Your solicitor will carry out a number of tasks for you when you move home. The general tasks the solicitor will deal with are: Preparing a contract for sale and assessing a contract for purchaseRaising queries in respect of the Legal Title and asking various questions about your proposed purchaseUndertaking Local SearchesCompleting the Stamp Duty Land Tax form and paying the Stamp Duty to HMRCDealing with your deposit and the proceeds of the mortgageNotifying and updating the Land Registry Choosing the right solicitor is vital to help minimise stress and delays. What considerations...

So having found a property, what do you do next? Firstly, you need to be clear what price you want to offer, but how do you decide this?  Hopefully, having viewed a few properties, you will have a better understanding of what different style properties and different locations offer in terms of house values.As everyday consumers, we are very familiar with purchasing a loaf of bread or pint of milk.  We can easily understand when an ordinary everyday item is cheap, expensive or good value for money.  The key with working out what to offer is to improve your knowledge of property...

If you want to buy a house, you are probably going to deal with an estate agent at some point.  This can seem quite a daunting task. An estate agent acts, in effect, as a ‘gatekeeper’, controlling the flow of information between buyer and seller.  A good estate agent will deal with you in an honest and fair manner. However, not everyone has such a glowing report of their dealings.We need to acknowledge a few truths in order to understand the relationship between buyer, seller and estate agent:An estate agent acts for the seller, not the buyer.  It’s their job to get the best...

When selecting an Estate Agent, most people are only interested in how much and how little; “How much will I get for my house and how little will you charge me for selling it?” This approach can lead to trouble further down the road, so we have put together a checklist of six questions to ask an estate agent to help you decide who is best placed to sell your property. How did you arrive at the valuation you have given? An estate agent should be able to explain their valuation of your property. This should be based upon their experience of recent sales in the area. Better still,...