Before contacting a lender, it is good idea to check your credit report. Below are the important factors those affect your credit rating.
• Payment history: Have you paid your bills on time?
• Amounts owed: What is your overall debt?
• Length of credit history: How long have you been borrowing money? Mortgage lenders like to see a long credit history.
• New credit: Have you applied for new credit?
• Types of credit: Lenders like to see a variety of types such as bank cards, car loans and student loans.

Decide how much you’re willing to pay. Just because you can qualify for a larger mortgage doesn’t mean you want to have that kind of payment each month. Use the mortgage affordability calculator to help determine what you can afford. Now is also a good time to research your housing market and start going to open houses in your prospective neighborhood to give you a good sense of what your money will get you.

It’s a smart move to get pre-approved for a loan early in your home search. Pre-approval requires the lender to pull the credit information (see Step 1) and asses your financial situation. The lender will then give you a letter that states the amount they would be willing to lend you. If you get in a multiple-offer scenario, being pre-approved may give you an edge because the seller will have more confidence that you will be approved for a loan large enough to purchase their home.

Let the serious shopping begin! By now you’ve talked things over with your agent and you both know what you really want and need in a home. Armed with this, your price range and knowledge of the local area, look at listings online and with your agent, who will come up with properties for you to tour. Chances are you’ll discover some new things to love or hate about homes and refine your search.

If your offer called for a home inspection, this is a big day. Sure, you get to have a home inspector look over the home to make sure there are no unseen defects you want to negotiate to have fixed. But more importantly, this is the most time you’ll get to spend in your new home until closing. Go ahead and start measuring things and figuring out what goes where. This may be the last time you are inside the home until it is yours, several weeks from now.

Once you’ve found a home you want your agent will work with you to make an offer. Remember, the listing price is only a starting point. Your agent will understand the market and help guide you to make the most attractive offer, whether it’s below, at or above listing price. Are there any contingencies to your offer? Will you require an inspection? These are all things your agent will help you with. Once you’ve submitted the offer you get to wait. It will seem interminable. You may get neither a simple yes or no but a counteroffer to consider.

Mortgaging institution main aim is to ensure loaned amount would be recoved by selling the property if needed, so they see
1. Is the home worth you are paying?
2. Sign of structural damage, damp, problems with the roof, problems with wiring etc. Mortgage survey can provide an overview if you should go for home buyer survey. If you couldn't decided already. If they are pointing something specific, then you should consider that sincerely, reason dyou don't want to take any risk because of few hunderds £.

Once your mortgage survey and/or home buyer survey are in place and you are happy to proceed. You need to decide the contract exchange date and completion date. They can be the same date as well. However you can keep some time difference between the two. You must ensure all the money, which you should pay is there in account. Reason you can delay the paying the stamp duty by few weeks, but not your part in exchange and completion.

You have 14 days from the completion date when you can pay the stamp duty without any interest or penality if you bought above the threshold. Current threshold for first time buyers is £125,000 for residential properties and £150,000 for non-residential land and properties. Make sure you check the HMRC latest law about the SDLT as HMRC keep on chainging from time to time.

Writing a will and making a trust are not legal requirement. However they are efficient ways to manage your assets.
• A trust is a way of managing assets (money, investments, land or buildings) for people. There are different types of trusts and they are taxed differently.
• In a will you tell everyone, in legal way, what should happen to your estate (your money, possessions and property ) after you.