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Surveys
Arrange a survey and valuation. Your lender will require a valuation to be carried out on the property; this is usually included as part of your chosen product and the lender will arrange this. This is to determine that you are paying the right price for the property. You will also want at least a basic buildings survey to be completed on the property to make sure everything is ok. You can choose the level of survey you wish to be completed, depending on how thorough you would like the search to be. This can usually be offered as an upgrade to the valuation through your mortgage lender. Costs will vary.
Once you have selected a surveyor, you can contact the estate agent to arrange for your surveyor to go round to the property and carry this out, you will then receive a report outlining the surveyors’ judgement on different areas of the property, such as state of the roof, walls and floors. This will help you determine if this really is the right property for you. If there are any issues, don’t be afraid to ask for a reduction in price, or even pull out. You will have only lost the cost of the survey at this point.
Conveyancing
Once you are happy with the results of your survey, you now need to appoint a conveyancer (most people will refer to this as your solicitor).
So, what does your conveyancer do?
Your conveyancer will then manage everything in terms of the actual property purchase and transfer of ownership into your name. They work on your behalf to find out everything you need to know about a home. They run local searches, check boundaries, negotiate key dates and get the contract ready for you to sign.
This process is the lengthiest part of purchasing a property and can take anywhere from 6 weeks to 4 months depending on the situation. Just keep calm and regularly ask for updates.