First Time Buyers

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“Where do I start?”

As first time buyers you perhaps already know that buying a house is a very daunting task. What with estate agents, solicitors and mortgage lenders to contend with you need a friendly guiding face to make your first purchase as smooth as possible. Here at Mortgage Base with our wealth of experience and knowledge we will help you understand the steps involved and guide you through all the way until you pick up your keys and move in.

To make the process clearer for you follow our step-by-step planner that will guide you through the home buying procedure.

Step 1: Determine how much you can borrow...

Speak to a Mortgage Base qualified consultant. They will work out for you your borrowing capacity and give you figures as to how much your new mortgage will be - based on the figures that they are provided with. Then they will arrange for you to get an agreement in principle completed with a lender so that you have the certainty of knowing that a mortgage is agreed for you before you search for that new home. A common downfall of many new buyers is that they find the home they are after only to find out that the mortgage is out of their reach or they have previous financial problems. Don’t put yourself in this position. Get Mortgage Base to 'agree you' first.

Step 2: Find your ideal home and make an offer...

Register with a few estate agents when looking for your home and view a few houses before you commit to making an offer on one, if you can. This way it will help you build up a better idea of what are realistic values about the house that you are buying. A handy tip: if you are moving into an area where you are not sure what the area is like take the opportunity to ring the local police station who can give you an honest and candid view of potential crime statistics in the area.

If you have a price limit to go up to then stick to it as best you can and don’t overstretch yourself. Remember on top of your mortgage and associated insurances you’ve still got all your bills and debits to pay. Once you’ve found the home you want place an offer on it through the estate agent. Remember the price it’s being sold for isn’t necessarily the price you have to pay for it, you pay what you think it is worth.

Step 3: When your offer is accepted…

The next step is to contact us for a meeting so that we can decide the most suitable mortgage for you. We’ll also discuss arranging your mortgage repayments and protection and usually help you complete all the necessary forms to make an application for the mortgage with your chosen lender. The lender will then arrange for an approved surveyor to carry out a ‘valuation report’ on the property to check that the property is in a sound condition. A lender's mortgage offer will be conditional on the value, as shown in the report. You can choose more comprehensive surveys if you wish and our advisers will explain the different ones available to you.

Step 4: Appointing your Solicitor/Conveyancer...

You need to instruct a solicitor/conveyancer who will handle the legal aspects of the transfer of the home to you. Your chosen legal representative will also act for the lender in this respect. Their main task is to draw up contracts (i.e. the conveyancing) and checking there are no building plans that might affect the property. We have a number of solicitors that offer us preferential fee rates for our customers. It’s all part of the complete service for our customers.

Step 5: The Mortgage Offer is made...

This is the next major milestone. The mortgage offer will usually be made once they have completed all their checks and the property has been surveyed. With the offer you will normally receive a copy of the valuation that was carried out. If there were any issues with the valuation the lender may place conditions on the mortgage offer. For example some repair work may be required to the property prior to moving in. In this case you will need to get quotes for the work but see if you can negotiate with the owners for a reduction on the price, or split to cost of work with them. This will usually be negotiated via the estate agents who sold you the home.

Step 6: Local Searches are carried out...

For your protection it is the duty of your solicitor to carry out Land registry and local land searches prior to the contracts for the home being signed.

Step 7: Exchange of contracts...

This is agreed between your solicitor and the solicitor acting for the seller. This is a crucial stage as once you have exchanged contracts you are legally committed to the purchase. At this stage your solicitor will give you a ‘completion date’ (i.e. date when the property becomes yours).

Step 9: Completion...

You’re almost there! At this stage your solicitor will request the mortgage funds from your lender to complete the house purchase.

Step 10: Move in...

… and finally, after all the hard work of transporting your belongings, unpacking boxes and arranging the furniture in your new home – you can now start to settle in!