Buyers Guide

Buying a property is a costly process and you should be prepared or how much you will need to pay out before committing yourself to anything. As well as paying for a deposit you need to save money for the following:

• Solicitors
• Surveyors (if required)
• Local Authority Searches
• Land Registry fees
• Lender’s fees
• Removal Companies
• Work that is needed immediately

While access to all these above services and more is provided by this site, we only go so far as to provide you with the information, you must contact them and work out arrangements yourself.

Next you need to find out how much a mortgage company is willing to lend you. This will be based on your income and is generally around 2.5 or 3 times your current earnings. There are two ways to find a mortgage:

• Use our service facilities (available by selecting “Property Services”) to look for any Internet or local banks for the best offers
• Let a Financial Advisor do the hard work for you, this usually won’t cost you a penny and they will take care of finding you the best deal available.

It is best usually to find the area(s) you would like to live in before you search for your home. If you need schools nearby then you should speak to Local Authorities first and see which areas you need to be in the right catchment area.

Explore the area you want to live in and mark on a map places that really interest you, then you can search for the property in those areas.

To look for properties available in your places of interest on our website, enter the location into the “Property Search” box, and select the type of property you wish to look for (for sale or to let), then specify other details on the following page. If you find a property that you feel fits your requirements, note down the seller’s contact details from the page in case you decide to contact them later.

After viewing several properties you should get more of an idea of what you are looking for. e.g. Not near a main road, etc.

If you see a property that is of real interest, arrange a viewing, the seller should be more than happy to show you around, if you arrange for a second viewing, try to arrange it for a different time of day so that you can check for noise from neighbors, traffic, etc.

Go prepared to your second viewing, before going make a note of all questions you want to ask and any measurements or anything you want to check for, e.g radiators. Once you have had your second viewing and you have decided it is the property for you, don’t hesitate, if a property is well priced it should be snapped up so don’t risk losing your possible dream home.

Use the Services section provided on this site to find a Solicitor and Surveyor. It is always best to instruct a solicitor in advance, phone a few solicitors local to the area you are hoping to buy in and ask them for a quote on conveyancing.

Depending on your confidence either create an “Offer Letter” to send to the owner containing your offer, or alternatively ring the owner on the phone and submit your offer verbally. If you choose to submit your offer over the phone, send them aletter after this so that they have your offer in writing. Do not hassle them as this may put them off, let them consider it in their own time and await their response. Do notinsult owners by putting forward silly offers, but realise also, that owners may be expecting offers between 5-10% below their asking price.