Buying a house is one of the biggest decisions that you will ever make in your life. Once you have decided to buy a house and found out how much you can afford to buy it, it is worth sitting down and thinking hard about what you want from your new home. This may be the size and number of rooms in your home, the type of area you may decide to move to, access to schools, shops and local amenities etc.

Once you have selected your area, you need to check the home prices and compare them with your budget that you can afford. You can start looking for houses for sale through your local estate agents, online websites and property newspapers to find a property of your choice. If you are interested in buying a house that fits into your criteria we strongly recommend viewing the house before buying it.

Before buying a home you can complete a home buyers report (recommended for houses that are under 50-75 years old) which will give you more detail about a property then a basic valuation report. You can also conduct a building survey which is recommended for older buildings and houses over 75 years old. This option can be costly and can take up to two weeks to process. Check the local and national property market and compare how much a particular type of house is worth. It is also worth checking if the property is freehold or leasehold. If you are planning to extend your property in the future then check planning permissions, expenses on extensions etc.

Once you have firmly decided on buying a particular house it is time to put in an offer. You need to do this through either the owner of the home or through the estate agent selling the property. Once your offer has been accepted, you will need to sort out the how you are going to pay for the home. Cash offers on houses are highly sort after and can reduce processing time and costs.

Find a solicitor to do the legal work. Your solicitor will present you with a contract, unless he or she has uncovered any legal complications. The seller also has to sign the contract. Once signed, the contracts will be exchanged.

What can possibly go wrong?
To avoid further offers from other interested parties it is a good idea to demand that the property be taken off the market as soon as your offer has been accepted.