INSIDER’S GUIDE FOR PROPERTY BUYERS

1. Introduction
Moving house is well known to be one of the most stressful things you can do, with large sums of money involved and the process potentially fraught with difficulties and frustrations. Luckily, you will not do it very often, but we deal with it every day, so we have written this short guide to remind you of how the process works and some of the challenges you will face and to give you the benefit of our “inside knowledge”.
This can only be an introductory guide, but we will be happy to talk with you in detail about your requirements and the moving process.

2. The process
This is an overview of the process for the property buyer. See our legal guide for all of the main stages of the legal and conveyancing work and see our buyer’s checklist for all the practical things you will need to do.
Make a decision on property requirements, location and price
Look at local papers and register with local estate agents
Review appropriate property details
View properties
Make an offer and have it accepted
Progress the legal work and exchange contracts
Complete the sale and move in

3. Deciding what you want
One of the best things you can do is sit down with all of the family and decide exactly what you want to have in your ideal property (unfortu-nately, you will need to bear in mind the realities of what can be achieved in your price range!). Write it all down and the more specific you can be the better – price range, how many bedrooms, how big a garden, what size lounge, garage or off-street parking, what sort of location, local facilities and transport, age of property, condition and maintenance requirements, development potential etc.
Apart from clarifying your own mind and bringing out any potential conflicts that may exist, it will make life much simpler when talking with estate agents and give you a scorecard against which to evaluate prop-erties you see. You will almost certainly end up compromising some of your requirements, but at least you will know by how much!

4. Registering with estate agents
It is worth registering with all of the local agents who are marketing properties of your type. You will get buried by property details and receive endless phone calls offering you the perfect property for you and you can treat them all with a large pinch of salt and measure them up against your scorecard before deciding which to view.
You could make the process easier for you by being selective on which agents you register with and making sure they really understand your requirements and don’t send you loads of inappropriate details and send you on viewings that are a waste of time. You may also want to ask the agents to communicate with you by email and see email property details or review them on the agent’s web site. This can save a lot of time and a lot of paper!
Bear in mind that people often end up buying something different to their original requirements and that you will see a lot more properties if you are not too specific. Each time you give the agents some feed-back on properties you have seen it helps them fine-tune what they show you. Also bear in mind that most sellers appoint a sole agent, so to see all the properties on the market you will need to register will all the agents.

5. Preparing for viewings
If the agents are doing their job (and if the sellers have read the Browns seller’s guide!) they will have presented their property at its best. The way they do this will give you as the buyer an indication of how well the property has really been looked after. You will be getting a survey of the property done later, but it is worth seeing at this stage whether it is a property with lots of problems that have been shoddily covered up or whether it is basically sound and has been well-maintained. If the sellers have not bothered to try making a good im-pression, that may be an indication of their attitude toward the mainte-nance of their property in general.
It is worth doing a bit of research before you view a property – have a look at local maps to see whether it meets your requirements for amenities and transport, ask the estate agent about the area and nearby properties. It is also worth arriving a bit early so you can have a quick look around the immediate area and ask any questions that are appropriate.
Bear in mind that the area may be very different at weekends and on weekdays. Check your journey times at the time you will actually make them, not at 10.00 on a Sunday morning. If you are serious about the property, pass by at various times of day and night and stop, look and take in the ambience of the area.
After you have seen a property, give the estate agent some construc-tive feedback, even if you are really not interested in the property. Your feedback will help the agent find the right property for you and will also be of great help to the sellers (if you are selling as well, you will appreciate helpful feedback from people who view your property, so help the world go round!).

6. Making an offer
When you are making an offer, you will be considering a lot of factors:
How close is the property to your ideal?
How does the price compare to other properties you have seen?
What is the limit on finances given the offers you have on your own property?
How much will you have to spend quickly to make the property live-able for you?
Will someone else make a better offer?
What time pressures are you under from your sales chain?
All sellers are different and will be considering their own changing cir-cumstances when evaluating any offers they receive. Making a quick offer at the full asking price does not necessarily mean that you are over-paying for a house, any more than offering significantly below the asking price means you are getting it “cheap” – the level at which an offer is made and accepted is just a balances of many changing factors for both buyer and seller and the right timing.
The sellers agent is obliged to notify the seller of all offers received, but they are working on behalf of the seller and trying to optimise the price achieved for the property, having regard for all the factors that need to be considered. The seller may well have asked the agent to pass on details of their current circumstances to buyers so it is well worth talk-ing to the agent before making your offer. If the seller is in a strong position and has instructed the agent to wait for an offer at the full asking price, you may just provoke a bad response by insisting on an offer at a lower level. However, if the seller needs a quick move hav-ing found a property themselves, it is well worth explaining your own position and making an offer at a level you can afford.
Don’t forget that the estate agent is being paid by the seller to act on their behalf and they have no obligations to you beyond their profes-sional standards. That said, it is the agent’s role to find a buyer for the property and to help move the sale to completion and most agents will be as helpful as possible to buyers. Also, the buyer is moving in to the agent’s area and when you sell the property at some time in the future they will want you as a customer! The agent will be helping the seller to evaluate offers and will want to confirm the details of your position, including your position on the sale of your own property and your fi-nancial position. If you can show a firm sale and a good mortgage indication at the level required to finance your offer, that can only help your case.

7. Surveys and price negotiations
The mortgage lender will insist on a valuation survey to give them con-fidence that there is enough value in the property to cover the amount you are borrowing. The buyer generally has to pay for this, although the report belongs to the lender, but they will generally let you see a copy.
If the property is fairly new, you may not need a survey as it should be covered against serious structural defects by a NHBC (National House building Council) or equivalent certificate for 10 years from the time of building – ask to see the certificate and conditions.
If the property is older but is conventional in type and construction and apparently in reasonable condition, a “Homebuyers Report” may be appropriate. This is not a full building survey but will give you informa-tion to support your decision to proceeds and should indicate any ar-eas where further work would be advisable.
For older properties or those with unusual features or alteration or that need renovation, a full building survey would be recommended. Your solicitor can probably recommend a surveyor and they can advise on the type of survey you need and the various prices.
A survey will usually bring up issues that have not been considered previously – whether they are major problems or just minor issues. There will usually be some discussion about whether the financial im-pact of these matters was included in the original offer or not. The seller will take the position that the house was “sold as seen”, whereas the buyer will say that the offer was made on the basis that the house was “perfect”. In practice, both sides will need to be flexible to come to a mutually acceptable position.
The other thing happening at this time is solicitors preparing detailed schedules of what is and what is not included in the price and that can also bring out problems. If the lovely garden shed or expensive cur-tains that the buyer thought were included are actually being removed by the seller, there will need to be a discussion!
The estate agent can be a great help at this stage by being in the middle of the discussions and avoiding them becoming personal issues for the buyer and seller. They are really just clarifications of the position as more information becomes available and have to be resolved if the sale is to complete.
This is the stage at which things become difficult and may fall apart, particularly when the difficulties are multiplied by the number of stages in the chain and made worse by time getting short and tempers getting frayed! A lot of the problems can be avoided by raising any early concerns you have about the property and being clear on exactly what is included in the offer price. You may make an offer of a price “to include all carpets and the green curtains in the lounge and subject to confirmation that the cracks in the rear extension are not indications of a structural problem”. This is intended to clarify your offer, but cannot be legally binding on the seller. Be careful with this as the survey may or may not reveal problems and the surveyors will have disclaimers in their small print. Legally, it is the buyer’s responsibility to instruct spe-cialists and take responsibility for condition of the property.

8. Getting the deal completed
Once your offer has been accepted, your solicitor will manage the process through to completion. Remember that neither you nor the seller are legally committed to the sale until signed contracts are actu-ally exchanged.
The key stages for the buyer’s solicitor are:
Receive information pack from seller’s solicitor
(copy title deeds, Fixtures, fittings, contents, draft contract)
Raise additional enquiries
Initiate Local Authority and other searches
Confirm mortgage, life cover, building insurance
Request deposit
Agree exchange and completion dates
Prepare financial statements
Forward funds to seller’s solicitor and release keys
Stamp Transfer Deed, register buyer’s ownership

9. Checklist for buyers