There are many factors to consider when buying your new home. Firstly you will need to decide how much you can afford to spend. You will need to work out how much money you have set aside and how much you are able to borrow. When deciding upon this, it is important to remember there are many other additional costs involved aside from the initial outlay to purchase the property. You will need to pay for amongst other things - a survey, valuation, land registry fee's, removal fee's, possible mortgage - solicitors fees and any fee’s incurred running checks and searches on the property.
We will look at the 4 crucial points to ensure your property buying experience runs smoothly.
1. Deciding on search method
There are a few options available to you when searching for a property. You can go through the traditional method of using an estate agent, maybe browse the property pages of the local newspaper or you can now even buy property online. The online method is much cheaper than its shop based counterparts who have high overheads to pay for. You will find that this is reflected both in advertising and buying on these sites. This type of website is easily found when using search terms such as; sell home or similar.
2. Choosing a property
Once you’ve sorted your financial aspects and decided on which method you will use to search for your new home, you need to decide what type of property you are looking for. Do you want a renovation project? Or would you like something at the other end of the scale where you can simply move into to a modern fully decorated house with little or no work involved. Once you have decided this you can begin your search to find the ideal home. You should check the property type before you view it; the most common type is freehold, whereby the property and its grounds belong fully to you, next comes leasehold, whereby the land the property is built on is not for sale. Here you will have to pay a ground rent to the owner and the leasehold length can vary. Last but not least we have common hold, an example of this would be if you were to buy a flat. You would most probably have the freehold to said flat and own common parts of the building with other owners.
3. Making and acceptance of the offer
Once you have decided on a property you may now choose to make an offer. This does not necessarily have to be at the asking price if you feel that work needs to be done or the market is not strong enough to justify the asking price. You should contact the estate agent (or owner directly if using the online selling method) and inform them of the amount you wish to pay. If the first offer is rejected you may wish to make a second offer or even several before you finally get to a price both parties agree on. It is important to remember that even though you have put in an offer it is not legally binding and is normally subject to survey. Once you offer is accepted you will need to decide whether to have a surveyors report. This is strongly recommended as once the sale is finalized and the keys handed over you will have to pay for any hidden repair work you might find. You will now need to arrange to have your mortgage money paid to you in readiness for finalizing the deal.
4. Exchange of contracts and completion
You can instruct you solicitor to draw up the final contract once all checks have been performed to your satisfaction and a date of completion has been agreed on. Of course this also depends on your mortgage offer being received.
Once you have drawn up a final contract, signed and exchanged this with the seller you are ready for your completion date which should now have been arranged. You should ensure that the seller has final meter reading taken and makes provision with the utility companies for you the new owner. You should also at this point think of taking out a home insurance policy if you have not already done so (your mortgage company may insist you have building cover before they will release any money).
Now you at the final hurdle, on the day of completion the mortgage lender will release the money to you and this will be transferred over to the seller. The deeds to the property are handed over to you solicitor and the seller should hand the keys and property over to you by an agreed time.
You can now Buy property online negating the need for an estate agent. Try using search terms such as sell home in popular search engines.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Rowlands
