Buying & Selling Your Home
SALE
STEP 1: Putting Your Property on the Market
When you decide to sell your property, you will want to make sure
that the price that you achieve will be its highest in the current
economic climate. It would therefore, be wise to obtain at least
two independent valuations of the property from local estate agents.
STEP 2: Which Estate Agent?
When deciding which estate agent to appoint, you will need to discuss
their terms and conditions with them and appoint the most favourable
for you. Make sure that you check what their commission rates are,
whether they will tie you into a sole agency and for how long, and
how they intend to market the property for you.
STEP 3: Negotiating with the buyer
Once a buyer has been found you may wish to negotiate the selling
price through your estate agent. However, price should not be the
only factor upon which you make a decision to sell to a particular
buyer. You may wish to consider, whether the buyer has a property
to sell, if they require a mortgage to buy property will be needed
and so on.
STEP 4: Instructing your Solicitor
When choosing a solicitor, you should make sure that your solicitor
has sufficient experience in dealing with property law and can provide
a cost efficient service.
STEP 5: Completing the Sellers Property Information & fixtures
& Fittings Forms
Once you have appointed us we will send to you a Sellers Property
Information Form (Freehold) or (Leasehold) and a Fixtures and Fittings
Form for you to complete and return to us. These forms must be completed
by you honestly and will contain questions about the property and
what items will be included in the sale price.
STEP 6: Applying for Office Copy Entries
We will also apply to HM Land Registry for office copy entries
relating to your property. The office copy entries will prove that
you are the owner (s) of the property and are therefore entitled
to sell. The Land Registry currently charges a fee of £8.00
for this.
STEP 7: Contacting your Lender
If you have a mortgage, we will obtain your title deeds from your
lender and ascertain how much is left owing and we will obtain your
title deeds. The lender is likely to charge a fee for releasing
the deeds, which will be debited to your mortgage account. If you
do not have a mortgage secured on your property you will need to
know where your title deeds are located.
STEP 8: Exchange of Contracts
Once we have obtained all the above information, we will prepare
a draft contract and will send this along with various supporting
documents to the buyers solicitors to approve. Until exchange of
contract, which is a formal procedure between the buyers solicitors,
and us you are not legally bound to sell to the buyer. However,
once contracts have been exchanged neither, you or the buyer can
withdraw from the contract without incurring severe financial penalties.
On exchange it is usual that the buyer will pay a 10% deposit of
the agreed purchase price.
STEP 9: Completion
Once contracts have been exchanged you will have a date for completion.
This will be the day you move out and the buyers move in. We will
deal with formal completion and when this has occurred, we will
immediately advise you. You may then wish to leave the keys with
your estate agent. The keys will only be released once we have confirmed
that we have received cleared funds of the balance of the purchase
price. If you have a mortgage, the balance outstanding will be deducted
and paid to the lender. We will then send you the balance of monies
due to you, having deducted our costs for our service.
STEP 10: Contact Utility Providers
You should ensure that you notify all utility providers that you
have now left the property. The main ones being, gas, electricity.
Cable, telephone, and the council.
BUYING
Step 1: Funding your Purchase
Before you begin looking for your ideal home, you will need to
ascertain how you will fund its purchase. Will you buy in cash or
will you need a mortgage? You are likely to have saved enough for
its deposit but chances are you will need a mortgage. This being
the case, you will need to obtain a mortgage offer either with a
building society, a bank or other recognised lender. The mortgage
offer will at this stage be in principle subject to the lenders
survey of the property. We have established links with local Independent
Financial Advisors who may be able to help you.
STEP 2: Viewing the Property
Once you have found the property that you wish to purchase, you
will need to make an offer. If this offer is accepted, you should
ask the estate agent to stop further viewings as you will inherently
run the risk of being gazumped.
STEP 3: Get a Survey
When you have found the property you wish to purchase and your
offer has been accepted, you will need to tell your lender. Your
mortgage lender will insist that a mortgage valuation is carried
out before they will give you a formal mortgage offer. As its name
suggests the mortgage valuation merely puts a value on the property.
It does not deal with the condition of the property or give any
guarantees about the state of the property. It may therefore, be
advisable to get a Home Buyers Report or a Full Structural Survey.
STEP 4: Instructing Us
When choosing a solicitor, you should make sure that your Solicitor
has sufficient experience in dealing with property law and can provide
a cost efficient service.
STEP 5: Searches
Once instructed, we will submit a local authority search and any
other searches relevant to the area in which the property is being
purchased. The main search is the local authority search. This requests
certain information as to the areas where you are purchasing and
about the property itself. For e.g. have their been any planning
applications made against the property, who is responsible for maintaining
the access road etc. The local authority will reply on a standard
form and for doing this, they will charge a fee. The amount of fee
will vary from one local authority to another.
If you are obtaining a mortgage, we will also carry out a bankruptcy
search against each purchaser. At present the fee equates to £2.00
for each individual search.
STEP 6: Consider the Draft Contract, the Sellers Property Information
& Fixtures & Fittings Forms
We will consider the above documents once these have been received
from the sellers solicitor. If anything needs to be amended or altered
we will also deal with this. We will also provide you with the completed
forms to ensure that you agree all the terms upon which you have
agreed to buy.
STEP 7: The Survey Report
Once this has been obtained you should read this very carefully.
If the survey reveals material building defects, this may reduce
the value of the property. You may then wish to re-negotiate the
purchase price or abandon its purchase altogether.
STEP 8: The Mortgage Offer
Assuming that the survey does not reveal any material defects,
your mortgage lender will give you a mortgage offer.
STEP 9: Exchange of Contracts
We will formally exchange contracts with the seller's solicitors.
Until exchange of contract, you are not legally bound to buy from
the seller. However, once contracts have been exchanged neither,
the seller nor you can withdraw from the contract without incurring
severe financial penalties.
On exchange it is usual as buyer, that you will pay a 10% deposit
of the agreed purchase price. At the same time, a completion date
would also have been agreed with the seller's solicitors. The completion
date is the actual date that you would be able to move into the
property. It is also the day when the balance of the purchase price
is paid to the sellers. You should make sure that you have life
cover in place from the date of exchange together with building
insurance if advised to do so.
After exchange we will carry out a pre-completion search with HM
Land Registry. This is to ensure that nothing has been entered onto
the land register, which could adversely affect your interest. At
present the Land Registry search fee is £4.00.
Step 10: Completion
The completion date is the day that you can move in. You lender
would have sent us the balance of the purchase price and you will
have paid any balance of the purchase price and solicitors costs
and disbursements. On the day of completion, we will send that money
to the seller's solicitor, using the electronic banking system.
The seller should have left the keys with their estate agent. Once
the seller's solicitors have confirmed that they have received the
balance of the purchase price the estate agent will release the
keys to you.
STEP 11: Formalities
Once you have completed your purchase, we will deal with the remaining
legal formalities. These include having the Transfer Deed stamped
by the Inland Revenue and paying stamp duty. At present, stamp duty
is charged at 1% on all properties between £60,000-250,000.
3% is charged on all properties between £250,000-500,000 and
at 4% on all properties over £500,000
We will also register your ownership of the property with HM Land
Registry and provide you with copies confirming your ownership.
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