Are you interested in buying, selling or renting property in Lancing or Sompting?

Neville Scott Estate Agents are an independent local Estate Agent in Lancing specialising in residential sales and investment lettings. We pride ourselves on offering a friendly and professional service where the client ... Read more

Thinking of selling?

Read about our Special Services that we offer our vendors. Click here

You have decided to buy a home for sale – but what next? The maze of legal work, negotiations, dealing with estate agents, surveyors and solicitors, finding a good mortgage deal and worrying about your deal falling through, on top of actually hunting down the home of your dreams, is enough to make anyone stressed out!

Buying a house is one of the biggest financial decisions you will make in you life. It is a lengthy and complicated business, which while exciting is often fraught with stress and worry. But luckily there is a lot of good advice around helping you to make your home-buying experience as easy and problem-free as possible.

We have prepared an introduction to the home-buying process to help you understand how it all works, how to plan it and what to watch out for. After reading this you should have a better idea of what to expect and how to set out to buy a home!

Tip: To avoid as much stress as possible, don’t try to Do-it-all-Yourself! Choose your advisers carefully and let them do the worrying.

The Home-Buying Process At A Glance

1. How much can you afford?

2. Getting a mortgage

3. Choosing your home

4. Hiring a solicitor

5. Making an offer

6. Survey & Valuations

7. Exchange & Completion

This outlines the main stages you will go through when buying a home. After finding a home you like, which can take anything from a few days to many months, the process from having your offer accepted to completion of the sale can take anything from a few days to many months, the process from having your offer accepted to completion of the sale averages about 12 weeks. This is about twice as long as in many other countries - home-buying in Britain is a notoriously drawn-out business.

It is important to have a good understanding of the process as it will help you avoid some of the most common hazards of home-buying.

Note that the information on this site applies to buying a house in England and Wales. The process is different in Scotland.

Selling?

If you are also selling a property, and the purchase of your next home is dependent on selling, it is strongly advisable to have a buyer lined up for your home before you get down to serious house-hunting. If not, you could end up frustrated and disappointed.

However, this does not mean that you can't have a look at what is available on the market whilst your Estate Agent finds you a buyer.