Scotland - How much to offer

Jowo_2

Home reports Scotland. I didn't realise until now that they hadn't been scrapped when the HIPs were abolished in England/Wales.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report/sellers/faqs

adouglasmhor

home reports are bettr than hips was anyway.

lucylucky

uberteeb wrote: »

Really really appreciate all the posts above.

I’ve already had an MiP agreed and that was a couple of months ago so my deposit is actually bigger now but basically the bank are willing to throw loads more money at me than I actually want, I’m very conscious of not buying a flat for too high an amount and basically working to eat and pay the mortgage and do little else, my budget planner contained a sizeable proportion of my monthly outgoings as being reserved for ‘the weekends’! :beer:

One quick question I really should know the answer to, how long is a home report valid for and how do I ask the estate agent to see it or do I ask the seller when I’m viewing the flat?

Good to hear that, as I thought, you should be hoping to pay a little under the number in the estate agent window/on their website rather than the 15% over my mum was on about.

Unfortunately it can still be very variable.

Our neighbours are estate agents in Glasgow.
I was talking to them about prices at the weekend and they have just sold a couple of flats in the west end, one 12% over the asking price and the other 37%

Oddly enough there is a flat near us which has been on a fixed price for 2 months and shows no signs of shifting.

googler

uberteeb wrote: »

One quick question I really should know the answer to, how long is a home report valid for and how do I ask the estate agent to see it or do I ask the seller when I’m viewing the flat?

There's no time limit in the legislation, but lenders seem to have settled on 12 weeks as their limit. If the HR is older than 12 weeks, and your offer is accepted, then your lender requests a revised valuation from the surveyor who did the HR. If the value comes out the same, you proceed with your offer. If not, there's room to negotiate.

Ask the selling agent for the HR when booking the viewing or after. They can't refuse unless they believe you can't buy the flat, or you've been needlessly asking them for HRs with no intent of buying.

googler

lucylucky wrote: »

Our neighbours are estate agents in Glasgow. I was talking to them about prices at the weekend and they have just sold a couple of flats in the west end, one 12% over the asking price and the other 37%

Oddly enough there is a flat near us which has been on a fixed price for 2 months and shows no signs of shifting.

Yes, but when you factor in the other sales (how many would sell in the West End monthly?) and average out ALL of them, including these two, what would the average be? I'd hazard a guess at nowhere near 12 or 37% above HR value.

And you say 12 and 37% above ASKING price.... were these 'Offers Over' prices, set at a percentage already BELOW the HR value?

NEH

Jowo wrote: »

Home reports Scotland. I didn't realise until now that they hadn't been scrapped when the HIPs were abolished in England/Wales.

http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Built-Environment/Housing/BuyingSelling/Home-Report/sellers/faqs

Unfortunately they weren't....

Offers over is still used a fair bit in some places and some still have closing dates so it's not completeley outdated it just depends on where you live...


As the validity of the home report bascially as we understand it ours is valid until we take our property off the market unless something drammatically changes in the meantime....If we chose to put the property back on the market say in a few months time then we would have to stump up another £250 odd .....

lucylucky

googler wrote: »

Yes, but when you factor in the other sales (how many would sell in the West End monthly?) and average out ALL of them, including these two, what would the average be? I'd hazard a guess at nowhere near 12 or 37% above HR value.

And you say 12 and 37% above ASKING price.... were these 'Offers Over' prices, set at a percentage already BELOW the HR value?

They were offers over prices, set against what I don't know.

I appreciate what you mean about averages but a typical homebuyer is not interested in the average, just what their home is likley to cost.

googler

lucylucky wrote: »

They were offers over prices, set against what I don't know.

I appreciate what you mean about averages but a typical homebuyer is not interested in the average, just what their home is likley to cost.

Yes, but in order to judge that, we'd need the HR values for these, to judge what they fetched against valuation, not a lower Offers Over price.

Average house prices are all that's quoted in the press, whether for counties, cities or the whole country. How else do you determine general trends?

The two properties the agent referred to may be in totally different styles and price ranges to the OP's too.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

All Scottish houses must now come with a valuation as part of the home report, which the seller pays for.

If the valuation is less than 3 months old, and done by a reputable surveyor, then most of the high street banks will accept it without a second survey being done, which is great for the buyer as less costs.

If the property is listed as "offers over", it usually means exactly that. The price is lower than they expect to get offered. Now in this day and age, there are some exceptions.... But a good idea can be had by comparing the O/O price with the home report value. If the O/O price is significantly below the HR value, chances are they're using a low price to drum up interest and really do expect O/O just like the old days. If the HR value and O/O price are similar, they're chancing it and you may be able to offer less.

If listed as "offers around", then the price on the box will be close to what they expect, and probably close to the valuation. Whether you need to offer more or less depends on the level of interest and desirability.

If listed as "fixed price", then chances are you could offer below that price, (and it may be above the valuation price, too).

lucylucky

googler wrote: »

Yes, but in order to judge that, we'd need the HR values for these, to judge what they fetched against valuation, not a lower Offers Over price.

Average house prices are all that's quoted in the press, whether for counties, cities or the whole country. How else do you determine general trends?

The two properties the agent referred to may be in totally different styles and price ranges to the OP's too.

That is true I was merely using them as examples of a different approach to that which the OP hopes for (or expects)