UK and Overseas Mortgages

Learn About House Buying...

Even experienced home owners find buying a property a complicated and confusing exercise, particularly as it's something most of us only do a few times in our life.

For first-time buyers, the process can be even more baffling.

We have used our 18 year’s experience of the housing market to boil the process down into its constituent parts.

Our simple guide takes you all the way from finding the right property to the day you move in.

Key Facts Illustration
From 31st October 2004 all lenders and mortgage advisers will need to give you a Key Facts Illustration (KFI) setting out the costs and terms and conditions of a mortgage before you make a mortgage application. The KFI is aimed at helping you to decide which mortgage to choose. Because it is a standard document it should make it easier to compare one mortgage with another. The KFI will be several pages and will set out key information about a mortgage:

Appointing a Solicitor
When an offer on a property has been accepted, the seller's estate agent will need your solicitor's details. Your solicitor handles all legal aspects of purchasing a property, this is known as conveyancing. It may be possible that the perfered lender may allow you t use their in house legal team at no or reduced costs, if not you May have to pay all solicitor's costs so it is quite in order to obtain quotes from a number of solicitors to decide which firm you wish to use. We are able to offer access to a national register of leading conveyancers and valuers all at discount prices. Call us even if we are not providing your Mortgage on 0870 350 8595.

Finalising Mortgage Arrangements
Once your offer on the purchase has been accepted you need to finalise your mortgage arrangements.

Exchanging contracts & Completion
Once your solicitor has carried out all necessary searches and the contract terms have been agreed, the contracts can be exchanged. Completion, this is the day when your solicitor will have completed the purchase on your behalf and the property is vacant for possession.

Home Information Packs & HCRs

The HCR will be an impartial mid-range inspection, broadly similar to the RICS Homebuyer’s Survey.

The intention is that all HCRs will be stored either centrally by the government, or locally with the HIP provider, with summary information going to the government to allow the current state of the UK housing stock to be reported.

Although the HCR will not include a valuation, many mortgage lenders will insist on some form of valuation, using either a suitably qualified Home Inspector/Valuer or an automated valuation. The ideal would be to use the same Home Inspector who carried out the HCR to provide a valuation for the loan for the buyer, therein saving cost to the lender.