When you are looking to buy a new home, it can be a little daunting. You may be asking yourself where to begin? What steps go in what order? And how long is this going to take? 

We’ve produced this downloadable home moving guide to help you through each and every step of the moving process, and to give you a realistic idea of what to expect when buying a new build home. 

  1. Book An Appointment

If you’re looking to view a new build home, you can book an appointment with the developments sales suite to view any of their show homes. If you book at any of the Jelson Homes developments, you can find further info on what to expect on our ‘Visit Us’ page. 

  1. Secure An AIP

To move any further along, you will need to get an agreement in principle, also known as an AIP (or DIP - Decision in Principle). The AIP acts almost like a placeholder. It’s a bank or building society saying ‘we could lend these people up to this amount of money should they choose to buy a house’. An AIP is not an actual mortgage, and you will have to fully apply for a mortgage once your reservation or offer on a property has been accepted.

If you’ve done your own research, you can go directly to the bank or building society of your choice and ask them for one. A lot of banks now offer AIPs online, so you may not even need to leave the house! If you’ve gone with an independent mortgage broker, they can apply on your behalf for your AIP and pass it back to you. 

You can also use our handy Mortgage Calculator to work out how much you can afford and to see how much the monthly repayments would be for your dream property.

  1. Make a reservation

You’re armed with your AIP, you just need to also secure a solicitor before you can make a reservation. Otherwise known as a conveyancing solicitor, these are the people that will handle all of the official paperwork when it comes to buying your home. They work with a number of people in the buying process, so it’s important you spend some time researching and choosing a good solicitor.

Our top tips for choosing a solicitor are to make sure they can work with your mortgage lender, that they specialise in the purchase of new homes, check their credentials, and ask about their knowledge of the local area.

You may need to pay the solicitors a deposit before they will act on your behalf (though this usually happens at around step 5). Be sure to discuss any up-front fees, and any payment deadlines going forward. Once you are happy and your solicitor has agreed to act on your behalf, you can pass your solicitors details on. If you are buying a Jelson Home, you would pass the details on to us, and you can officially make your new build home reservation. 

  1. Work with your mortgage adviser

Though you had your agreement in principle, now you need to officially apply for your mortgage so you can purchase your home. 

Depending on how you received your agreement in principle you may not need to supply any further information. So hopefully, you will already have most of the documentation you need, but depending on how long since you received your AIP, you may need to gather some additional bank statements and pay slips. 

You will need to consider how much you would like to pay back each month, and over what period. The less you want to pay each month, the longer the term you will pay. 

  1. Instruct your solicitor

With your reservation in place, and your mortgage application underway, you can instruct your solicitors that you’re happy for them to start acting on your behalf and beginning any processes. This will include searches, which we talk about further below. 

This is where you will need to pay some of your solicitors fees, and also where you can agree timescales with them.

  1. Submit your mortgage application

With all the information you provided at step 4, your mortgage adviser or bank should have come back to you with any further questions or queries. You can now officially submit your full mortgage application for review. 

  1. Home valuation by the mortgage lender

As part of your mortgage application, the lender will be checking your property to make sure it is worth the amount that you are asking for. They just want to make sure everything matches up, and you’re asking for the correct loan amount. 

  1. Solicitor will instruct for local searches

Searches are an essential part of the process when buying a home. These look for potential problems that may affect the value of your home once you own it. These can vary, but normally they include: Local Authority Searches, Land Registry Searches, Environmental Searches, Water Authority Searches and Location Specific Searches. 

These searches can take a lot of time to process, and usually you will need to just let the solicitors get on with them as they will be waiting for their information requests to come back. 

  1. Your formal mortgage offer will be issued

Once your application has been reviewed and the mortgage lender is happy with the amount you are borrowing, then you will get your formal mortgage offer. This confirms how much money your mortgage lender will lend you, and at what rate. 

10. Your solicitor will complete conveyancing and raise any queries

As the information from the searches comes back in, the solicitors will raise any queries with you that may affect the purchase of your home. This can be really quick and simple if there are no queries, or can take a bit more time if you need to go back and forth for further information.

  1. Exchange of contracts

This is the exciting bit where you sign the contract to say that you are the legal owner of the property. If buying a Jelson home, this will be on or before a 6-week period from the date of reservation. At this point the agreement that you are buying that property is now legally binding. 

This is where you’ll also get your agreed completion date, so if you don’t have a moving date already, this will be the step where you confirm that. 

  1. Build complete and introduction meeting

Your house is built! It exists and it’s time to go have a look around with the sales team, and have an introduction meeting. This will also be a chance to note any snags with the team so they can be sorted. 

As a Jelson customer you also have access to our online portal, to make communicating with us very easy. 

  1. Arrange removals

As well as all the admin and legality of the moving house process, you have to catch up on the physical side of actually packing! Lucky for all of our readers, we have a full moving house checklist that provides a load of advice on what to pack, how to do it and when.

If you’re buying new furniture or appliances, now is the time to also arrange their delivery for when you will be in the property.

  1. Completion day

This is it, the last step, completion. The main action that happens at this point is that the balance of the money moves hands. Your mortgage provider releases the funds to pay for your new home. You pay your solicitors and agents fees (and Stamp Duty if required). 

Ownership transfers on this day, you are now officially a homeowner, congratulations! Enjoy your new home. 

For a quick and easy reminder of where you are on your home buying adventure, download our home buyers guide. If you’re looking for more advice and guidance for first-time buyers, or the process of buying a home, look out for our other articles.