Buying in Scotland - "offers over" and the current market....

scottishblondie

Offer what you think it's worth and cross your fingers! OO is still alive and well here in Glasgow, although properties are no longer selling for 20-30% over this as they used to. I expect your (potential) vendor will be hoping for 5-10% over, and may even need this amount to move.

myhouse_2

I don't know much about the Glasgow market admittedly, but elsewhere properties generally revert to Fixed Price if they haven't sold within a few weeks. There was an article in the Scotsman a while back about people paying a small amount to valuers to get just the basic valuation - they could therefore afford to get several valuations and then pay the remaining money to the company that valued it the highest. The valuers therefore also had an incentive to over-value.
Personally I'd be looking to pay around the 2003 price for a property now.

googler

myhouse wrote: »

There was an article in the Scotsman a while back about people paying a small amount to valuers to get just the basic valuation - they could therefore afford to get several valuations and then pay the remaining money to the company that valued it the highest. The valuers therefore also had an incentive to over-value.

I'm not sure I place much credence on this - on one hand, the general perception is that Home Reports have led to less speculative marketing because the homeowner must pay upfront for the home report, and suggestion that fewer homeowners have the £400 or £500 cash in hand to pay for it; on the other hand, The Scotsman article suggesting that (some? many?) homeowners will pay 3 or 4 surveyors at, say, £80 each for a valuation, then the remaining cost of the HR to one of the surveyors - therefore putting £160 or £240 in valuation fees on top of a £400 HR for two or three extra valuations, taking £400 up to £560 or £640 .......