Private Sale - help me get it straight (Scotland)

PPPingu

Hi folks,

we are due to view two houses tomorrow, one is on the open market and goes to closing date later this week, the other is private sale as the result of a letter drop.
The question is what order are the activities for the private sale, in my mind it is something like:
1) view house
2) agree nominal price, subject to survey
3) get survey (buyer pays?)
4) renegotiate based on any survey issues.
5) get the solicitors to talk to each other and proceed with contract.

Or should we have solicitors involved much earlier?

kind of feeling our way here, but the closing date on the open market house kind of forces our hand.
Anyone who has gone through this and can give any hints/tips would be much appreciated!

bris

You can view and agree a price with the vendor but your solicitor needs to make the offer to their solicitor. This will be subject to survey, so when the survey has been done and accepted then the missives can be prepared. You solicitor will want to now do all the relevant searches, etc before concluding the missives, once the missives are concluded you are legally obliged to buy or suffer severe financial penalties.

googler

Why does the closing date have any effect on the other sale?

If you are keen enough on the closing date property, make an offer on it (you'll need a solicitor)

If you fail to secure that one, make an offer on the private one. Since you're the only prospective buyer for it (the owner contacted you from your letter drop) there can't be anyone else in the frame....

PPPingu

Thanks folks,
googler, to clarify the property with closing date is the second choice, the private sale is currently the preferred option, but the closing date on our backup property means that a decision must be made very quickly!
do you know if a home report is required for a private sale where the seller has not "marketed" the property, but has been approached by a buyer, as in our case?

googler

A home report is only required where the seller makes it known to the general public that their house is for sale. Not required for a truly private sale.

So to add to your complications, you'll need to organise your own survey for the private one, but there should be an HR for the public one.

You've just sold, haven't you? So the solicitor acting for your sale would be the sensible choice to be your solicitor with regard to the purchase, surely?

PPPingu

Yep, keeping the same solicitor for sure, he's been very helpful so far.
There is indeed an HR for public sale, that side of things is quite straightforward, it's getting the private sale right that concerns me, dont want to miss anything.

googler

If you like the private sale house, get your solicitor to tender an offer subject to survey as step 2 - then, if the survey reveals something untoward, you can withdraw under the subject to survey clause with no penalty or feelings of guilt

If your sol puts a 'reply by' date on the offer, you're virtually assured of a quick response - as long as the seller has their solicitor in place - for your sol will be looking to submit an offer to their sol - not to the owners themselves.

View house - if happy,
Instruct solicitor to submit offer subject to survey.
If accepted, instruct survey. If declined, negotiate via your sol until accepted or declined
If survey OK, sols proceed to conclude missives
If survey not OK, re-negotiate via solicitor until agreement reached. If no agreeement reached, withdraw

Would be easier to do this as a flowchart, but the board software ain't that advanced.........