Alice squealed with excitement when I told her that our offer on our dream home had been accepted. The house was up for sale for £95,000.00 and we had just had an offer accepted at £90,000.00 so we were very happy. We put the kettle on for a celebratory cup of tea knowing we would soon be able to move out of our pokey flat. Alice then asked me “What happens next”? “Good question”, I said, I’ll speak to the Estate Agent.
I rang the Agent and he said you need a Solicitor and we recommend that you speak to Ringrose Law, and also a couple of other local Solicitors to get a price. He said that we needed to do this quickly as the Agent needed to know who we were using so they could produce something called a ‘Memorandum of Sale’. I said ok but to be honest I was a bit nervous about making the call. I’d never had to speak to a Solicitor before and I was worried they might think I was asking silly questions. I had no choice but to get on with it as Alice was depending on me.
I called the first Solicitor on the list and was told someone would call me back. I called Ringrose Law, the second Solicitor on the list and spoke to a lady called Jade who asked me lots of easy questions and explained about what I needed to do and gave me a price. She also emailed it to both me and Alice so Alice had the figures whilst at work which pleased her very much.
I spoke to a third Solicitor on the list. I spoke to a man who just gave me a price – he didn’t break it down and he seemed very busy. He didn’t offer to send me anything in writing.
Over dinner that night Alice and I looked at the figures that we had been sent. We understood what they meant and were more reasonable than we had thought. We decided to go with Ringrose Law.
I rang Jade to let her know first thing the next morning and told the broker and Estate Agent. Two days later we received a letter in the post from the Estate Agents – it was the Memorandum of Sale. We were really on our way now…..