Offering on a house

[Oceanblu]

DP and I have been looking at houses to get an idea of what we like. After months of looking we have seen a house we like enough to put an offer in on. The only thing is, our current flat isn’t on the
market yet and we don’t have a mortgage agreement in principle.

We didn’t want to put our flat on the market before finding a property as the flats here sell within days and we didn’t want to be left without somewhere to move in to or having to settle for something we don’t like.

Would we be silly to offer on a house without an agreement in principle in place? I’m speaking to a mortgage advisor tomorrow but I’m not sure how quickly they can get the ball rolling for this. We also need to start seriously thinking about getting an home report done and getting an estate agent out. Any advice would be much appreciated.

This link takes you through all the steps. I'd advise reading it.

www.savills.com/blog/article/192349/residential-property/how-to-buy-property-in-scotland.aspx

It's pretty gutsy to make an offer when you haven't sold your own property tbh.

If you offer without an AIP or your house even being on the market round here, your offer just wouldn't be accepted. The property market is hot AF where I am, and so you'll have to end up going very much over HR valuation to be considered over a similar offer where the buyer has sold/is selling/has funds in place. It just won't be taken seriously.

Thanks guys, I thought as much.

whenever I arrange a viewing and the EA asks our position and I tell them our flat isn’t yet on the market, they say it isn’t off putting as the flats where I am (cottage flats, Glasgow) sell within days.

I will definitely seek to get an agreement in principle in place asap and accept that we likely won’t get this house. At least we will have one in place for the next house we like

We bought without our house being on the market or having a mortgage offer and our offer was accepted because of where our house was-a very hot area for schools etc. Our house sold in 2 days and we moved within 6 weeks.
Also in Scotland

Good to know @Heyhoherewegoagain. The couple selling the house know the area we are selling in (they are downsizing and are moving to the street next to ours) and know that the flat will have no problem selling.

I know we will have no problem getting an agreement in principle but of course the sellers don’t know that so fingers crossed we can get one asap before missing out on the property

You can get an AIP tomorrow - we bought recently and AIP was very quick to organise.

We’ve had an offer accepted without being on the market. There’s no law that you have to. House sales fall through all the time so having an offer accepted on your own means … not much really!

For my sins I work in property right across the central belt, but mostly around East Ren & Glasgow South.

To be honest OP despite the way EAs might portray the market here it has slowed down considerably.

The general rule was that if you were buying in the ‘hotspot’ areas (Shawlands/East Ren) then your house had to be at least on the market.

However in the last couple of months well over half of the bids we’ve had accepted have been from clients who haven’t yet put their property on the market.

To be fair even during the boom there were lots of houses sold on these terms, EAs try to discourage it purely to make their lives easier and have less risk of a sale falling through.

With the exception of Giffnock/Netherlee there is no hot market around Glasgow just now, things in some areas are still selling quickly but they are going for either on or far closer to HR than they have been.