Buying a home, step by step.
A free, step-by-step walkthrough of every stage of buying a home in the UK. No login, no pressure, no spam, just 35+ years of mortgage experience laid out as a checklist you can tick off.
Your overall progress
Where are you up to?
Click the stage you're on, or work through from the start.
Can I actually afford this?
Work out a realistic budget, what a lender will offer and what's comfortable to live with.
Getting yourself mortgage-ready
Sort your credit, your deposit, and your paperwork before you talk to anyone.
Get your Mortgage Agreement in Principle
The lender's 'we'd lend you this' letter. Estate agents will ask for it.
Finding the right home
Viewings, area research, and the report that tells you what's really going on with a property.
Offer accepted, now the real work starts
Solicitor, survey, mortgage application, three things all happening at once.
Protect your family, your income, your home
Life cover, income protection, critical illness. The conversation that should happen before exchange, not after.
The legal stage
Conveyancing, searches, enquiries. The slow bit, and why it has to be.
Exchange and completion
Deposit, removals, utilities, completion day. The final stretch.
After you've moved in
The bits everyone forgets. Wills, annual review, electoral roll, council tax.
How this works
Each stage explains what's happening, what you need to do, and which tools or services can help. Tick items off as you complete them, your progress saves automatically on this device.
When something paid is genuinely useful, like a Property Insight Report or a solicitor, we'll point you to it. When you don't need to spend a penny, we'll tell you that too.
Free advice from someone who's done this for 35+ years. No catch.
Found this useful? If you'd rather talk it through with a real broker, book a free chat with DS Financial, the regulated mortgage adviser.
Book a free chat with DS Financial