Property Guides

Buying:

  1. General Buying Tips
  2. The Buying Process
  3. Getting a Survey
  4. Conveyancing
  5. The Legal Stages
  6. Completion & Moving
  7. First Time Buyers

Selling:

  1. General Selling Tips
  2. Moving Check-List

Renting:

  1. General Renting Tips
  2. Your Responsibilities

Letting:

  1. General Landlord Tips
  2. Tenants & Property
  3. Buying to Let

Overseas:

  1. Country Guides

Investment Property

  1. Investment Property 1
  2. Investment Property 2
  3. Investment Property 3
  4. Choices Acquisitions
  5. Free Tutorial

The Buying Process & Buying for the First Time

In this section:

  1. Where do I start?
  2. Arranging a viewing
  3. How much will my first home cost?
  4. How to make an offer
  5. What happens once your offer has been made

Where do I start?

Before you begin home-hunting you will need to decide how much you can afford to spend. This figure should represent the absolute limit that you are willing to spend on your new home. If you require a mortgage to pay for your move, it is worth seeking professional, financial advice if you do not feel comfortable researching and finding your own mortgage product. Many estate agencies offer in-house mortgage advice but in some instances the advisors may be tied to particular financial products. Ask, and consider taking independent mortgage advice. Getting a pre-approved mortgage can cut out hassle at a later stage when you need to make an offer on a property so do not leave this research to the last minute!

So you have your budget and possibly a mortgage offer too - what next? Well you need to now find your ideal home and there are several ways of doing this. Properties are advertised in many places with the local press and property websites such as www.Look4aProperty.com being a great place to start. Local papers have the advantage of showing what is available in your specific area whilst property websites like www.Look4aProperty.com contain properties across a wider-geographical area and are updated on a daily basis. Remember to register your personal details and home “wish list” with all of the Estate Agents active within your desired geographical location. They should then inform you of any relevant properties as soon as they become available on the market.

Before you start looking for your ideal first home, you will need to think about what you want from your first home. Sit down and make a list of the features that are absolute “must haves”, for example the minimum number of bedrooms you will require. Once you know the minimum features that you must have from your home you can start to perform a more detailed property search. Remember to pass your list to estate agents in and around your ideal locations too so they can help you find your ideal property.

Find below several features that you may like to include on your short list of required property features:

Remember to view as many properties as possible to give you a broad understanding of what is available in your price range within your desired location. Do not buy the first property you see unless you are absolutely convinced that it is right for you and you feel you understand the local housing market. It is not unusual to see well in excess of ten properties before finding the house that is right for you.

When you do find something that you fall in love with do not wait. In an active market good properties fresh to the market can sometimes sell in hours. Be positive and be decisive.

Arranging a viewing

To arrange a viewing simply contact the agent representing the seller and make an appointment to view at a convenient time. At this stage the agent may ask one or two questions in order to verify that you are indeed interested in the property and that you can actually afford to buy. Do not be perturbed; the agent is now looking to weed out any potential time wasters for themselves and their client.

Once you have arrived at the property ask both the agent and seller (if available) as many relevant questions that you can think of. It is easy to come away from the viewing wishing that you had asked certain questions. To aid you make sure that you have prepared a standard list of relevant questions that you would like to ask any vendor.

Here are some questions that you may like to ask on your viewing:

If you carry your checklist around all of your property viewings it will make it easy to compare and contrast the properties on your viewing shortlist.

How much will my first home cost?

Remember that there are often many additional costs when buying a new home over and above the basic cost of the property. These costs must be considered when calculating the budget for your new home. The possible additional costs include:

It is important to consider whether or not any major or minor building or restorative work needs to be performed on the property. IF such work is required, make sure that the sale price reflects the work required. Get quotes from local builders before committing to any sale price and make sure a surveyor views the property fully.

The combined total of these costs can be a sizeable figure to pay on top of the sale value of the property - often many several thousands of pounds depending upon the value of the property itself. This must be taken into account when calculating a final budget for your new home.

How to make an offer

Now that you have found the property of your dreams, the next step is to make an acceptable offer. When you make an offer, the vendor's agent will often come back and ask you some questions including:

The agent will be asking these questions to gauge just how serious you are and to measure how quickly a deal may be concluded. Being a first time buyer you will have no chain underneath you (you do not have a property to sell yourself) so to many vendors you already have an advantage over other purchasers - you can move quickly. Remember that to some vendors, this may be worth a small drop in the value of the property especially if they are looking to move quickly. If there is a lot of interest in the property, you will potentially have a strong advantage over any other buyers.

Perhaps the biggest question when buying a house is 'How much do I offer?'. This is a difficult question to answer, as it will depend on a many factors. You really need to look at the price of property in the local area, gauge just how much you love the property and then set yourself a maximum figure taking into account your other moving costs. Once you have your maximum figure stick to it although initially you may wish to offer less than the asking price if there is not much interest currently in the property. Do not risk losing the property of your dreams though for a thousand pounds though!

Once you have decided upon your maximum budget, how can you decide what your initial offer will be? This would depend on a number of things. How much below the asking price you offer should reflect your confidence in your own bargaining ability and the level of interest in the property. You can gauge the level of interest in a property from both the agent and seller by asking relevant question. If there is a high level of interest, low offers will probably be immediately turned down whilst the seller waits for an asking price offer. Similarly, if you feel you are in danger of losing the property, you may wish to go into your reserve and offer more than the asking price IF the asking price is below your maximum set budget. Recently the current market has seen a shortage of good property becoming available with many more buyers than good properties available although currently (November 2004) this situation is changing very quickly. This lead to an increased level of interest in many properties and for sellers a level of confidence in getting an asking price offer although now this is definitely not always the case. Depending upon the desirability of the location, many properties are now selling for well below asking price.

As a first time buyer you are in a strong position in that you are not in a 'chain' (you are available to move as soon as they are ready). This is a big advantage and may even put you in a stronger position over a higher bidder who cannot move as quickly.

Having a pre-arranged mortgage will also save time in the buying process and make your offer more attractive. If the seller is looking to move quickly it is best to underline the fact that you are ready to immediately agree a deal.

What happens after an offer has been made?

In England and Wales, once your offer has been accepted the property may be advertised as Sold Subject to Contract or Under Offer. This means simply that, barring any higher offers or unforeseen problems with the property, you have agreed to buy the house.

At this point you are not committed to the sale.

If, for any reason, you decide not to go through with the purchase you can pull out now without penalty. Some agents or developers may try to get you to pay a small deposit to show that you are serious about the purchase. This is not an official part of the process and it is recommended that you do not agree to make such a deposit. If the survey highlights any factors that you think should be reflected in the price, now is the time for re-negotiation.

Once you have surveyed the property and are happy with the price you should then:

Once you have signed the contract it is time to exchange contracts with the seller. Once contracts are exchanged the sale becomes legally binding. You are obliged to now conclude the sale as agreed and the seller can take no more offers on the property. Until contracts are exchanged it is still possible for you to be 'gazumped' by a better offer. Once the contracts have been exchanged the deal is concrete and legally binding and both parties are committed. Withdrawals at this stage will result in possible financial penalties on either side.