Moving home has its own language, so we thought we’d make it nice and easy by uncomplicating the complicated and here’s all you need to know.
- Vendor – the owner of a home or seller to you & me!
- Purchaser – a wannabe home buyer looking for a place to call their own.
- Valuation – it’s where the journey starts for sellers and is about an estate agent giving the home owner helpful advice on a price and marketing strategy that will get the best possible price and outcome for each seller.
- Freehold – you own the lot, including the land a home is built on.
- Leasehold – you own the building but not the land it’s built on and pay lease charges to rent the land for a set period of time.
- EPC – Energy Performance Certificate with a graph showing how eco-friendly a home is
- Portals – a fancy word for the likes of Rightmove, Zoopla and Boomin, in normal language they’re websites showing off homes… Be careful, they’re addictive!
- Viewing – the appointment for a home buyer to step inside and peek at homes they like the look of
- Virtual Viewing – instead of leaving your comfy chair, you conduct a tour of homes you like the look of from your PC, phone or laptop.
- Feedback – thoughts and feelings given by buyers to help sellers understand what they like/love/dislike about the home
- Offer – you’ve fallen in love with a home and it’s the starting point for negotiations.
- Sale Agreed – a deal’s been agreed between seller and buyer. The journey has really started now!
- Chain – it’s the people and homes who collectively are linked together by wanting to buy or sell one another’s pads.
- SSTC – the deals been agreed but needs to be approved by lawyers and is Sold Subject To Contract until this legal process has been finished and typically takes three – four months.
- Memorandum of Sale – a document sent to the buyers, sellers and their lawyers setting out the price agreed and putting each in touch with one another
- Conveyancing – it’s the legal name for the process that gets homes sold
- Conveyancer – a legal expert who knows their stuff when it comes to buying and selling homes.
- Solicitor – a legal expert qualified in more than just home sales.
- AIP – Agreement in Principle is what banks and building societies give to buyers once they checked out their finances and have agreed to provide a mortgage.
- Deposit – typically you’ll need savings of about 10% of the purchase price to add to the mortgage.
- Mortgage – a loan to buy a home, normally over 25 years… Big commitment time!
- AML – Anti Money Laundering regulations apply to both sellers and buyers and it’s a legal requirement for agents to check these out.
- Survey – the mortgage provider sends one of these experts to take a look at each home they’re lending money against and is all about making sure the building is in good nick.
- Surveyor – the qualified and trained expert who knows everything about homes and the way they are built and maintained.
- Mortgage Offer – once the surveyor has given a home the thumbs up, the lender commits to lending the money!
- Local Searches – important info about the property and the areas around it and how it might impact the buildings’ past, present and future.
- Sales Progression – estate agents and lawyers share info and updates on the progress being made and share it with the buyer and seller.
- Stamp Duty – basically a government tax on home buying
- Exchanged – the deal’s now legally done and you’re moving!
- Completion – the day you pick up/drop off the keys to your new/old home… Happy days!
