At the end of part 1, our poten­tial first time buy­er was in a posi­tion to start look­ing for a property.

When look­ing for a prop­er­ty, one impor­tant fac­tor to note is the dif­fer­ence between free­hold & lease­hold prop­er­ties. As the name sug­gests, lease­hold prop­er­ties involve a lease. If you are buy­ing a flat or apart­ment, then it is like­ly that you will need to inves­ti­gate if a man­age­ment com­pa­ny is involved & whether there are any asso­ci­at­ed costs such as ser­vice charge or ground rent. The Estate agent should have these details & if the do not, they will need to ask the vendor.

Your Con­veyanc­ing Solic­i­tor will raise fur­ther enquiries, which is the tech­ni­cal term for legal ques­tions, to explore the terms of the lease & terms of the mange­ment company. 

Once you have select­ed a prop­er­ty you would like to buy, tak­ing into con­sid­er­a­tion the asso­ci­at­ed costs & details of the ques­tions asked, you are ready to make an offer in line with your cri­te­ria & afford­abil­i­ty. The rel­e­vant Estate agent will assist you with this & if the offer gets accept­ed, you’ll then need to for­mal­ly accept your mort­gage lender & their sur­vey­or. You should con­sid­er whether you need to instruct your own sur­vey­or, as most lenders do not reveal full sur­vey results. Last­ly, you’ll then need to speak a Solic­i­tor about the legal process of buy­ing a property. 

Part 3 of our guide will look at how to begin the process of buy­ing your property.

To dis­cuss buy­ing a house or any­thing cov­ered in this blog, please get in con­tact with Rick Bar­row on 01625 523988 or mail@​JBGass.​com