You’re probably reading this because you’re thinking about how to take the first step onto the property ladder, or perhaps you’ve already begun.

It’s an obvious point to make, but buying your first home is a huge moment; probably the biggest financial commitment you will ever make. It’s a step into a new place where you’ll feel the weight of freedom and responsibility in equal measure.

The process of buying a property is not always made that easy to understand, and as a first time buyer, having clarity about the order things happen and who does what will make your experience smoother and less stressful.

Spending your money carefully

You don’t need me to tell you that the need to make sound financial decisions has intensified. As interest rates (the amount of extra money you’ll pay to a lender for the privilege of borrowing from them) soar, and our everyday costs continue to climb, it’s understandable to feel pressure to spend your money carefully.

In this blog, I’m going to use my experience in property real estate and surveying to talk through the process and highlight some of the pitfalls to avoid. I’ll run through the stages you’ll go through when buying a property, and talk about how you can give yourself greater certainty and control.

The house-buying process

How much can I borrow?
Work out how much you can borrow by speaking with mortgage lenders, brokers, or using an online calculator. Information about your financial situation is used to calculate what you can afford to borrow.
Decision in principle
This document will be issued by a lender as proof that you have the ability to put in a valid offer. It’s non-binding, but gives some certainty to the seller that you are a genuine buyer.
Happy house hunting
Start the search and put in an offer if you find a property you love
Offer accepted
A big moment - the property seller is happy with your offer!
Reserve a mortgage
Work with your lender to confirm the terms of your mortgage deal
Process an application
At this point, your lender needs to see a lot of information regarding your income and financial affairs. You’ll need to show proof of funds, and send through a lot of documentation. This takes some time.
Engage with solicitors
Talk to a few solicitors and see who you like. You will be working with them for a significant amount of time, so feeling comfortable with them is important. Sometimes the cheapest solicitor won’t be the best value, as the service you get from them can make all the difference to your experience.
Mortgage offer
Once your lender has reviewed your documentation, providing it’s all in order, they’ll issue you an offer. These are usually valid for about six months.
Book a survey
This is the point to book in your property survey. Any earlier, and you may be wasting your money, as you don’t yet have a mortgage offer confirmed. I talk more about what type of survey you should consider below.
Agree dates for exchange and completion
Once your solicitors are satisfied with the legal side of the process and have completed all the necessary searches and paperwork, you will be in a position to agree the dates upon which the sale will take place. The first date you will agree is the ‘exchange’ date - the date when all signed contracts are exchanged between buyer and seller. Up until this point, either party can pull out of the deal without incurring any penalty costs. Once the contracts have been exchanged, there would be a cost to pulling out, whether you’re the buyer or the seller.

The second and most important date is the completion date. This is the day you get the keys to your new home, once the money has landed in the sellers account. There is often a space of a couple of weeks between contract exchange and completion, in order to give time for the money to arrive in the right accounts.
Buildings insurance
Most mortgage lenders will insist on valid buildings insurance in order to lend you the money to buy your property.
First monthly mortgage payment
The moment it all really feels real, when the first mortgage payment leaves your account. This is sometimes a few weeks after you have the keys - you’ll be given a payments schedule which outlines the timing.

Making an informed decision

When your offer has been accepted on a property, you’ve probably only been inside it once, or possibly twice. You haven’t tested out the kitchen, or bathroom, you haven’t slept in it, and you haven’t looked over every space with a fine tooth comb, looking for hidden problems like damp, subsidence or asbestos.

This sounds a bit gloomy, but there are useful and informative actions you can take to make an informed decision and remove some of the risks. This is where getting a RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) accredited survey can help. Getting a survey will:

Identify any construction defects
Identify issues like damp, asbestos
Identify any repairs you may need to consider
Help you decide whether the price of the property needs to negotiated based on any findings and future costs

I offer two main types of residential surveys, RICS Level 2 and RICS Level 3. You can find out all about those here, but in simple terms, RICS Level 2 offers a comprehensive survey for most conventional properties,, whereas a RICS Level 3 survey provides a greater level of detail, and is usually appropriate for older or more unusual properties.

I go into a lot more detail about the two main types of survey I offer here. It is usually sensible to arrange an electrical and plumbing survey in addition to your RICS residential survey. If a surveyor suspects a property contains asbestos, an asbestos survey is strongly recommended. When I work with a client, I can recommend good local tradespeople for these additional services.

Timing it right

As I touched on above, it’s sensible to time your survey carefully. It’s usually sensible to wait until you have a mortgage offer from the lender, and until your seller has also had an offer accepted. Otherwise, there’s a possibility they may not be ready to move out for some time. The estate agent will probably put pressure on you to arrange the survey immediately, but don’t feel pushed.

Talk to me

If you’d like to discuss getting a survey, or talk about any of the other services I offer, please do get in touch, I’d be delighted to talk to you. I pride myself on providing a hand-hold through the process, and offering a supportive and transparent service to all my clients. Drop me a line at roo@rmsurveyors.co.uk or give me a call on 07957606886

Get in touch

First time buyers blog