How long does it take to complete the buying process?

sadista

Hi guys,

Just looking for a bit of advice with regards to buying a house. Im currently renting in a new housing estate and we were considering to buy a house of the same unit type as we are renting now. We only moved in at the end of April but we already love the house and the estate and are definitely considering owning in this area. The house has a lot of potential and I could see myself comfortably living here for a long time if not the rest of my life. My lease is for a year so I will be honouring it until next April but would like to have our house bought and ready to move into if thats the way things work out.

As for savings, deposits etc I am pretty sure we would be approved for mortgage as our loans will be cleared before xmas this year and I should have enough saved for deposit in early 2010. Financially we are both very stable and even though our wages are average (just under 30k) I dont think a mortgage would affect us greatly as it pretty much costs the same as our renting expenses at the moment.

What I would like to know is, how long does it take to see the whole process of buying to completion and when would be the best time to commence the process if I would like to be ready to move in May 2010?? The house hunting part can be cut out of the time scale as we know which house we want.

Should we go to bank first for approval and then EA or other way around?

Also any tips on negotiating the price of the house? The units are currently advertised on daft at 330k but this is the original price which has not changed since the housing estate was built (around 2 years ago). I would be looking to buy at around 250k max. Is this possible or would I be laughed at making an offer like that?

All advice/suggestions/objections welcome!

Cheers

TwoShedsJackson

Get mortgage approval first.

Once you have had an offer accepted you would usually be looking at minimum six weeks to complete the process but a lot depends on the sellers circumstances i.e. if they are also buying and are in a chain, that could hold things up.

Don't count on it being any less than eight weeks at best.

sadista

8 weeks is all? for some reason i had it in my head that it takes many months to go through the whole rigmaroll! Thats great, cuz me and the OH have a couple of loans to clear first but should be in the clear by christmas, but then theres christmas to worry about so would I be right in saying that it would be a good idea to get mortgage approval before christmas and then start negotiating price of house in Jan/Feb to move in for April?

gurramok

Clear loans first i'm afraid or the amount you qualify to borrow for will be reduced(unless you can really manage the bills). The only advantage of closing a sale at the start of the new year is for TRS purposes.

sadista

think they'll cut TRS altogether in the next budget? I hope not, we'd be screwed then!