New home buying guide
You’ve decided to take the plunge and buy a new home, but where do you start? Our buying guide breaks down all the steps you need to take to buy your new Countryside home.
Step 1: Getting started on your search
Starting the search for your perfect new home is an exciting time, but there are a number of factors you need to consider before starting your journey.
For most people, buying a home will involve taking out a mortgage, so before you get going, you need to have a realistic expectation of what you can afford to buy in the first place.
To give you a helping-hand, we have a mortgage calculator on our development and plot pages to give you an idea of how much your monthly mortgage repayments could be. This is based on the value of the property, the size of your deposit, the amount of interest to be paid and the length of the mortgage.
There are also plenty of free resources available to use such as Money Helper and Money Saving Expert, which both offer mortgage affordability calculators that estimate how much you could borrow. Most banks also have their own mortgage calculators.
Step 2: Booking an appointment
Once you know what your budget is going to be, you can start researching the areas and developments that meet your needs. You can search for your dream new home here.
After you have narrowed down where you want to buy, it is time to arrange an appointment with our friendly Sales Consultants, this can be in person, over the phone or on a video call.
Most of our developments will have at least one show home that you can visit to see our high-quality homes for yourself. Our Sales Consultants will talk you through the varying home designs available and will give you all the information you need to help select your brand new home.
Step 3: Reservation
Now you have found your dream home, and have decided you’d like to reserve with us, your sales consultant will talk you through any specific requirements you need to meet in order to reserve. As a minimum you will need:
- A mortgage agreement in principle
- A valid I.D for all named parties involved in the purchase
- The ability to pay the reservation fee
- To make yourself familiar with the important information document for your chosen development. This provides you with any applicable charges, including reservation fee details – your sales consultant will supply you with a link to this
If you are using one the buying schemes available or are dependent on the sale of your current home, there will be additional requirements – your sales consultant will be able to provide further advice.
Reservations can be placed online or in person depending on your needs, you can read more here.
Once you have paid your reservation fee and signed the reservation forms, your chosen home will be taken off the market for you.
Step 4: Follow up appointment
At this next appointment, your Sales Consultant will go through all plans and other documents in detail. These will include reviewing the plans of your home, the materials that will be used to build your property through to the landscaping on the development. This appointment also provides an opportunity to reconfirm any charges applicable to the property.
We will also confirm the exchange deposit amount that will be required to be paid and provide an estimate of when legal completion will take place.
To be ready for this appointment you will need to have completed the following:
- Found a solicitor or conveyancer of your choice and have their details available (our sales consultants can supply details of solicitors experienced in new build homes)
- Instructed an independent financial advisor (IFA) of your choice – our sales consultants can supply details for IFAs
- Received confirmation from your IFA of your mortgage amount and lender
- Provided I.D for any further involved parties (e.g family members providing deposit funds)
- If you are selling your current home, provided any further information on your chain to the sales consultant
- Provided additional information to support the use of a scheme if you are using one as part of your purchase
The timing of the next steps will vary based on your estimated legal completion. Your Sales Consultant will advise you what to expect and will be in touch regularly regardless of how long the process takes.
Step 5: The conveyancing process
Your dedicated Sales Progressor will reach out to you at the appropriate time to verify the details of your reservation and confirm the expected date for the exchange of contracts.
We will then send out drafts of all the required legal documents to the solicitor or conveyancer you have instructed, and the conveyancing process gets underway.
At this point the following will take place:
- Your solicitor will check through the contracts and raise any queries on your behalf and may contact you if they require additional information. They will also arrange for local searches to be conducted.
- Your IFA will arrange your valuation survey and progress your mortgage application through to formal mortgage offer.
- Once your solicitor is satisfied that any queries have been resolved you’ll be sent the contract to sign. At this point your solicitor will advise you of your exchange deposit to pay.
- Once contracts have been signed by all parties and you’ve received your mortgage offer, you are ready to exchange contracts.
Your Sales Progressor is on hand to support you through every step of your journey.
At some of our developments (and depending on the stage of construction) you may have the opportunity to personalise certain aspects of your home by selecting from a range of options provided by the sales team
Step 6: Exchange of contracts
This exciting step puts you in touching distance of owning your home. Your Solicitor will invite you to sign the contract and transfer the funds required for your deposit. At this point the agreement is legally binding, so if you have any other queries, you need to raise them before you exchange.
Once you have exchanged, there are a few more steps before your legal completion will take place.
If you exchanged with a fixed completion date, then this is the date that you will have the keys to your new home.
If you exchanged ‘on notice’ this means that your chosen home is not yet ready to occupy. When we have completed your home to our high standards and it has been inspected and signed off by the warranty provider, then ‘notice will be served’. This provides a 10-working day period for your Solicitor to organise the mortgage funds to be sent over. We always aim to let you know around 4 weeks in advance of your expected completion date.
During the notice period (if you have a fixed date this will usually in the 10 days before completion) you will be invited to a Home Demonstration. This gives you an opportunity to view your home and have all the features fully explained to you.
In the weeks leading up to completion, we’ll usually arrange a ‘Meet the Team’ event. This is an opportunity where you can meet representatives of the construction and sales teams, learn more about the construction of your home, information about what will happen closer to completion and your day of occupation. You’ll also be able to meet some of your new neighbours!
To avoid any delays, you will need to ensure any funds requested by your Solicitor are transferred to clear in good time for completion.
Step 7: Completion
Today is the big day when your dream home becomes yours!
On the day of legal completion, your Solicitor will forward completion funds to our legal team. Once these have been received and checked, your Sales Progressor will contact you with the good news.
The Sales Consultants will also contact you to arrange a convenient time to pick up your keys and be welcomed to your new home. Now you can finally move your belongings in and put your feet up!
We will still be here for you though – our customer service team will be on hand to offer support as you get settled into your new home.
