Buying Property

The process of buying a new home can seem daunting, especaially if it's your first step on to the property ladder. We're always keen to help make buying a house as simple and swift as possible, and help you to understand the various stages involved. This page contains some useful tips for first time buyers, but please feel free to contact us to discuss your own requirements.

First Time Buyers - A Guide to Buying Your First Home

Firstly you will need to establish how much you can comfortably afford to borrow. In order to do this you will need to either speak to our friendly mortgage broker, or your own friendly mortgage broker if you already know one. They will have a computer link to all 300 or so banks and building society’s and will find you the best rate and the best product, taking into account you individual circumstances.
Armed with this, contact any Seddons office, and tell us what type of property you are looking for and the budget that you have in mind. We will then put you on our mailing list for the appropriate offices and contact you either by phone, email or surface mail, when we have properties of that type available.
It is always good to have a look at a selection of properties before settling on one, so that you have a broad view of what there is available and the prices being asked. We will arrange viewings of any of our properties for you.
Once you see a property that you like, submit an offer to us and we will do our best to agree a price between you and the vendor.
Once the purchase price has been agreed you will need to appoint a solicitor, and again we can advise you if you don’t already have one. We will send letters out to all of the parties involved, i.e. the person selling, to you, the sellers solicitors and to your solicitors.
You will need to advise your mortgage broker that you have found a suitable property to purchase, and they will submit an application to the building society who will then arrange for their valuer / surveyor to inspect the property.
The solicitor acting for the vendor will prepare a contract, which will then be sent to your solicitor, who will examine the papers and raise any queries. This normally takes about three to four weeks, during which time the building society valuer will have inspected the property and assuming there are no problems, will report back to the building society, who will then issue you with an offer of mortgage.
Once you have the offer of mortgage, and your solicitor is happy with the contract, then he will ask you in to sign the contract and to pay over your deposit. This will normally be 10% of the purchase price. Your solicitor will now send the signed contract and deposit to the solicitor acting for the vendor who will then send to your solicitor another copy of the contract signed by the vendor. This is what is known as Exchange of Contracts.
Once contracts are exchanged, you have a legally binding contract. Completion normally takes place about two to four weeks after exchange of contracts and on completion day, your solicitor will transfer the remaining purchase money to the vendor’s solicitor. When this has taken place you can collect the keys from Seddons, and move into your new home.