When you are thinking about buying a house there are a whole host of other things that you have to think about, besides how you will decorate the rooms and what the neighbours are like you need a Homebuyer’s Mini-Guide
If you like a property that you see in your search and want more details, you can find out from Entwistle Green , or whoever is marketing the house that you are interested in. You might also want to do your sums before you consider making an offer, so that you know what sort of bills and fees you be facing, now and in the future.
A Homebuyer’s Mini-Guide
Getting your sums right
The biggest number that you will be concentrating on is the agreed purchase price of the property, and perhaps after that, the amount of deposit that you know you will have to find.
On top of that, you will also need to get your sums right and work out exactly how much it is going to cost you to actually move, from legal fees, stamp duty, removal costs and a whole number of different expenses that will need to be found, which is why you will have to make sure you get your sums right from the beginning of the process.
The importance of your deposit
It is understandably difficult to save a substantial deposit out of your own resources, which is why many first-time buyers in particular, sometimes have to get some family help in order to raise the amount of money needed as a down payment.
There is every chance that if you are buying a property through a scheme like help-to-buy, you may only be required to find a 5% deposit, but there are good reasons to try and put as much down as a deposit as you can, if you are buying a property that is not part of a scheme.
If you can raise as much as 20% deposit to put down, this can open up access to a mortgage deal that offers preferential rates. The general rule is that the larger the deposit you can raise, the higher the chance you have of securing a better mortgage rate than you would be offered with a small sum to put down.
This will reduce your monthly payments as a result of a lower interest rate, so you can see how raising a bigger deposit is worth trying to do, if you can.
Legal fees and other costs
You can normally get a fixed quote for the conveyancing process, so that you know exactly what your solicitor is going to charge for doing all of the legal work required to help you buy your home.
In addition to conveyancing fees, you will probably have to pay stamp duty, which will be a percentage of the purchase price, starting from 2% and working all the way up to 12%.There are fixed costs for searches, like the Land Registry Fee, which confirms the current legal owner of the property and that whether there is a mortgage charge that has to be settled.
Unless you are paying cash for the property, you will have to pay for a survey to be carried out. These vary from a basic valuation to a full building survey. A full survey seems expensive in comparison to the basic valuation option, but if you can find the money (probably over £500) you will get a detailed report which tells you about any faults or defects. You might not get this with a basic survey, which could turn out to be expensive if you have to do some repairs later on.
Moving costs
Another cost that can vary, depending on what options you go for, is the cost of moving your possessions from your old place and into your new home.
If you only have a few things to move and are moving to a smaller property, that doesn’t have any more than two bedrooms, you might want to consider hiring a van and doing the move yourself.
The more stuff you need to move and other factors like how far you are travelling to your new residence, will soon probably tip the balance in favour of getting a removals firm to do all of the work for you.
You will likely face a bill of around £750 or more for moving costs based on a typical three-bedroom house, but if you talk to a few people who attempted to do the move themselves in order to save money, you will likely be persuaded that this is an expense that is worth finding the money for.
There are plenty of costs attached to buying your home, but plenty of rewards to look forward to after you have moved in, so make sure you get a handle on all of those expenses.
Morgan Lambert has recently completed a move into her dream family home; finally enough space for everyone! She uses her life experiences when choosing her article topics.
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