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- Buyer's Guide intro
- before you view any properties
- what & where to buy
- a good agent
- your viewing tour
- agreeing the purchase
- choosing your lawyer
- confirming your offer
- exchanging contracts
- preliminary searches
- completion
- taxes and fees
- bank accounts
- mortgages
- currency exchange
- summary
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Buyer's Guide
Confirming Your Offer And Paying The Deposit
When you've made your offer and it's been accepted, the next step is to formalise the terms of the offer in writing. At this point you will be expected to pay a reservation or holding deposit to secure the property until exchange of contracts.
The deposit required varies from location to location and is usually in the range £2,000 to £5,000 (3,000€ to 7,500€). This can be paid with a credit card or bank transfer.
The reservation deposit guarantees that the property is reserved for you at the agreed price and it's taken off the market.
Normally, we'd recommend you discuss the proposed terms with your lawyer before signing or paying your reservation deposit. This is because it is often difficult to retrospectively make changes to terms, which you have already accepted.
Unless it is specifically agreed in writing that the purchase is conditional upon certain factors - e.g. raising finance or obtaining the necessary licenses, etc., you probably won't get your reservation deposit back if you change your mind.
There are a few cases where paying a deposit in advance of seeing a property may be justifiable - although usually, and unless you are a seasoned property investor, we'd probably advise against this.
Tread carefully if you find agencies pushing you hard to do this.
We can discuss this if you'd like to.
Next - Exchanging Contracts
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