Moving Home

Moving Home in Cheshire with Alder Rose

Moving home can be somewhat challenging when trying to find the right property, whether this be for your expanding family, a relocation, whatever the reason is, the team at Alder Rose will be here to help guide you. You may have already marketed your current home for sale or in some cases it may be a house you have only dreamed of being able to buy coming to the market…… Whatever the circumstances around the reasons you are moving home Alder Rose are with you up until the day you receive your new keys.

What to consider when Moving Home

We would suggest you consider the following steps when moving home;

Stage 1 – Find a property you can afford;

We are able to run what we call a Mortgage Affordability Calculator which are what the lenders use to assess the amount you can lend. This will help you to decide what is within your price range before you start to view properties. We would then suggest you work out what you are comfortable to pay each month and what is affordable to your personal/household budget.

Consider how you’ll cope if your financial situation changes, or interest rates rise, and be careful not to overstretch yourself.

Remember, your savings will have to cover not just the deposit, but expenses such as mortgage fees (typically anything between £0-£2,000) and Stamp Duty on properties costing more than £125,000 in England and Northern Ireland. In Wales, you will need to pay Land Transaction Tax on properties over £180,000.

Step 2 – Sell or rent out your current home

We would suggest speaking to a local agent about the value of your home and sale costs etc. We would recommend speaking with 3 different agents before deciding on the right agent to act for you. Alternatively, if you decide to rent out this property to move to the new property, you would also need to find out rental values that you could achieve. If you decide to let out the property, we can assist you in re-mortgaging if you would like to use some of your equity as the deposit.

You only pay for an estate agent if you’re selling property. The fees usually range from 0.5% to 3%, plus VAT, of the selling price.

Stage 3 – Make an offer

Once you’ve found a home you want to buy, the next step is to make an offer, usually through an estate agent. You may need to provide evidence you can obtain a mortgage and we can provide you with this.

Stage 4 – Arrange a solicitor and surveyor

The solicitor will handle the legal work around the property.

The surveyor will survey the property to check for problems, which might affect the cost of the home.

Your solicitor will tell you how much you can expect to pay and might ask for a deposit upfront – this is typically 10% of their fee. Typical cost: £500-£1,500 + 20% VAT

Stage 5 – Finalise the offer and mortgage

Once you have successfully passed the underwriting with the lender and the property has been valued you will then receive your mortgage offer. The copy of this is sent to yourself, the broker and the solicitor. This stage you will need to check your happy with everything.

Stage 6 – Exchange contracts

Exchanging contracts is legally binding, so be certain you want to go ahead before signing anything. During the exchange of contracts, the solicitor or conveyancer will read out the contracts over the phone in a recorded conversation.

They will make sure the contracts are the same and then post them to each other.

Once contracts have been exchanged and you’re legally bound to buy the property to:

• tell the freeholder (if it’s a leasehold property) you’re the new owner
• check the solicitor/conveyancer has registered transfer of ownership with the land registry

Step 7 – Completion and Next Steps.

On Completion you receive a call from the conveyancer and the estate agents when you can collect your new keys. This is the most exciting part of the process and there are a few things you need to bare in mind before you organise your house warming!

• Organise post forwarding.
• Notify everyone you’ve changed address – driving licence, banks, pension company, work, mobile phone company, etc.
• Register with utility companies, broadband suppliers, water suppliers and for council tax.