Buying. a house in Scotland.

[bloodylongdrive]

I regularly travel to Scotland but live in England and so my DH and I are seriously thinking of buying in Scotland we're about to exchange on a house we're selling and will be cash buyers. I've looked into the differences of buying a house in England and Scotland; in Scotland it appears you get a report with the house(s) you're considering and a guide price, I understand you appoint.a solicitor who submits an offer to the estate agent this submission may have a deadline depending how popular it is and if your offer is accepted your legally bound to purchase it i.e. you cant back out neither can the seller (which sounds eminently sensible) .

How do you know how much to offer? If for example the guide price in the report is £400 000 and its priced at £440 000 do you have to offer £440 000? Who would advise you? Can any solicitor do it or do you have to appoint a specialised solicitor? Any other thought and advise would be very welcome. TIA.

Just book marking this as I am also house hunting. I first had to get set up with the solicitor. Yes they will submit notes of interest initially then make an offer when instructed.

The offers over thing is crazy at the moment. My friend and her husband made a bid on a house at the weekend and they lost out. It went for 100k over the home report value! I am seriously considering leaving the search until the new year now as the market is just crazy.

The home report value is the maximum mortgage value someone would get so is a good guide although as you know it's usually a bit over this that things sell for. A good local agent will be able to clue you in on the 'temperature' of the local market where you're looking and give you guidance on what to offer.

Offers are not binding in Scotland until missives conclude (ie exchange). Seems to be a common misconception on here. I think people tend to pull out far less often and solicitors and estate agents have guidance around their involvement in that which might be a relevant factor but it's still a risk. Sales tend to complete far quicker in Scotland from what I've seen on here so there's a smaller window of opportunity and legals progress quickly. The home report process might play a role in that as no need to wait for a survey.

Conveyancing solicitors will be able to give you a steer on what to offer and how to approach the process. You can use any Scots law conveyancing solicitor but one local to where you're buying will know the market and is also more likely to know the solicitors and EA acting for the seller (assuming they're also local) so can hopefully get a better insight in to seller's circumstances.

The OIEO price will generally be less than the home report valuation to gather interest and the difference between the two can be substantial so best to get the home report as early as possible. You won't get a mortgage for more than home report value. In popular areas, sellers wouldn't expect to get an offer for anything less than home report value and EAs will tell you not to waste your time offering less so the marketing price can be a bit misleading. Some areas that are particularly popular see offers 15-20% over home report as standard (covid bubble aside) so worth trying to get to know the market in the area as soon as possible.

Basillify basically summed it up.

In terms of offers over it varies wildly and some stuff is moving very quickly. We just sold (and bought, but a new build so no o/o on our purchase), marketed at o/o 5% under home report value, sold at 7% over but within a week without doing a full closing date. A good local solicitor will be able to give you guidance on the local market, but I'd suggest not choosing one if the ones who are selling a lot in the area as they won't be able to act for you if you choose something they're selling.

You don't need to wait for a closing date if one hasnt been announced. If you see something you like shoving an offer in quickly can be successful. Make sure to mention you will be cash buyers and if you are flexible about dates then mention this too as the market is moving so fast here that you can't find something to buy until you've sold. Flexible buyer was a bonus for us

So can I just check I’m getting this right if we put an offer in on a property and it’s accepted and our house sale fell through there’s no reason why it should but who know providing “missives” haven’t concluded we could back out?
And home value report £300k asking price £325k been in market 8 weeks no closing date for offers. So we could offer £300k? If our offer is declined can we increase it? Can we state the max we’ll go to.
Goes of to find local solicitor....,

Yes you can withdraw until missives conclude. I'd say it's less common here than in England but it absolutely happens

Is the 325k a fixed price or offers offer? Fixed price tends to be more like asking price and you can definitely offer less. it's rarer to offer under the offers over but it's also relatively unusual for it to be higher than the home report so no harm especially if it's sat for a long time. As long as it's not a closing date then you can offer again

Offers are not binding in Scotland until missives conclude (ie exchange). Seems to be a common misconception on here. I think people tend to pull out far less often and solicitors and estate agents have guidance around their involvement in that which might be a relevant factor but it's still a risk. Sales tend to complete far quicker in Scotland.

We had a nightmare selling in Scotland, our buyer used an online solicitor who seemed to have little interest in cooperating with any other solicitor in the chain. We were constantly lied to about what stage they were at, and eventually, despite having agreed a completion date they then threatened to pull out unless we moved it one week forward, we had to move into temporary accommodation and put our furniture into storage.
Our solicitor told us that the Scottish system is breaking down and no where near as good as many people believe.

It's says "offers over £320K".
This is all very helpful thank you.

Sorry £325K.

Yes, people do sometimes pull out of purchases (bastards).

How much to offer is very difficult- popular properties in a buoyant market can go insane amounts over asking/ valuation. If it’s not sold for & weeks then don’t be too generous! You can offer as many times as you want to before a closing date.
Offers can be verbal (via estate agent) that if accepted you’d follow up with a formal offer soon after. if it goes to a closing then better through a solicitor. Also choose a not-round number (so £326k rather than £325k, for example: you’re less likely to bid the same as someone else that way), and state your position(eg cash buyer, mortgage in principle agreed, or whatever).

Don’t state the max you’ll go to as the vendor won’t sell it to you for less than that!

Offers over prices are nothing more then a marketing tool to suck as many bidders into the game as possible. In Edinburgh the market is broken, expect to pay well over 20% over the home buyers report price.

Agree with other posters, the Scottish system is no better then the English system, and in some ways it's actually worse if you're a buyer.

The average Edinburgh premium isn't as much as 20%. It is on some properties - anecdotally from friends 2 bed flats in places like Morningside and Comely Bank can do crazy things. But the stats from our estate agents were that the average they achieved in Edinburgh was 5% over home report value and they tend to market at 5% under it so suggests their average is about 10% over the offers over. We got 12% in the West End.

A bit more advise please. So the place were interested in we changed our mind after doing lots of research into the area. Now we're looking at another one (different area).
On Right Move it says "fixed price" which is the same as the mortgage valuation the house has been on the market just off 3/12. Its the only suitable house in the area for that price, my DH really loves it it ticks all our boxes, only one other person has registered an interest and apparently they cant offer at the moment. Do we offer the fixed price (we can afford it) or go in bit lower? What would you do?

Go in lower.

Offer the fixed price.

Typically here “fixed price” means “we want this amount and wont sell for less”. The vendor has the chance to wait for the other potential purchaser to buy it, and the market round us is crazy just now.

BUT, you’re not going to loose out by offering slightly below, particularly if you can justify why it’s now worth less than the survey value, or why you’re a great purchaser (eg you’ve finances fully in place and you’ve noting to sell and prepared to work to vendors timeline).

Go in lower. What area is it in? Have you had a viewing yet?

Have you looked at properties at auction. Ours was on rightmove for £249k, home report stated £300k but seller was desperate to sell as he was in a chain and house was far too big for him. Its a 5 bed detached 200yr old house on 1.5 acres in a small village. I offered 180k the day online bids had to be in for with an email from us as a family. I was prepared to go higher but chanced my luck. It worked, he accepted our offer 4 days later. We completed 6 weeks later.

It's the west coast. We've viewed it and my DH loves it, it has a couple of key features he's always dreamed of having, the location is exactly what he wanted, its low maintenance which is good as our other home (not the one we're selling) is listed and exceedingly old so is very high maintenance.
We can afford the asking price, structurally its totally sound, decor is very recent but not my taste but that's just me (I lean more towards the eclectic Nicky Haslem look grin, most people who I've shown them pictures of it too love the decor. We are due to exchange in the next 7 days on the other house, buyer now has everything in place and there will be a short completion date, the buyers are desperate to get it as we have four others who are after it. We are actually in no hurry to purchase due to Covid19 restrictions I've just cancelled my next jolly to the Scotland. But if the vendor wanted us to purchase quickly we would be very happy to do this it makes no difference to us. We are 100% cash buyers (not the sort who say they are then 3 months in announce they've got to get a "small" mortgage).

You can pull out up until missives are sorted. It happened to my friend, age accepted an offer and they pulled out a week iaterbsinshenhadbto go back on the Market. Luckily houses move really fast where she was and she had another offer straight away.

Nothing to lose by putting in a cheeky low offer.

@bloodylongdrive so are we.... I'm from the east originally. I love it, but have planted loads and loads of midgie repellant plants lol

If it's been on the market for a while and fixed price I'd go in lower, as clearly they are desperate to sell. Not ridiculously low, but enough to feel like you've had a good deal. Cash buyer will be preferred too.

Btw 3 months on the market IS a long time in Scotland. Most houses in and around Glasgow sell in 2-4 weeks (the later is normally due to closing date).

3 months just now is a long time.