This whole house buying lark is progressing quite well, or at least it feels like it right now. Since I last posted we’ve been to the bank and made the final mortgage application, passed the final credit checks and had the thing approved. Next they send us the final paperwork to us through the post to sign. Filling in the forms was pretty tedious – as was talking about income protection provision and pensions and so on but we got there in the end.

We’ve instructed a solicitor and they sent us a big complicated letter yesterday. Actually, calling it a letter is a bit of an understatement, a novel is nearer the mark. I waded through it last night and had to sign all sorts of bits of paper about modifications made to the house, searches required and who knows what else. The language makes it seem big and complicated, but once you read through it and see past the sheer volume of paper then it isn’t too bad.

The surveys should be happening next week some time so we’re waiting for those and the searches now … fingers crossed for everything being in order!

Well, we had an offer accepted on a house yesterday which is very exciting! This morning we instructed a solicitor, he will do all the legal stuff for us. I’ve also spoken with the mortgage provider and we’re off to see them on Saturday morning. We have to provide a load of paperwork like payslips, bank statements, ID and proof of address so something tells me that tomorrow night will be a frantic root through the flat to find all the relevant documents!

All in all I’m quite excited but trying not to be too excited as there is plenty of scope for it all to fall through! It will be really great to have a place of our own though – all our stuff is in storage at the moment and I can’t even remember what furniture we really have. One thing is for sure, its going to look quite lost in the new house as all our stuff was bought for a small, modern 2-bedroom terraced house. Now we’ve got a 1930s 3-bed semi and its on quite a different scale!

Well, we’ve taken the first step and been to see a few banks about getting a mortgage. I have to admit that we did stick to the big names – Halifax, HSBC and Yorkshire Building Society. My partner is a contractor with short-term contracts, which on paper makes him look quite unemployed! Yorkshire Building Society said they couldn’t recognise his income which ruled them out but the other two were very helpful.

An appointment at HSBC later [1] and we’ve got an agreement in principle for way more than we intend to borrow and its off to the estate agents.

We’ve now seen a house we like but its a bit (very) dilapidated inside so we’re just thinking of a number now and will be offering later today or tomorrow.

edit: update! see offer accepted

¹ That was 29th August, 2006, for reference. We might want dates when its all over!