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What happens now the offers been accepted?

Now that the offer has been accepted – what happens next? This is our guide for first time buyers to explain what happens once your offer for a property has been verbally accepted.

Congratulations on offering successfully for the property! Now we can begin the process of purchasing the property which will involve quite a number of matters, all with the aim of completing the purchase by the Date of Entry. Of course, we shall be explaining the process to you as we go along but this first guide is to explain to you what the next steps in the process are and as a first time buyer, as well as what you now need to be doing.

Offer terms briefly explained:

We shall send you a copy of the Offer and summarise the more important offer terms. The terms of the Offer (and the Scottish Standard Clauses) – which form part of the Offer – will be explained to you in more detail once the Qualified Acceptance (the next Contract Letter forming part of the Missives) have been received from the seller’s solicitors.

Subject to Survey Clause:

Where you are getting a mortgage, the Offer will have been made “subject to survey”. Although we refer to it as subject to survey, in practical terms it means that the Offer is subject to you getting your mortgage offer from your lender.

Admin Matters:

If we have not already done so, we shall shortly send you our Letter of Engagement and Terms of Business. The Letter will confirm that you have instructed our firm to act for you, summarise the services being provided to you, and confirm our fees and the other purchase-related costs.

We will also send you a checklist to complete and ask you to contact us to arrange to come to our offices so that we can see and take copies of your ID documents, as well as answer any questions you have at this stage of the process.

Qualified Acceptance and Title Deeds:

Once the seller’s solicitors take detailed instructions from the seller on the terms of the Offer, the solicitors will send us the Qualified Acceptance of the Offer and the title deeds to the property. At that point, we will be in touch again to report to you in more detail on the terms of the Offer as amended by the terms of the Qualified Acceptance and also report to you on the terms of the title deeds. This will be explained to you in more detail at that time.

What you need to do next?

The most important thing for you to do next is to contact your lender or mortgage adviser and let them know you have offered successfully for the property, so that you can arrange to then start off the mortgage application in detail.

The lender will need a copy of the Home Report, so we will also send you the link to the Home Report to pass on to your lender or mortgage adviser. Although most lenders do accept the Home Report, there are a few lenders who prefer to instruct their own independent valuation. And if you are an investor it is likely that the lender will insist on their own independent valuation because the lender will want to get a market rental valuation which is not usually included in a Home Report.

We would ask you to let us know when you have contacted your lender or mortgage adviser and to keep us up to date with the progress of your mortgage application.

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