The Selling & Buying Process

You can email, telephone or drop into one of our offices to arrange for one of our experienced sales managers to visit your property and discuss current market conditions with you. We will recommend an asking price and propose a marketing strategy tailored to your specific needs.

If you have an existing mortgage we recommended contacting an independent financial adviser to establish whether there are early redemption penalties and also to discuss other mortgage products for an onward purchase.

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As a seller, you can decide whether to ask Lawson Rutter to show your home when you are in, or give us a set of keys to show your home while you are out.

You will be notified verbally and in writing as soon as any offer is received. We will ensure that we gather and verify all information on the position of the prospective purchaser - this will include checking chains, deposit and, if required, verification with their broker or lender.

On receipt of draft contracts the purchasers’ solicitor will instruct local authority searches. In the interim period we will ensure that the purchaser has instructed their lender to carry out a valuation of your home.

This is the day when the balances of funds are transferred to your solicitor from the purchaser’s solicitor, and the keys are released to your buyer. The keys are generally held with your agent on completion to help make the moving process as smooth as possible.

Sales Terms & Conditions

It is sensible to take independent financial advice as soon as possible when starting a property search, and ideally have a mortgage agreed in principle. This will confirm your budget, as well as save you time by not viewing properties that are out of budget – this all helps in speeding up the buying process once you have found a property you wish to purchase.

We would recommend Ashton Gate Financial who are independent and have established relationships with all the key lenders in the UK mortgage market.

Having found a suitable property we will put your offer forward to the seller both verbally and in writing at the earliest opportunity. At that stage we will look to confirm your buying position – i.e. chain details, deposit and mortgage arrangements.

Having instructed your solicitor, draft contracts will be prepared and forwarded from the seller’s solicitor. You will then need to supply your solicitor with funds to apply for local authority searches prior to them approving the contract.

A mortgage lender will require that the property being purchased is inspected by one of their appointed valuers. You will be offered the choice of a standard valuation report or a valuation report and building survey by the lender. Alternatively, you may wish to have an independent building survey carried out alongside the lender’s valuation, at which point you should instruct an independent chartered surveyor. If no mortgage funding is required you may also wish to instruct an independent surveyor at this point.

After the mortgage valuation report is received, a formal mortgage offer will be sent to you and your solicitor, which you will need to sign and return.

When your solicitor has received the mortgage offer, searches and approved the contracts, they will contact you to discuss the transfer of your deposit money and confirm completion dates. The standard deposit is 10% of the purchase price, whilst the completion date is discussed through both solicitor and estate agent. Both purchaser and seller need to sign their contracts and instruct their solicitors to proceed.

You will need to ensure that satisfactory buildings insurance is in place at this stage.