Are you looking to move but don’t know where to start? Our easy to understand 8 step process will help make the process a little less stressful.
Step One - Contact Us!
Our local experts know the local areas very well and have the knowledge and know how to help you find your next home.
Our local experts live and work in the areas we serve and are active members of the local communities giving them the knowledge, insight and know how to help you find your next home.
Did you know that nationally one in ten houses are sold without coming to the open market? We can help you get access to those homes.
All of our experts also have their own direct contact details - So it's much easier to contact us for advice or to arrange viewings. We know how frustrating calling agents can be, we try to make this process as stress free as possible.
All of our experts also have their own direct contact details - So it's much easier to speak to them when you need them. They provide updates to all clients at least once a week over the phone, even if that is to let you know there is nothing major to report, as the anxiety of uncertainty is unbearable for just about everyone.
We also have a large mailing list so we can alert you when new homes hit the market, and in many cases before they do!
Step Two - Lets get specific!
We are here to be your guide through the moving process, we can take a careful look at your requirements and tell you where you can find these types of homes.
For instance, if you want a four bedroom detached house in or around Anstey, we know where to find them, and will help narrow down your search area.
Looking for the house is the fun part, but often not the most important, our experts will go through some other key questions with you, such as how the home will be financed, what timescales you are working towards, and much more.
Looking for your new home is the fun part, but often not the most important. Our experts will go through our unique home buyers questionnaire with you to build up a profile of your needs, finding out all manner of things such as how your new home will be financed, what timescales you are working towards, your non-negotiables such as access to excellent local schools and much more.
Step Three - Viewing a property
In this modern day and age, we understand a 15 minute viewing of a house is often not anywhere near enough. That's why we make sure we have a selection of photos (never just one!), room measurements as well as a floorplan. But we don't stop there!
In this often fast paced industry, we understand a 15 minute viewing of a house is often nowhere near enough. That's why we make sure we have a selection of photos (never just one!), room measurements and floorplans. But we don't stop there!
All of our properties are advertised with detailed dictated walkthrough videos, which can be really useful before and after viewing houses in person.
They are well worth checking out - unlike most agents, they are a lot more than a slideshow of the pictures!
Step Four - Make an offer - Lets make this happen!
Once you have found a house you want to buy, we want to help - regardless of whether this is with us or another agent.
We have been buying and selling houses for long enough to know what agents want. We can help you put everything together to make sure your offer looks as attractive as possible to the agent.
In the kind of market we are in, it's really important to make a good impression when putting an offer forward, the devil really is in the detail. If an agent has multiple offers, we can make sure that yours stands out in a crowd.
Step Five - Sale Agreed - Now the hard work begins.
If you're a first time buyer, or even a lucky second time buyer, you perhaps didn't realise that after agreeing a purchase, over 30% of sales fall through.
It's a crucial time to work with us and let us help you through the next phase. We need to make sure you have the right people in place to make everything go smoothly.
The first step here is the issuing of a document called “memorandum of sale”, this is also known as a “heads of terms”. It will detail your details, the sellers details and any other terms of the agreed purchase. This is issued to both yourself, the seller and both parties solicitors.
In 2022, the average time from agreeing a sale to exchanging has increased from 90 days to around 115 days. This is a lot of time for something to go wrong - constant communication is key.
Here at Charnwood Living we just say this - “Getting to this point is half the job done, we now need to do the rest.”
Step Six - Choosing the right solicitor (conveyancer)
A majority of agents work with solicitors or conveyancers, we do too, however we work slightly differently when selecting ours.
We generally work with three local partners, we choose these based on the service levels they give our clients and are constantly working with our chosen few to make sure they meet our expectations.
It's often very tempting with solicitors to go with the cheapest around, regardless of where they are located in the country. We strongly urge you to stay local and go with a recommendation, even if it's not one of ours.
Step Seven - Financing my purchase and Surveys
In a previous section we have touched on the importance of working out your finances from the start. It's now time to go back to the mortgage broker and get the full application submitted.
As ever we are here to help with this, and the brokers we work with understand the importance of communication and speed.
It's a common misconception that your bank will give you the best deal, this can be the case, but isn’t always, our mortgage brokers scour the ‘whole-of-market’ and will compare the best deals for you, helping you work through any issues that may arise.
Once you have your full mortgage application done, it's worth thinking about surveys, often a basic mortgage survey is enough, however sometimes you might feel you need something more detailed. We can put you in touch with surveyors to help with this, who can talk you through the outcomes and help you decide how to approach any potential issues.
AIf you do encounter any issues with the mortgage or surveys, it's really important to keep communicating with us, we are here to listen and help.
We can often help clear up any issues that arise, we have good contacts with all sorts of property people from insurance brokers, architects, damp proofing experts, local builders and many more depending on what you need help with.
Step Eight - Exchange and Completion!
The final step of the process is the most exciting!
It's now time to agree on dates to make the sale legally binding (exchange) and a date to finalise everything (completion - keys collection).
The important bits to know and remember here are the following:
- Firstly, exchange means you need to put your buildings and contents insurance in place from the the date the contracts are dated, you will have already have signed contracts by this point, but they will have gone back undated, pending this date
- Completion - The date you will collect keys and the date your mortgage starts, typically buyers like a few weeks in between exchange and completion to put the final bits into place, such as booking removal companies, giving notice at rental properties, and bits like that.
If you contact us and talk to us about dates, we can make sure this is all communicated to the right people.
