Finance
Most people will find the house then organise finance. It is a good idea to organise the finance in principal before you find the house, this way it will only be a short time between finding the house and obtaining a formal unconditional loan approval. If the contract has been exchanged by the agent and you only have the five day cooling off period in which to organise the finance you will be glad you had a provisional approval before you went house hunting.
If the five days is not sufficient then you will need to ask for an extension of the cooling off period, if the vendor does not agree then you probably have no option but to rescind the contract under your cooling off rights.
If you have not entered into a contract then you will want an unconditional loan approval, in writing, before you enter into the contract.
Mortgage documents will need to be signed and explained to you if you are borrowing money to purchase the property. These documents will either be sent to you, your CPC or your bank will contact you to go to their office to sign them. This will happen after the contracts have been exchanged and or the cooling off period has expired.
The lender may want certain documents and inquiry certificates supplied to them prior to completion and your CPC will attend to these requirements.