Scotland "Offers Over": WWYD?

[thepartysover]

Hi there,

My partner and I have fallen for a house and we're now in the process of working out how best to get it. It's in a major city in Scotland, not in an overly-popular area but properties like this rarely, if ever, come up. The seller has been there for decades.

Home report values it at £390k. How much would you offer?

Different areas have different percentages to offer over. Your solicitor and estate agents should be able to give you an indication for that specific area.

You need to find out what houses are going for in the area. I’m in Glasgow and houses here in my particular area go 10-15% over home report - often more if it’s in really prime condition. In saying that, friends of mine in an area about 15 minutes from us were able to negotiate a price 15k under HR simply due to the demand in that area (fab house btw) - so it really depends so much on the area

Hi we are also in Scotland in an area where houses don't stay on the market long. The house we sold in 2017 sold for £8k more than the home report. The house we bought, our offer was just over £7k over the home report. Both went to closing dates with a few offers in on each. In my local area one of the houses last year sold for £16k over the home report value with several offers being made!!!

When we marketed our house in 2017, the estate agent put an offers over value of £15k below the home report value to get viewers through the door, closing was set the following week.

In my current street there have been 4 houses since the start of the year sold all achieving between £10k-£15k over their offers over value.

We were advised by the estate agent at the time to base our offer on how much we wanted the house, and also to think about how long we planned on staying there as the extra money on top didn't add much more to our monthly repayments. The night before closing we settled on a value, the day of closing we added an extra £1k as didn't want to lose the house!!

Thanks both. The last time a similar house in the area sold was in 2016 - it went for £350,000. Prior to that, the sold prices are from 2008 and before so a bit out of date!

It really depends on what the market is doing locally. The best place to get advice is from your solicitor. If you're using one who does a lot of property locally, they should be able to advise.

There's no one rule.

This is really great, thanks! It would be our forever home so I guess we have to look at it that way and offer accordingly. We are just terrified of missing out!

There are so many factors involved. Your solicitor should be able to guide you.
The buyer will presumably not accept your first offer and counter so I'd recommend not going to your max straight away.

As others have said, ask your solicitor / estate agent. Ours couldn't help us much and could only advise as to properties they had sold/were working on the sale/purchase of in the area and advise as to what offers were being made on them. It's a horrible situation to be in bidding blind.

Good luck. Hope you get it.

@W33XXX Totally! We have an appointment with the solicitor on Monday so hopefully they'll offer some sage advice. Thank you for the well wishes x

Good Luck OP. I am in Scotland too and as others have mentioned things are moving quickly and things are going for at least £10-£15k over home report as a minimum in my area.

The key is whether there are other interested parties or not.If yo can get in when no closing date offer HR value,If they say no ask if there is a figure they will accept to take it off the market.Then you have 2 figures to negotiate within
If its a closing date you normally only get one shot and need to go in with your top offer

If you’re in Edinburgh, you need to go at least £40,000 over the asking price.
DD bought her flat there 6 months ago, and regularly lost out on properties that went, in some cases, to £70,000 over asking.
Her solicitor didn’t realise how fast the market was moving, and kept recommending just £20,000 to £30,000 over price.

If it goes to closing date make sure you don't "go in low", so annoying to lose out when you know you would have paid more.

It totally depends on the area AND the market - we got our house for 2.5% over - my friend just offered 20% over and missed out!

I’m a Scottish estate agent. As others have said it depends on interest, area and how that area is performing.

Thanks everyone, this is so useful.

It's Glasgow, and the market seems to be moving at lightning speed!

Is there a closing date set?

Not yet @LizzieMacQueen. I get the impression that the seller isn't desperate to leave so may well leave it open and see what offers she gets.

Which area of Glasgow?

Areas such as Shawlands, East Renfrewshire, West End etc go over the asking price.

Also consider that the whole buying system here is different from England. Not just the offers over system, but it's unusual to pull out having made an offer (without a very good reason), rare for gazumping etc.

Good luck with your offer!

Thank you! Yes it seems fairer in some ways / more stressful in others.

We have just bought in the NE of Scotland and bought for 4k over HR value. However, mortgage is only for home report value so anything above HR value, is for us to pay outright. So our deposit is 4k more than. Does that make sense??

I don't know how people are buying if the house goes for 70k over asking price!! That's 70k more deposit!!!!