House Purchase

After running London Property Watch for two and a half years now and having seen London house prices continue to rise, I have finally decided to get on the property ladder myself (together with my partner). To help other prospective house buyers in their endeavour, here is a summary of key milestones and timeline:

• 13-Apr-2007: Received email alert about property
• 13-Apr-2007: Scheduled viewing
• 14-Apr-2007: First viewing
• 15-Apr-2007: Second viewing
• 16-Apr-2007: Offer made
• 16-Apr-2007: Offer accepted at 4.5% below asking price
  
• 17-Apr-2007: Mortgage application submitted (through Leek United; repayment mortgage; lifetime tracker at Bank of England base rate plus 0.08%; no penalty for overpayments)
  
• 25-Apr-2007: Homebuyer survey done (cost: £340)
  
• 05-May-2007: Homebuyer survey results received
• 08-May-2007: Searches initiated (through solicitor)
• 23-May-2007: Mortgage offer received
• 24-May-2007: Results of searches received (from solicitor)
• 01-Jun-2007: 10% Deposit sent to solicitor
• 08-Jun-2007: Exchange of contracts
• 14-Jun-2007: Completion
• 15-Jun-2007: We got the keys!!!

So it took a total of 59 days between the date the offer was accepted and the date of completion! I now understand why the proponents of home information packs feel that something needs to be done to speed up the house buying process.