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Steps to Buying Your First Property
STEP 1
Have an initial meeting with our specialist advisor.
At our first meeting, we aim to provide you with comprehensive information to ensure you are well informed, prepared & on the right path.
What else will be discussed at this appointment?
Credit Status
We suggest signing up with a trustworthy credit reference agency like Experian or Credit Karma before our appointment. You can access your full report, which might be a few pages long. Just print or save a copy and bring it along to our meeting. That way, we can go through it together in our meeting and ensure everything is in order. We're here to help you every step of the way!
Links
Debt-to-income ratio
Your debt-to-income ratio is the amount of money you owe each month compared to the amount of money you earn. If you have many commitments, such as credit cards, personal loans, car loans, or leases, then this will affect your debt-to-income ratio when applying for a mortgage.
During our initial meeting, we will help you make a budget planner to ensure that all of your expenses are affordable. We will also assess your debt-to-income ratio and use various lenders' affordability calculators to determine how much you could potentially borrow.
If we feel that you are overly committed, we will provide advice on how to improve your financial situation before applying for a mortgage. Our goal is to ensure that you can comfortably afford your mortgage payments without causing financial strain.
STEP 2
Search for a property
Now that you have a budget in mind you can start searching for the house of your dreams.
STEP 3
Put in a formal offer, on the property you wish to buy.
Once you've found the property that you truly adore, the next step is to make a formal offer to the seller in order to reserve the property. This process involves providing the seller or their selling agents with your solicitor's details.
STEP 4
Once offer is accepted- Time to talk to your advisor again.
Congratulations, your offer has been accepted by the seller! As you are now ready to purchase your new home, we encourage you to get in touch with your advisor again to proceed with the final steps. During this meeting, we will guide you through the remaining process and provide you with a checklist of documents you will need to bring. Once we have all the necessary information, we will promptly submit your mortgage and insurance applications to the lender for review, and arrange for a mortgage survey to be carried out."
STEP 5
Receive mortgage offer
Our advisors will act as your intermediary with the lender, answering any questions and providing all relevant documentation. Meanwhile, a mortgage survey will be conducted and a report will be submitted to the lender. Once the lender is fully satisfied with the survey report and has resolved any queries regarding you, a mortgage offer will be issued. The lender typically sends the mortgage offer via post to you, your advisor, and your conveyancer within 7 working days.
STEP 6
Conveyancers
After receiving the mortgage offer, the conveyancers will take charge of most of the transaction. At this point, your conveyancers will have already paid for legal searches and be in the process of making or finalizing enquiries with the seller's solicitors. The duration of the legal process can vary from three weeks to six months, depending on how quickly information is provided by the seller's solicitors. Once your legal team is satisfied with all the necessary information, they will notify you that you can proceed with the exchange of contracts. To ensure that everything is handled with your best interests in mind, we will make sure that you have the best conveyancers working on your behalf.
STEP 7
Exchange of contracts
On exchange of contracts, both you and the seller will sign a legally binding contract, confirming your commitment to the transaction. Typically, a deposit of 10% of the purchase price will be transferred to your solicitor at this stage. This marks a significant step towards completion and prepares you to collect the keys to your new home.
STEP 8
Completion
On completion day, the remaining balance of the purchase price is transferred from your solicitor to the seller's solicitor. Once this is confirmed, you will be able to collect the keys to your new home and start your new life in it.
