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You have decided to buy a property - But what next?

The maze of legal work, negotiations, dealing with surveyors and solicitors, finding a good mortgage deal and worrying about your deal falling through, on top of actually hunting down your dream property, is enough to make anyone's hair stand on end.

Buying a property is one of the biggest financial decisions that you will make in your life. It can be a lengthy and complicated business, which while exciting is often fraught with stress and worry. Luckily there is a lot of good advice around helping you to make your home-buying experience as easy and problem-free as possible.

After finding a property you like, which can take anything from a few days to many months, the process from having your offer accepted to completion of the sale takes about 12 weeks. This is about twice as long as in many other countries. Property purchasing in England and Wales can be a notoriously drawn-out business.

It is important to have a good understanding of the process, as it will help you to avoid some of the most common hazards of home buying.

Finding the property

Before contacting Estate agents, it is advisable to create a list of desirable features and what you actually need from your new purchase. If you create a huge list of needs, you will probably find that very few or probably no properties fit your criteria. Prepare to adapt your desires but remain rigid on your needs.

Do you need that extra bedroom or is it just a benefit if you have the extra space. Just this simple question can make a huge change to the type and quality of property you are offered.

As soon as you have your short list, you are ready to start your search. Enter your number of bedrooms and desired location into one of the major property websites leaving an open price field (From £0 to £10m) that way you will be able to see how much it is likely to cost in current market conditions to purchase using your needs whilst omitting your desires. Adjust the basics until you begin to see properties that you like. It may be that you won't be able to get that extra room in order to live 5 minutes from the tube.

Now you have a list of needs and a price band you are ready for the exiting part. contacting us and arranging viewings. Each property should fulfil all of your needs and as many of your desires as possible. Using this formula, you will begin to see the wood from the trees yourself.

Use the major portals as your daily update of new properties by registering with them. That way you will see exactly what is new on the market without relying purely on Estate agents to contact you.

At OliverFinn, we pride ourselves on customer contact however; you will find that some estate agents do not seem to think that you are the priority. At OliverFinn you can choose how we keep you updated; telephone call, email you a PDF brochure or SMS you of every new property that meets your needs so you can be sure to be kept up to speed of new instructions.

Typically, you will contact about 20 different estate agents during the process of buying; you will find that 2 or 3 of them will stand out of the crowd. In our experience, you will probably buy from one of these 'chosen few'. Select your favourites and try to build a relationship of trust with them. You will find that Estate agents are very useful for information throughout the process. Let's not forget that we have been through the process thousands of time. Without doubt, we can help reduce any stress by managing the process on your behalf but we can't do that without your trust and support.

Once you have found your purchase you will need to allocate some time to review and complete application forms, legal and mortgage paperwork and arrange for money to be in all of the right places to enable you to move in when you want. It is important to set time goals to complete each stage as if left to others; the buying process can take longer than you think.

Please be assured that we are here to help at each and every step of the way. Yes, we make money when you buy from us so we are always looking to sell you something but we completely understand that you will only buy from us if we provide you with the service and advice you deserve.

At OliverFinn we sincerely look forward to being of service

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