| How to Buy a house | ||
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1) What can you afford? If you want to buy a property you need to save as hard as you can. There are 100% mortgages available but you will get a much better deal if you have a reasonable deposit. Usually your loan amount is based upon your earnings and buying on your own you will be able to borrow up to between 3.5 and 4 times your annual income, if you are buying with a partner, the maximum will be 2.75 to 3 times your joint earnings. You can sometimes achieve higher lending if you are a professional and lenders base their calculations on how much the lender believes you can afford. 2) Looking for that ideal home Contact all your local estate agents with your requirements through "Pick A Property" by pressing the "Contact Agents" button above. Look at as many properties as you can before making any offers, during different times of the day. Once you have made up your mind go back for a second and even third time. Take somebody different for another opinion. Make sure you look around the immediate areas to make sure there isn.t anything that stands out. 3) Make that offer Once you have found your ideal property, make an offer to the Estate Agent. If the property has been hanging around on the market for some time, or if work is needed, try offering below the asking price. You can always improve on your offer if it is rejected! If the offer is accepted, ask for the property to be taken off the market as this could help being .gazumped., which is when someone makes a higher offer and legally the estate agent has to pass this on to the seller. 4) Appoint your Solicitor Appoint a solicitor to carry out the necessary legal work and look around for the best mortgage deals on the market but this will be done by your mortgage broker. Once you get your mortgage application in to the lender they will carry out credit checks and normally you will get notification within 24 hours whether or not your application has been accepted, a decision in principle (DIP). 5) Finalise the Mortgage A mortgage valuation will be needed to establish if the property is worth the asking price you have offered and for this service you will need to pay a fee for this. Once this has been done and the valuation does in fact agree with the offer then a formal mortgage offer will be sent out to the individual by post. A basic valuation will not tell you of any potential problems with the property and therefore if you did want a more in-depth report, you will need a .homebuyer.s report. which provide.s more detail, or a full structural survey. Your solicitor will check the title deeds to that property thus carrying out searches to make sure there are no planning applications which may affect your property and liase with the seller.s solicitor. 6) Exchange Contracts If everything goes smoothly contracts can get signed, in anticipation, for an exchange. This is where the seller will sign their sales contract and you will sign your purchase contract and these exchange. At this point you will have to pay the deposit to your solicitor and this is usually 10% of the purchase price. The deal has become legally binding and if you were to pull out now you would lose your deposit. 7) Completion Completion normally takes place around 2-4 weeks later and the mortgage monies are then passed on to the seller and you are given the keys to your new home. You have bought your new home! | ||