A short explanation of the processes involved in buying your new home
by Mary McQueen Partner in McQueen Legal who are organising an open house at their office in Bruntsfield on Saturday 19 September from 10am to 1pm when they hope you will drop in to get some free advice from their solicitors and property professionals (and cake!)
More details about the First Time Buyers’ Event you would be mad to miss are here.
It can be a bit daunting buying your first house (or any house!). The whole process can be broken down into these four simple steps:
Arranging a Mortgage
This is the first step to getting your hands on your first home. First you may need to save for a deposit.
Then you need to take advice from an Independent Financial Adviser who deals with the whole of the mortgage market. They are truly independent of any particular lender and can advise what is best for YOU!
Many solicitors will either be independent advisers themselves or will have advisers they can recommend to you. You need to be fairly sure that you can afford the mortgage you would like before you proceed to put in an offer for the property.
Mortgages can take many different forms: Fixed Rate or a Variable Rate tracking Bank Base Rates. Some are interest only, but most are Capital and Interest which means that, at the end of your 25 year mortgage, your loan has been repaid and you are mortgage free.
This does not mean that you have to stay in the same house for the whole 25 years but it does mean that you need to be able to afford to repay the sum you borrow over the agreed period. Once you have an Agreement in Principle or a Mortgage Promise, you can start to look for your new front door.
Choosing a Solicitor
The best way to find a good solicitor to ask around your friends, family or neighbours about who they would recommend to you. Then go online and do searches for local solicitors and see if any of them have been recommended by others.
Some firms publish on their websites testimonials from their existing clients. Once you decide upon who to approach, telephone the chosen firms and chat through with them what you propose to do.
The right firm for you will be a firm which immediately offers to give you a quote of the likely costs for your purchase and who will take an interest in what you are looking to buy. Some firms maintain lists of potential purchasers and what type of property they wish to purchase and will then contact you to let you know if a suitable property comes on to their books.
My own firm has recently been Mystery Shopped and the report we received back said that our “shopper” was very impressed with the friendly attitude of the member of staff who spoke to them and that she gave them good advice. This is exactly the type of firm you need to instruct – one which is proactive, efficient and also friendly and in whom you think you can have confidence.
Putting in the offer
A good solicitor will give you advice on how much you should offer to pay for a property as they will have knowledge of the market and what prices are being achieved in each area.
They will advise you whether to go straight to an offer if the property is on the market at a Fixed Price or whether to simply ‘note interest’ if the property is Offers Over or Offers Around a certain price.
Once you know how many other “notes of interest” there are, your solicitor will advise you whether to offer before a closing date or whether to wait and put your best offer in at that time.
Your solicitor should be trying to get the property for you at the best possible price. They will recommend that, if you have not already done so, you should obtain and carefully read the Home Report.
Many solicitors advise that you should also obtain your own survey report as Home Reports do not always tell the whole story, but this will depend on what information is available in the Home Report. Some lenders might require a separate survey report too.
The conveyancing process
Once you have been informed that your offer for a house has been accepted, you will be asked to say that you are satisfied with your survey report or with the Home Report and only then will the conveyancing process commence.
A good solicitor will keep you informed on progress with their work. They will look at the titles and will keep in touch with you on the terms of these and ‘the missives’ which make up the contract between you and the seller.
Missives are not signed by you – they are signed by your solicitor on your behalf.
During this time, you should, in conjunction with your chosen financial adviser, chase along the provision by your lenders of your offer of loan.
Only when your offer of loan has been received will your solicitor be happy to recommend that you finalise or ‘conclude’ missives.
Once this point is reached, you cannot withdraw from the purchase without paying substantial damages to the seller, so you need to be very sure that you can find the finance to pay for the property.
You will then be asked to sign a ‘Standard Security’ which is the mortgage deed. Shortly before settlement which is when you get your keys, you will be asked to give your solicitor your deposit monies. The lender will send the loan monies to your solicitor who will then pay over the price of the property on your behalf.
Then you can organise the house warming……
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
