Buying

Affordability – How Much Can You Spend?

First things first, work out what you can afford and go from there. We work very closely with a local team of financial advisors who have full market access to available mortgage products, ensuring that our buyers are offered the very best advice to suit their specific needs. Ultimately, when you find your dream home, you’ll want to know that you can comfortably afford it and be able to offer in confidence.

House Criteria – What Do You Want? 

Decide what you want your next home to look like. 

• What are the must haves, the non-negotiables? 
• What are you willing to compromise on? 

Consider the number of bedrooms you want, what way would you prefer the garden to face, how big do want the rooms to be, would you like to do work to home or are you shopping for a show home, do you need a driveway or garage. 

These considerations all make a difference to what you subsequently go on to view.

Location – Where Are You Going?

• Where would you like to live? 
• What needs to be within walking distance from your front door? 
• Where will need to commute to? 

Consider your preferred proximity to amenities, schooling and transport links. Perhaps visit a few different towns to understand what they offer. Go out for a meal, visit the shops, walk the streets and experience the open green space – where feels like home. If you have a preferred location from the outset, it makes house hunting a lot simpler.

Register With Estate Agents – Tell Us Everything:

When you first register your details with an estate agent, tell them everything about your proposed move plans. The more information you share with us, the easier it becomes for us to match you to your dream home. When we ask you questions, it’s because we have a genuine interest in your move and we want to help. 

It’s Time To Start Viewing:

We encourage all viewers to be punctual for all appointments, there may well be another viewer booked straight in after you and it’s unfair to delay them.  Please also try to bring all decision makers with you to the first viewing as there may not be the option to arrange a second viewing if the property in question has attracted a great deal of initial interest. 

The viewing appointment is your best chance to ask as many questions of us as possible. If we don’t know the answer, we’ll find out for you. Following your viewing, we’d like you to be able to submit an offer in confidence. 

Offering – The Biggest Decision A Buyer Makes:

Make sure you have a valid up to date mortgage agreement in principle (if you require funding to purchase) Knowing your spending power before you enter into negotiations is vital.  

At Harpers we encourage you to offer strong from the get go. We don’t believe the best way to win over a potential seller is to low ball your first offer and work up from there. If you genuinely want the property, you should do everything in your power to try and secure it. You only get one chance to make a first impression on your seller – make it a good one! 

We don’t do bidding wars and we make assurances that your offer will be dealt with in the strictest of confidence. When we tell you that your offer has been accepted, we mean it. We won’t them gazump you, it’s not our style.

Deal Done: 

Congratulations, you’ve had your offer accepted. Now it’s time to focus on appointing a trusted solicitor who will guide you through the legal process, as well as putting pen to paper on your mortgage application (if required) as soon as possible. 

Harpers work very closely with trusted local solicitors and financial advisors if you need assistance in either department. 

You are about to embark on a sales journey that could take between 2 & 3 months, so it’s important to surround yourself with people you can trust to support & guide you.

The Stressful Bit – Progressing The Sale: 

At Harpers, we make every effort to keep the channels of communication open from offer acceptance through to exchange of contracts and the move day. We do this by working closely with all sellers, buyers, mortgage advisors and solicitors to ensure that, what is often the most stressful part of the transaction, runs as smoothly as possible. 

The viewing & offer process is often the easy bit; this progression of the agreed sale is where great estate agents really make a difference. 

Moving Day:

The eventual move date will be locked & loaded at the point contracts are exchanged. When it comes to the handover of keys on the big day, we at Harpers will always be on hand to support a smooth transition of ownership.