your offer over others. Either way there are no guarantees. The more organised you are, the better off you could be!

What is important?

Location
The first and most important thing to decide is where would you like to live. After you buy your home one thing you can't change is the location!

Try to make inquiries to the local authorities to find out more information about the area you would like to live in. find out about the quality of local amenities such as schools and public transportation. The local council will be able to give you advice and details on these issues. Spend tome around the area yourself either during the day or at night. This will help you get a better feel of the environment you will come to live in. If you find a property suitable for you, ask about neighbours.

Specifications
What sort of property do you want? Think about what specifications you have that the property must be able to accommodate and every conceivable feature in a property you think is essential. If you make a list and put them in order of preference, this will help you put things into a greater prospective when coming to view and buy your potential home in the near future.

Offering
Once you've found the property that matches your criteria, make an offer. If your offer is accepted it will be time to start the legal and financial process of buying your new home.

You will need to find a solicitor or conveyancer to conduct the conveyancing. Your solicitor / conveyancer will check all legal aspects of the sale. Your solicitor / conveyancer will also carry out a local authority search, which looks for planning proposals. E.g. New road plans, public right of way, building alterations, and developments in the vicinity which might affect your chosen property.

Now that a mortgage has been agreed, the survey results are good and all the legal arrangements have been undertaken, you will now be ready to exchange contracts. This will be carried out by your appointed solicitor / conveyancer. Once the contracts have been exchanged, you both would have agreed a completion date for keys to be handed over. Both yourself and the seller are now committed to the deal. If for any reason you decide to pull out you will lose your deposit. Conversely the seller is bound to sell the property to you and cannot accept a higher offer. On the day of the completion the seller's solicitor will call the agents telling them funds have been transferred and the keys can be released.

Reminder check list of who to inform before you move