Offers over in Scotland

[StockholmCalling]

Currently living in a rented house which the landlord has asked us to leave so he can sell it and we’re trying to work out if we can afford to buy.

Budget is going to be very tight and we’re so worried this is a terrible time to buy but we really have no choice as rents have just exploded in price too and there is an extreme shortage of suitable houses.

The house we’re looking at is priced as offers over £265,000 and the Home Report has valued it at £270,000.

We have £50,000 that we’ve been able to borrow from family and would like to ideally put a 10% deposit down to keep the mortgage cheap as possible so the rest would be able to go towards a higher offer as we can only borrow up to the Home Report Valuation. If we had to put down a 5% deposit the interest rates double.

So with a 10% deposit we could go up to £288,000. I know the market is crazy right now but we (like others) are desperate because we have a disabled child in a special needs school and so we need to stay in the local authority area or otherwise they will lose that placement. I know it depends on the house and the area but can anyone reassure me that I might have a hope in hell of this offer being accepted?

Gah! Stress!

it might be ok, all you can do is offer and hope for the best - if you are chain free that makes you an attractive prospect over someone who still has to sell
i recently sold a house and it went 10K over valuation - 125k v 135k and i choose someone who was chain free rather than someone who still had to sell - it was nearly going to a closing date due to the interest (estate agent says 3 or more verbal offers means they can confidently go to a closing date) but the offer came in just before we went ahead and i had the same offer from 2 people one who had to sell and one who didnt

@chipsandpeas Thanks for the reply, that’s really helpful to know.

I know if it goes to a closing date we can only put one bid in but if not do you think we should offer less than the £288,000 so we have room to go up? I’ve not owned property in over 10 years and never in Scotland so feel very out of my depth in this!

Honestly 10% over is max I’d go to atm: market likely to fall etc. Initial offer of £5k over valuation is generous in my area just now.

Found my way you’re having to go 20% over at least. I’d just put in your best offer in terms of what it’s worth to you and see what happens.

i know it’s shit.

if you make a verbal offer then it can be rejected or thought about and you can offer more
from experience once its gone to a closing date its a make a offer and thats it but circumstance will come into it - its my mums house i was selling, not in a massive hurry but i didnt want to drag it out waiting on someone else to sell their place, then start the selling process so if it went to a closing date i would have taken a lower offer if they were in a better place to move quickly but luckily i got 2 offers at the same amount

@RJnomore1 out of curiosity where roughly are you? We’re in the Lothians so I’m expecting most houses are still going way over!

Oh miles away then, I’m Ayrshire. No help sorry.

How long has the property been on the market @StockholmCalling ? It’s it’s on at offers over £265k and the home report is £270k that would say to me that they’d expect maybe the home report value.

also in Scotland - we paid 8% over but this was 6 months ago when things were v different and the home report on ours was for about 100k less than yours.

it v much depends how long it’s been on the market for and how quickly the owners need a sale. Are you chain free? I know when we were selling we would’ve been slightly hesitant about a chain buyer from England just from the length of time aspect.

I'm in Glasgow, we're still seeing offers 8-10% over home report value being needed to get an offer accepted in my area. Its definitely slowed down though, was 15-20% over home report value in the summer which was crazy.

We are trying to move to Highlands and recently had to put in a closing date bid. We lost because we were subject to sale but the other bidder was a cash buyer. We put in an offer 10.5% over the home report value but that wasn't enough. Closing dates are a stressful situation, try to avoid!

Are you trying to buy the property you currently rent? Or somewhere new? We're in an Edinburgh suburb and I'd say 8-10% over in our area. But asking prices seem to be higher than ever, and almost always over home report valuation.

Is there any point in talking to the landlord if you have had a good relationship and explain your circumstances.
I've heard, though not had it verified, that some of them do have a heart.

We’re not trying to buy the property we live in unfortunately. It needs a lot of work doing to it and the landlord has never been interested in repairs while we’ve lived here so I think he’s realised he can’t continue to refuse to do repairs but also can’t/won’t pay for them so hence the sale.

The house we’re looking at has been on the market for about a month I think, not very long!

Unless we can try and borrow a little bit more from family we’re only able to offer about 7% over the home report valuation but thanks to everyone who has pointed out we are chain free so I suppose we have that at least.

The other thing that’s worrying me is our deposit is being loaned to us by family as they’re releasing equity from their own home but looking online this might take up to 8 weeks. Am I going to need the funds before this or is that enough time to not hold things up too much?

I don’t think I’ve ever been so stressed in my whole life 😩

You get more advise on the Scotsnet forum.

Your solicitor will need to see proof of funds and be very careful if you're being loaned the deposit. How will you pay it back?

Solicitors are worth asking on offer price I find.