Can someone help with a question about property buying?

[OperationallySound]

We're planning on moving to Scotland to be near family. Our house sale in England is heading towards exchange, and we will be house hunting soon (luckily we've somewhere to stay during any gap in owning).

My question is that on Zoopla, some Scottish houses are marked as 'under offer' and others as SSTC. In England, I wouldn't look any further at a house SSTC, unless it came back on the market, so presumably that's the same in Scotland?

But if a house is 'under offer", does that mean that it has had an offer, but the buyers are looking for more (ie higher!) offers (so still up for sale) or does it mean that an offer has been accepted and the early stages of a sale are progressing? Am trying to work out whether it's worth us looking at the details of under offer houses. Thank you

Generally houses in Scotland have a closing date for offers. So Under Offer simply means the buyers solicitor has had one or more offers and they are waiting for the deadline to pick the highest.

You can make an offer but you don't know what other offers have been made and once you offer you are committed you cannot withdraw if you win.

If a house is under offer then you can’t view it but you can ask your solicitor to submit an offer if you wish.

If it’s SSTM then they have already accepted someone else’s offer. You can’t view it and you’d be wasting your time and money to make another offer.

So I’d not bother with anything that says either of the above.

Have you instructed a solicitor in Scotland ? I’d go for one in the area where you are buying.

Thank you both. Not sure if I've misunderstood, but I'm still not clear. If a closing date hasn't been reached, or if there isn't one, can we still view and then offer?

cdtaylornats if I understand correctly, you're saying that in that scenario, we could view, make an offer and hope that ours is the highest. But S00LA are you saying we can't even view? If that were the case, we wouldnt consider putting in an offer in on something we hadn't viewed.

Purple Bricks allow people to put in offers via the app which really don't mean a lot until a solicitor has put in an offer. I learnt that the hard way selling my flat as the property shows online as under offer even though the person may never put in a legally binding offer.

Not all properties in Scotland have a closing date. That only happens when at least 2 buyers have submitted " notes of interest" ( usually done when they are considering putting in an offer). Then a closing date is set.
Under offer means that a buyer has submitted an offer and the sellers solicitor has accepted in writing, subject to various things to be negotiated ie Date of Entry etc.
SSTM means that property is sold, but missives ( contracts) have still to be exchanged.

Under offer means that a buyer has submitted an offer and the sellers solicitor has accepted in writing, subject to various things to be negotiated ie Date of Entry etc.

Thank you, that's the bit I was confused about. So under offer means that an offer has been made and accepted and that the sale process is underway, rather than the vendor having had offers but holding out for higher offers (as it might mean in England). I understand now. That's just shortened our potential list rather a lot

those under offer have the potential to fall through so still worth keeping an eye on in case it comes back on but that would be fairly unusual. In general once an offer is accepted and therefore "under offer" people will do what they can to progress that fully.

Having said that on our last sale - 15 years ago, we were under offer twice and it fell through. First time was because buyer was failing to progress and still offering on other properties and we forced his hand to withdraw. 2nd the buyer was failing to progress as they hoped to delay as they hadn't sold theirs, we were already tied into a date for our new house so rejected them and started again...

Yes, under offer means there has been an offer accepted on it and the sale is progressing. I don't think u can still view it or anything once it goes under offer.

Thanks everyone, have bought and sold lots of times in England, but this is a whole new world for us! The explanations have really helped. Property seems to be moving very rapidly, especially the kind we're after unfortunately.

Where are you looking, roughly? Some areas have different websites than Rightmove. Edinburgh has ESPC. I can’t remember how wide it goes.

@OperationallySound

Thanks everyone, have bought and sold lots of times in England, but this is a whole new world for us! The explanations have really helped. Property seems to be moving very rapidly, especially the kind we're after unfortunately.

They are. We've now had 3 separate notes through the door asking if we are looking to sell. I live in an older "new build" estate, so nothing particularly special. I know our neighbours bought by doing similar a few years ago. Appreciate that's not an option if you don't live in the area.

Well..... It's more about the house and its view than a specific area really. We're after rural or semi rural, within around an hour and a half-ish of the Stirling area, and the one thing it must have is a view. Hills, mountains or water, we dont mind. Older property probably, preferably detached. Pretty much the same as everyone else appears to be after

I don't think open viewings are happening at the moment, so if you phone the solicitors they'll usually tell you the status of the house.

Thanks. Life is even more complicated as we are in mainland Europe at the mo so have got to come home, quarantine for 2 weeks, complete on the sale, put everything into storage, then go to Scotland and start the search. God, I need a lie down just thinking about it....

It'll be worth it. it's a great area

Within 1.5 hours of Stirling is a BIG area. Rural here can mean everything from 10 miles outside a city to

I were in your situation I’d rent locally for 6 months at least until you are clearer what you want and get to know Scotland better.

It’s going to be almost impossible for you to buy in the current market when you are living elsewhere. The most desirable properties are selling within a few days of going onto the market.

Oh, just noticed the hour an a half - that could take you anywhere, Peebles, Tyndrum, Blair Atholl, Arbroath, Ayr, Moffat

@S00LA

Within 1.5 hours of Stirling is a BIG area. Rural here can mean everything from 10 miles outside a city to

I were in your situation I’d rent locally for 6 months at least until you are clearer what you want and get to know Scotland better.

It’s going to be almost impossible for you to buy in the current market when you are living elsewhere. The most desirable properties are selling within a few days of going onto the market.

It is a big area isn't it We know parts of Scotland well, as our children are there. We've also done some property reccies and holidays to see the specific areas we like, and places we don't want to be, so the 1.5 hrs isn't quite as loose as it might sound (was just being a bit vague for the sake of anonymity!). As soon as we can travel, we'll be going up to see what's available, but if there's nothing we like we'll delay any purchase until spring as we can return abroad for as long as needs be. Renting isn't really an option we'd want to take up as we are cash buyers, so it would eat into the capital of that makes sense.

I guess it depends if you are happy to buy a house without having seen it - which wouldn’t work for me.

Houses are moving so quickly right now. I was the first viewer to see a property At 10am a few weeks ago and by lunchtime they had accepted an offer.

Other times I’ve had a viewing cancelled While I was travelling to it because the owners had Accepted an offer.

So if something comes on the market today Friday 12 noon , there will be locals who will view it tonight, tomorrow and Sunday. That could easily be 30 people, who are supposed to be pre authenticated.

If you can’t fly here until Monday it could be sold by then,

Even if it’s not, if the agent has several notes of interest From the weekends viewings they will set a closing date for the Wednesday.

Obviously you will be fine if there’s less demand for a property.

But that’s my experience viewing about 25 properties over the last few months.

We wouldn't consider buying without viewing, of course not. As mentioned, we've got to quarantine, and will then be travelling to Scotland, having booked viewings just before we leave (in whatever covid acceptable way that will be). If the properties we want to view have offers accepted on them before we view them, then that's just our bad luck, and part of buying in the currently overheated market sadly. We can only choose from what's available to us, and if there's nothing suitable, we'll happily wait until there is.

Things do seem to have been moving very quickly - maybe due to the pent-up demand from the lockdown period. Maybe it will settle down.

MIL's house sold within a couple of days and viewings were allowed.

Yes, would agree prettybird it certainly looks that way. The estate agents we spoke to a couple of weeks ago both said that things were just starting to slow down slightly, and they were expecting things to really slow by the end of this month.

I also think that viewings in the current form will continue unless things get really bad. The alternative is just closing down the market again and look how thats worked out

Legally, they are the same thing OP.