Now that you’ve decided on action, it’s time to look at the legal, financial and planning aspects of your decision. It’s essential to get these right and avoid getting carried away with the excitement of your new future. This chapter will present much of the necessary detail, as precisely as possible.

Affording The Move

This is where you could quite easily get carried away. It’s inspiring to look in the papers and see what you could get for your money in another part of the country. You know the area you’re intending to move to now, though, so you should check what you can get for the money you want to spend.

First of all, you need to get a valuation for your present house from two or three local estate agents. This won’t cost you anything. Check too whether there is a rising market in your area. If so, is it worth waiting a few months? Will it be necessary to have a mortgage on your next property? Remember, banks and building societies may not grant you a mortgage on business premises. You’ll have to get a business loan unless you can separate out your business and domestic premises and get a mortgage on your home only. At first you may not be earning much, if anything, so you don’t want to be paying out a large sum each month while you get the business started. Then there are the costs of the move, including:

• removal costs
• stamp duty
• estate agent’s commission
• solicitor’s fee
• Land Registry fee (for the search)
• survey costs
• service installation/reconnection costs
• mail redirection costs.

Get estimates for these if you’re not sure of them. Any estate agent can tell you his percentage commission. This will depend on whether he is the sole agent or not. It’s possible to find out the cost of straightforward conveyancing from a solicitor. Phone up a couple of removal firms and give them an idea of distance and amount of furniture – you’re only asking for an approximate figure. Survey costs are pretty standard: the estate agent will recommend a surveyor you can contact.

Property Survey Types

There are three types of survey, depending on specific cases:

• Valuation for mortgage purposes – the cheapest. By law all building societies are required to carry out a valuation on a property before making a mortgage offer. Although this doesn’t apply to banks, most will insist on a valuation being carried out anyway. It’s done with the sole purpose of determining the value of the property so that the lender can assess how much it may lend. It’s not really a true survey.
• Homebuyer’s survey and valuation. This is a ‘proper’ survey which should highlight defects or problems with the property. These can be a bargaining tool for negotiation over the price.
• Building survey – the most expensive. This provides a detailed report on the construction and condition of the property. It is a good idea for older or unusual properties.

Remember that in Scotland the system of house purchase is different (see later in this chapter) and you may need to have several surveys carried out on different houses, all adding to the expense.

Now you’ll have a good idea of how much you can spend on your new property. Start looking seriously.

Looking For The Ideal Property

• estate agents – some also have lists of available property updated and issued on a regular basis. Put yourself on their mailing list. Phone them weekly;
• solicitors (Scotland) – many of these have their own estate agency business. In some areas several solicitors have joined together to form groups for house purchase in a ‘Solicitors’ Register’, usually with a ‘Property Shop’ and a weekly newspaper of available property;
• local papers – ask a newsagent when the property sections are published in local papers. You can get the appropriate editions sent to you;
• national papers – many of these have special property supplements on certain days;
• magazines – this tends to be the top end of the market and by the very nature of the magazine (weekly or even monthly) may be out of date by the time you see the advertisement;
• the web – an increasingly popular method. Here you can see photographs of the houses, take 360-degree virtual tours of the interior of some properties and print off details. Check the sites of the major estate agents.