Buying Guidance & Tips
Buying Guidance & Tips
Buying a home is often the largest purchase you will make in your lifetime. At Austin Hawk, we understand every situation is unique and our highly experienced, friendly team will be pleased to advise you on the options and best courses of action for your circumstances. We know that it is important you have the right information, at the right time, to ensure you make informed decisions.
We believe in providing you with as much information as possible to assist you with your buying plans. We’ve set out the main aspects of buying a property and provided tips and guidance to help you along the way.
What Can You Afford?
Buying a property is a major decision involving a substantial long-term financial commitment, so it is important to think hard about what you can afford. You will need to consider the assets you have – e.g savings – as well as your income and outgoings.
If seeking to purchase with a mortgage, we recommend taking professional financial advice to ensure you obtain the best options for your circumstances.
Obtaining A Mortgage
Here at Austin Hawk, we work in close partnership with Mortgage Decisions, an independent mortgage advisor, providing a wide range of comprehensive mortgage and protection solutions. Like us, they are committed to delivering an unparalleled level of service to their clients and have coming up to 1,000 five-star reviews on Google and Facebook.
Whether you’re a first-time buyer, looking to remortgage, self-employed, interested in Buy to Let mortgages, or aiming to purchase a shared ownership property, Mortgage Decisions’ team of extensive network of lenders (more than any other mortgage broker) ensures that they can find the perfect mortgage tailored specifically to your unique needs. Through a collaboration with the Mortgage Advice Bureau, they can gain access to an extensive selection of mortgage options from 90 high street lenders and over 12,000 products, including exclusive rates not offered by other brokers.
For more information, call our Austin Hawk team now or include your details below and we’ll be in touch straight away.
Finding Your Ideal Property
At Austin Hawk, we are here to help you find exactly the type of property you are looking for and to understand the elements if any that you would compromise on. We also take into consideration what you don’t want.
Our highly experienced team are all locally based, passionate and knowledgeable about living in the Andover area. We will be able to provide you with useful information about house prices, school performance, public transport links and other local amenities to help you with your search.
Here’s a list of questions to help you decide what aspects of a property are most important to you:
- Number of bedrooms/bathrooms?
- Parking provisions?
- Separate kitchen or dining room?
- Private garden?
- Conservatory?
- How much time/money you may want to spend redecorating and renovating?
Getting the Most Out of Viewings
We will provide you with plenty of information to help you with your property search and help you to decide which you’d like to view. We provide high quality photographs, floorplans, virtual tours, online brochures and local information. If there is anything more that you wish to know that is important to you, we will do our best to provide it.
As soon as you have established a property is of sufficient interest for you, get in touch with us to book a viewing.
Making an Offer & Negotiating the Purchase
Once you have found the property of your dreams, the next step is to make an offer. It is important to consider all the things that matter before making your offer.
First time buyers, buyers with no chain, cash buyers and buyers who have pre-arranged mortgages often have a head start on the competition. If this is you, then this can put you in a strong position.
Knowing your maximum budget is crucial so decide this from the start and stand firm. If your offer is not accepted, you will need to think very carefully whether you wish or can afford to increase your offer.
Complete any lender’s application form and send them the documents they require. This will include proof of your ID, evidence of your earnings, bank statements and proof of your address, so have these ready.
Your lender may arrange for a valuation to be done on the property. If you do not need a mortgage, you will not require a survey, though it’s still advisable. If you are buying an older property, a property that needs repairs or just for your own peace of mind, you should consider getting a more detailed survey carried out by an RICS surveyor (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors).
The lender will use the surveyor’s Valuation Report and other information you provide to calculate how much it will allow you to borrow by way of a mortgage secured on the property.
The Conveyancing Process
Conveyancing is everything that needs to happen to make a property officially yours. Here is an overview to understand what a conveyancer does:
- Obtain sellers’ responses to questions, such as who owns the boundaries, whether they have had any disputes with neighbours and what fixtures and fittings are included
- Check copies of any guarantees on the property, details of planning permissions and building regulation certificates
- Check the seller is the owner of the property and prepare a Report on Title for you
- Check local authority searches and plans for the local area
- Pay stamp duty and land tax on the property
- Arrange registration of title in your name
It takes an average of 154 days (@ 5 months) from point of sale to completion but of course this will vary depending on the particular circumstances.
Exchange of Contracts & Completion Date Agreed
In England and Wales, Exchange of Contracts is the last stage of the legal process after which you cannot pull out and a completion date is agreed.
Once everything is ready, you’ll be asked to pay a deposit – usually 10% (but sometimes 5%) of the property value before contracts can be exchanged. If you pull out after this stage, you may lose your deposit and may face legal action from the seller. It is essential to have buildings insurance cover in place at this stage and you could also consider other protection such as life insurance.
A date for completion is set before exchange take place. This should give you enough time to arrange moving in.
Your conveyancer will call you to tell you when your money has arrived and been sent to the sellers solicitor, so you can collect the keys and move in. The conveyancer will also send you a completion statement. You’ll want to read it carefully, as it should reflect their original quotation.
Completion Day is Moving Day!
Once you have a completion date and moving day approaches, there’s a lot to do and you may start to feel apprehensive. Everyone has a stressful time moving but being organised is the trick to minimise your stress levels during this time.
We’ve put together a moving checklist to help you prepare, from 4 weeks before the move, all the way through to after moving day.
