Mortgages and Mortgage Valuations
Once you’ve accepted an offer on your house, you need to know that it is going to proceed to completion with the minimum number of obstacles
A key part of this is that your property achieves a mortgage valuation in line with the price you’ve accepted, that your purchasers receive a final mortgage offer, and, that you also have the funds in place for your onward purchase.
Home Truths work with independent mortgage advisors who have access to the whole of the market including options that simply aren’t available via high street lenders even if it is one of their own products.
Qualifying someone’s ability to purchase your property is a critical part of the process and we work with our mortgage specialist to do this.
Nearly all lenders will insist on a mortgage valuation although this can form part of the survey. Different lenders have different approaches with some preferring to have the property valued first and others seeking to qualify the ability of the purchaser to afford the mortgage before instructing the survey.
Solicitors and Surveyors
There are a number of other professionals involved in the house buying process.
Solicitors are the people who will ensure the legal transfer of the ownership of the property between the seller and the buyer.
As either the seller or the buyer, it is important that you tell the solicitor from the outset, what your anticipated sale purchase date is so that they can work towards it along with other parties who may be involved in the chain.
It is critical that you let your solicitor have all the information they need in a timely manner as, ultimately, it is the legal chain that determines the date for exchange of contracts and completion.
Surveyors also play a key role. If you are buying a property and the implications of any issues that they find. Often a series of relatively minor issues can seem overwhelming on a survey, although they can often be easily resolved.
If you do have concerns about what the survey says about the house you are purchasing, let the estate agent have as much information as possible so that they can discuss fully with the vendor
Stamp duty and other costs
As well as estate agents, solicitors and surveyors’ fees, there are other costs.
One of the major costs is stamp duty. There is no stamp duty to pay on properties under £125,000 unless you are buying a second or third property, in which case as well as whatever the stamp duty rate is, you have to pay an additional 3%.
Whilst the stamp duty calculation is much fairer then it used to be it is still a tax which is dependent upon the price of the property you are buying, and you should take this into consideration as part of the transaction.
For example, for a single property purchase:
A house costing £145,000 the stamp duty would be £400
A house costing £225,000 the stamp duty would be £2,000
First-time buyers, however, have had stamp duty abolished for purchases up to £300,000 in this area of the country, which is a real saving.
Other costs you may have along the way could involve application fees to your mortgage lender, and or storage if necessary.
All of these costs are part of the general sale and make sure that you budget accordingly.