closing date next week - can it be done??

clueless_FTB

Hi

I have viewed a property I am very interested in. The problem is, the property has a closing date of next week.

I have only recently started to think about purchasing a property - with that in mind I have enquired about mortgages and can easily afford the property in question. I do not yet have a solicitor.

What I want to know is - have I got any chance of realistically being 'in the running' to purchase the property with the timescales given? I understand that normally a survey is (has to be) carried out before making an offer. Can I make an offer pending survey?

If properties have to be surveyed before making an offer, is it just that certain buyers are extremely quick of the mark? E.g. I noted a new property in the EA window - the next few days, I enquired and this had a closing date of the next day (essentially a week on the market) seems very quick to me.

Also, I’m sure I heard a while ago that the sellers would soon require to get a survey done before putting the property on the market (rather than numerous buyers have the same property surveyed many times) - did this ever happen or was I imagining things

In case it makes any difference, I’m in Scotland.

Many Thanks

jennifernil

Your first step is to get a solicitor, all offers must go via him/her. He/she will register your interest in the property. You could offer an amount subject to satisfactory survey, but the fact it has gone to a closing date suggests they have had a few people interested and are now looking to secure a sale. Often a closing date will prompt the ditherers to make an offer.
I think you will find that on the closing date they will be looking for firm offers, not ones subject to survey.
As an offer is binding once accepted, it would be unwise to submit a firm offer without having a "mortgage promise", i.e. something to say that someone is willing to lend you up to a certain sum in principal. Most solicitors would refuse to submit an offer without this assurance in place. Remember that the final amount they will lend will be calculated on the surveyor's valuation, not what you end up paying.
Your timescale is not impossible. We bought a flat in Glasgow 3 years back for our student daughter. It was on at a (much reduced) fixed price. We viewed it on the Sunday, arranged a mortgage in principal on the Monday morning, checked it was still for sale on the Monday afternoon, and submitted an offer subject to survey within the hour. This was verbally accepted by the sellers, the survey was done on the Tuesday,satisfactory report received on the Wednesday, and everything went from there.There was a bit of legal toing and froing to tie up all the loose ends, the mortgage took a couple of weeks to arrange as it was a guarantor one, but the property was our daughter's 6 weeks later.