COMMON HOME BUYING ENQUIRIES

Buying a home - getting started
Just visit your nearest Branch and book a HomeMover Review with a mortgage adviser.  They'll give you information on the homebuying process and help you see just how much you could afford.

You can also visit our 'Buying your first home' website for all the advice you need to get on the property ladder for the first time.

Why not see if you can find your ideal new home using our HomeFinder.  We do not have any Estate Agency branches in Scotland, so HomeFinder does not have any properties in Scotland.

If you are Buying a Property
We have an obligation to sellers to make sure that potential buyers are able to proceed with the purchase. This means we have to be sure that you have the finances available to buy the property and as a matter of routine therefore, we ask you for information about your finances. We use this to make recommendations to sellers about your ability to proceed. Unless you agree however, we will not divulge any information of a confidential nature to the seller or to any other party. For example, if we give you mortgage advice, any information you give us about your finances will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone, other than the lender you have chosen, without your permission.

Arrange a mortgage
If you decide to buy a property through Halifax Estate Agents, you don't have to get your mortgage with the Halifax.

Most mortgage lenders should be able to provide you with a confirmation of how much they could lend you, this is known as an Agreement in Principle – though different lenders use different expressions.  Why not pop in to see us at your local branch or get a Halifax Mortgage Promise  and see what we can do for you!

Your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.

Making an offer on a property
Visit or call the branch advertising the property and place a verbal offer. Your offer is subject to contract, valuation and satisfactory survey. You may like to make the estate agent aware of your position i.e. whether you are in a chain or whether you can move immediately.

An estate agent is obliged to submit all offers to the seller up to exchange of contracts unless specially instructed, in writing, by the seller not to do so.

Sometimes, more than one offer is received on the same property. When this happens, we submit all other offers to the seller, even after your offer has been accepted, until contracts have actually been exchanged and the deal becomes legally binding. But as the buyer, we'll advise you of the existence of any other offers made, and the action you may want to take.

After you've made an offer
It's up to the seller to decide whether to accept an offer or not. A seller can accept or decline an offer at any time up to the exchange of contracts. Both the seller and the buyer are legally entitled to change their minds before this time.

We would refuse to be involved in any arrangement where a seller wished to mislead a buyer with regard to the existence or amount of any other offer. Once the sale and purchase of a property is underway, we'll liaise with the legal representatives of both buyer and seller, right up until exchange of contracts.

When is the property yours?
After contracts have been exchanged, a date of completion is agreed between the buyer and the seller. On this date, your conveyancer pays over the remaining balance to the seller's conveyancer and receives the title documents of your new home in return. The keys are then released to you and the new home is yours.

How long does the home buying process typically take?
There is no actual set length of time for this as it depends on the individual circumstances of the buyers and sellers in the process, for example the length of the property chains that buyers and sellers are part of.

Surveys
When you apply for a mortgage, we'll arrange a basic survey known as the valuation report which you must pay for. It tells us if the property is worth enough to support the amount you want to borrow from us.  We can also offer you more detailed surveys referred to as the Homebuyers Survey or a Buildings Structural Survey, to help put your mind at rest about the condition of the property.  All mortgage lenders will offer these three levels of survey.

How your confidential information is used
We have an obligation to sellers to make sure that potential buyers are able to proceed with the purchase. This means we have to be sure that you have the finances available to buy the property and as a matter of routine, so we'll ask you for information about your finances. We use this to make recommendations to the seller about your ability to proceed. Unless you agree however, we will not divulge any information of a confidential nature to the seller or to any other party.