Has anyone sold in England and bought in Scotland?

[Librarybooksandacoconut]

We currently live in London but have been thinking of moving to Scotland to be near my dps. It was all a bit vague in the future type thinking, but a house has gone on the market that seems perfect (and a bit of a one of a kind). I'm going to have a look at it in a few weeks when I'm back up there for a week.

The question is, how would it actually work if we decided to go for it? We have our house in London plus my old flat, which I had before dh and I were together and is now rented, to sell. Between the two of them we should be able to manage without a mortgage. With offers being much more legally binding in Scotland, I'd be reluctant to make one without having exchanged on both properties. But I'm worried that it won't happen before a possible closing date, or that we'd be out bid and end up without a house in London and moving to Scotland before we were ready.

Anyone have any words of wisdom?!

Your offer is only legally binding once you have concluded the missives (basically agreed the contract), which can take a couple of weeks.

In your position I would think about renting in Scotland whilst you sell your house and flat, at which point you would be able to proceed with a purchase.

My parents did this, they sold first in England then bought up here. They staggered it a bit and stayed with us for a while in the interim - a longer gap though and they would have rented while waiting.

Thanks both of you.

I know this is probably how long is a piece of string question, but how long does it take to buy somewhere in Scotland?

I'm used to the London market where stuff will get offered on and taken off the market within a week or two, but then it takes months and months to actually get to the point of sale which is an incredibly stressful time. I'm just not really sure on what the timeline looks like in practise in Scotland.

Once your offer has been accepted (in a fast moving market good properties can go to a closing date within a few days of coming on the market), if everything is straightforward, i.e. survey is OK and nothing unusual with the title, then missives can only take a week or two to agree. Once the missives are agreed (including the date of entry) the deposit becomes payable and the balance is paid on the date of entry. Whole process can be just a few weeks, depending on the agreed date of entry.