The first step to buying a new home is to find out how much you can borrow. You will then know how much of a deposit you will need to provide. Get a mortgage agreed in principle, this is not legally binding; you can change lender later on.
Once you know what price range you can aim for you can look through our available homes, once you know which developments are of interest to you it’s time to come and view our show homes.
This stage is similar to the ‘make an offer’ stage in the traditional house buying process. Once your pay your reservation fee you home is reserved for you at that price for a set amount of time, no-one else can reserve that house.
A solicitor will need to take care of all the legal aspects of the buying process. Always shop around for the best rate and make sure you choose one who specialises in conveyance (preparation of the property transfer documents).
When it comes to choosing a mortgage there is a lot of choice. Which lender to go with, how you intend to make repayments, what type of mortgage is best for you and what special offers are available at the moment. The internet is a great way to do research, do plenty to familiarise yourself with the current market or use a financial advisor. Your mortgage will be formalised once your lender is satisfied with your survey and valuation.
The valuation conforms to your mortgage lender that your new home is worth what you are paying for it, your lender will organise the valuation but you will need to pay the fee. The survey checks the condition of your new home, whilst all of our homes are built to a high quality and come with a 10 year warranty it is still considered best practise to have a survey carried out.
This is when your solicitor starts the process to legally transfer the property from us to you – known as ‘conveyancing’. Amongst other things this involves making sure you’ll have complete ownership of the property and that there aren’t any local plans afoot that may affect it’s value.
Exchange of contracts is almost the final part of the conveyance process. At this stage a deposit will be paid, this means both parties are legally committed to the deal.
On your completion date your solicitor should transfer the cost of the property from the mortgage lender to us and you become the legal owner of your new home. We’ll invite you to meet us at your new home to conduct a tour, plus a demonstration of things such as the heating system to ensure you know where everything is and how everything works. Once we receive confirmation of transfer of funds we’ll hand over the keys and you can move in and start to enjoy your new home.