The House Buying Process
Estate agents and homefinders
The traditional way to find the property you want is to register with estate agents selling houses in the area where you want to buy. This will be free of charge, as the estate agent's fee is paid by the vendor, not the buyer.
You should visit in person so that the agents can get a feel for what you want. The details you will need to give will be: city or town, preferred area, number of bedrooms needed, bathrooms and reception rooms. They also need to know your maximum price and what type and style of property you prefer.
After discussing your requirements and expectations, they will send you details of relevant properties or phone you with the ones they think are especially suitable.
You can then view the properties you like by making an appointment with the estate agent. The agent may or may not accompany you to the viewing.
For the best results, stay in regular contact with your estate agent(s).
If you like a house that you view, the vendors may issue you with a Home Information Pack (HIP). This will become the law from 2007, but some vendors are already choosing to use them. The HIP includes a survey and local searches related to the property, which has been compiled in advance.
Some owners now use online agents or websites to advertise the sale of their house, so keep a lookout here too.
Some people cut out the estate agent altogether and sell their home privately by advertising in local or national property newspapers, or the Internet. In these cases, contact the owner direct.
If you have very little free time to househunt, there are companies that will search for a property on your behalf and will even shortlist and view properties for you.
Before making an offer to buy a property, make sure you have considered the following:
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Commuting times
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Distance to mainline stations or motorways
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The length of the chain you are buying into
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The structural and decorative condition of the property
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Any development or proposed development in the area
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Businesses or schools nearby
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Resaleability of the property, and so on.
When you have found a property you would like to buy, you make an offer ‘subject to contract'. If you have not already seen a survey in the HIP, it will also be 'subject to survey'.
Establish which fixtures and fittings are for sale, and be prepared to negotiate. (As a benchmark, fixtures and fittings are the things that, if you turned the house upside down and shook it, would not fall out.)
A Gifted Deposit is a new way of buying a new-build house, which obviates the need to find a deposit and can turn around the process in as little as four weeks. It is exclusively available through FirstRungNow. A fee is payable for this service and conditions apply. To register your enquiry for this service, click here .
Useful websites
www.naea.co.uk – the National Association of Estate Agents (industry body)
www.estatesforum.co.uk – a community website offering independent advice to homebuyers
Note: House buying and selling procedures are different in Scotland. When an offer has been accepted on a house, it becomes legally binding. This means that neither the seller or buyer can pull out at the last minute and therefore the practice of gazumping (where the seller accepts a offer from another buyer prior to exchange of contracts) or gazundering (where the buyer lowers their offer prior to exchange of contracts) is much less prevalent. In addition, most residential estate agency – except in some parts of Glasgow – is handled by solicitors, who have developed regional marketing co-operatives through Solicitors' Property Centres. Several of these also provide advice on mortgages and other financial services. |
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