Conveyancing
Buying Your First Home: A Straightforward Guide
By Amna Ahmad · 18 June 2026 · 6 min read
From agreeing a price to picking up the keys, here is what actually happens when you buy your first property, and where first-time buyers most often get stuck.
Buying your first home is exciting, and it can also feel like everyone else knows a language you were never taught. It is genuinely simpler than it looks. Here is the process from start to finish, in plain English.
1. Get your finances in order
Before you view anything seriously, obtain a mortgage agreement in principle and work out your total deposit and costs. Alongside the deposit you will need legal fees, disbursements such as searches and Land Registry fees, and possibly Stamp Duty Land Tax, although most first-time buyers benefit from relief.
2. Have your offer accepted and instruct a solicitor
Once your offer is accepted, instruct your conveyancing solicitor straight away. The single biggest cause of slow transactions is a delay at the beginning. We will send you our client care information and identification requirements on day one so we can get moving.
3. Searches, enquiries and the contract
We obtain the contract pack from the seller's solicitors, investigate the legal title and order searches. These reveal things you cannot see on a viewing: planning history, road adoption, drainage, flooding and contamination risks. We then raise enquiries about anything that needs clarifying.
4. Your mortgage offer and report
Your lender will issue a formal mortgage offer. We check its conditions and send you a written report on the property, explaining everything we have found in language you can act on. This is the point to ask us anything at all: no question is too small.
5. Exchange of contracts
When you are happy and your deposit funds are with us, contracts are exchanged and the completion date is fixed. From this moment the transaction is legally binding, so you should arrange buildings insurance and confirm your removal arrangements.
6. Completion
On completion day we send the money to the seller's solicitors, and once they confirm receipt the estate agent releases the keys. Afterwards we deal with Stamp Duty Land Tax and register you as the new owner at HM Land Registry.
Where first-time buyers get stuck
- Delays returning identification documents and the initial forms
- Deposit funds held in accounts that need weeks of bank statements to evidence
- Gifted deposits where the donor's paperwork has not been prepared
- Assuming a survey and a mortgage valuation are the same thing — they are not
- Booking removals before contracts have been exchanged
Every one of these is avoidable with a little forward planning, and we will tell you exactly what we need and when.
This article is general information, not legal advice. For advice on your own circumstances, speak to a Solicitor & Director on 07449 567711.
