House buying in Scotland - please help me understand!

[Kelvinator1]

Firstly, I preface this by saying I moved to the UK in my 30s. Previously, I was in a country where Real Estate agents were far more involved (dare I say, helpful even) and you absolutely never met the vendors, let alone had them show you around their home! Also a country where bridging finance was, and still is, a very normal, accessible thing.

So – a few years ago we bought our first house here. Found an ok house in an ok area, and offer accepted. We only offered a teeny bit over HR value, but as we were contingency/chain free, we were the most attractive buyers.

Fast forward a few years – we’ve improved the house a lot, our finances have improved, and we now want to upgrade – not in a huge rush, but happy to take the plunge for the right house in the right area.

So I see a ‘For Sale’ sign – the house looks great, perfect area. I know it’s a bit early and we weren’t quite ready to go, but I get excited – because buying a new home is meant to be exciting, isn’t it?! I contact the agent – the HR is good, affordability wise we can offer a little over HR, maybe only 5% by the time I account for legal fees and LBTT. So I know we are not in a great position, coupled with the fact any offer is contingent on our house selling – and it’s not even on the market. I get an AIP to check my figures are all correct, and I tell the agent all of this. I was very upfront as I don’t want to waste my time, or the vendors time. She thanks me for the info, offers a viewing time which I confirm via email.

I turn up to view – vendors were not expecting me! Lovely people – showed us the house anyway. We love it – so knowing the agent has not passed on any of the info I shared, I asked the vendor what their position is. They’re a bit like us they said – they wanted to move, but only for the right property, so they’d been searching for two years, and had lost out on 4 (!!) houses.They’ve now had an offer accepted and are settling on their new house in 6 weeks. So they need their house to settle in 6 weeks. Which means we, with our offer only a little bit over HR and sale contingencies, with no option of bridging finance as apparently that’s not offered in the UK since the GFC, are just about the least attractive buyers you can get. Oh – and they’ve had 3 notes of interest already (only been listed 3 or 4 business days by this stage).

I am annoyed at the real estate agent for wasting everyones time. And I am feeling really disheartened about the whole process. It seems like searching for our next house,which should be exciting, is going to end up being a long, drawn out process with loads of disappointment in store, and is going to be less about finding a house we love in an area we actively want to live in, versus just needing to find a situation where the stars align for everyone who happens to be in the chain. And unless a chain is full of cash buyers, first home buyers or people moving into care homes, it's going to be problematic, isn't it?

Am I missing something, or is this situation actually as shitty as I think it is?

Unfortunately you are not wrong. We are a few weeks out from completion and mega stressed. So much can go wrong and it seems to be the norm now that missives won't be concluded until up to the day before moving day. If you have any ability to sell first and rent or stay with family you would be in a stronger position, but that's not an option for everyone. I am holding my breath for the next 4 weeks that our buyer and seller don't have any issues.

I hope you manage to get there, good luck.

The role of the estate agent is to get as many people through the door and generate as much interest as possible. The number of 'offers of interest' push up what people offer. For example, we had 12 offers of interest when we sold and the highest bidder offered way above what everyone else did. Even though you explained your circumstances they won't stop you from seeing the house. You might magically find more money to offer - people do!
In the area in Scotland I live in people generally offer 15% above asking price. Selling your current house and being ready to go is advantageous if at all possible.
Sorry, probably not what you want to here.

Notes of interest don’t necessarily mean everyone will bid. They are basically lodged to that if an offer is made or a Closing date set you having ‘noted’ your interest will be informed.

if your house isn’t even on the market to be honest I wouldn’t consider and offer from you (unless I knew it was in a very in demand area). Some people don’t even allow viewings from people not on the market as it can add a lot of time onto a chain. And until someone has sold their money to buy figures may not be set in stone as how much you have is based on how much you sell for normally so it adds a whole lot of uncertainty.

It isn't normal for the estate agent to fail to tell the owner of a viewing - that's a bad agent not the whole system at fault

Bridging loans do exist although not commonly used - usually just if a chain experienced problems - probably very expensive

Very common to rent/ live with family during the moving process instead

The first stage is to market your house not look for something you like

Vendors often say they will only accept viewings or offers from people procedable which you are not

It's so tricky isn't it. I know the rental market is horrible at the moment as well so I didn't really consider that an option - we have a dog, and no recent rental refs as we've owned for years now. I understand how unattractive we are to buyers not being on the market (as a seller I'd be thinking the same!) but I also know we don't HATE where we are - we're not desperate to move, we just want, and can afford, something a step up now. And I worry we sell first, get pressured into settling for something that 'will do' and then not really being much better off than we are now in terms of house/area satisfaction & happiness. But poorer of course after all the fees are paid.

I would really think about how much you want to step up and how much that will actually cost (bearing in mind how much over you will have to offer to get what you want). For a while we realised that what we had to offer and how much we would get for that (1 more bedroom but in an area we didn't really want to live in) was not enough. So saved more, sold our house and were lucky to find a property where the owners wanted to move quickly and we were ready to go.

Thanks for your thoughts - it just seems so baffling difficult to me and I am feeling really disheartened by the whole situation! Back to the drawing board for a while I think......

Bridging finance is available but is expensive. We've recently moved and used a bridging loan to get our purchase over the line as our vendors had found somewhere else and needed to move for work.

They won't likely manage to sell and complete within 6 weeks no matter how much they want to. It used to be the norm but not any more.

I can assure you the owners of the house you viewed won’t be moving in 6 weeks if they aren’t under offer already and are still doing viewings. It takes longer than that to conclude missives. Note your interest. If there is a closing date, submit an offer and see where it takes you. You never know although probably unlikely given you’re not on the market. I will say if you do want to move you do need to get yourself organise quickly and get yours on the market.