Scotland FTB - buying outright, advice needed.

fart

Well that was quick....apparently the firm interest is from us and one other party and they've decided to set a closing date.

I know how much the property is worth to me, so i'm willing to offer 10% over the value, which will be £7k over the 'offers above' price the property is being marketed at.

It's a balancing act between offering just enough to get the property but without paying more than we would have needed to...is it a case of just come to the maximum price we're willing to pay and bite the bullet and offer it whilst hoping for the best???

Closing date is a week today.

beecher2

fart wrote: »

When you say 'strongest' what do you mean? We can obviously prove via accounts etc that we have the dosh waiting - does this make our offer strong etc as the cash is readily available?

If I was selling and in a hurry, I'd be looking at a cash buyer as the strongest bidder. Problem is you can't get into the head of a corporate body which is selling a repo, so best to try to switch off from that aspect.

Only you know what the property's worth to you - I can understand you wanting to pay over the odds though I'm sure many people will say you're unwise to do so. At least it is all moving very quickly.

fart

beecher2 wrote: »

If I was selling and in a hurry, I'd be looking at a cash buyer as the strongest bidder. Problem is you can't get into the head of a corporate body which is selling a repo, so best to try to switch off from that aspect.

Only you know what the property's worth to you - I can understand you wanting to pay over the odds though I'm sure many people will say you're unwise to do so. At least it is all moving very quickly.

Thanks for the advice pal.

And yeh i'm sure people will say i'm unwise to do so, but the average selling price in the area for the last 6 months is £79k, and in the last 12 months is £77k, so (with knowing how much i need to pay to get it into tip top condition) having done my finances i know it's easily worth the extra to us, especially as we're saving nearly £10k in rent for the first 12 months we'll be in there. Every month we stay here while we can afford to buy is just burning money for us.

If it's a choice between paying £5k over the value or staying here/paying more for another house that isn't as ideal for us then i'd rather just stump it up. We're thinking of staying there for at least 3 years anyway so hopefully we will get our money back (not really too bothered about profiting on it).

googler

fart wrote: »

Cheers pal - i've just sorted the solicitor who's currently putting in our opening bid.

Pretty sure we've gone in higher than someone else would have done, but even though this may be the case, would they still choose to go to a closing date to encourage a bidding 'war'?

Ie, if they offered 3K less than us, will they chance their arm hoping to squeeze a bit more or would they just accept ours because it's more?

There's no to-ing and fro-ing after the closing date/time, no bidding war after that. You put your offer in, and it's assessed by the agent shortly after the time, with the successful party informed shortly after decision.

fart

googler wrote: »

There's no to-ing and fro-ing after the closing date/time, no bidding war after that. You put your offer in, and it's assessed by the agent shortly after the time, with the successful party informed shortly after decision.

Ah yeh but as far as i understand it, the closing date encourages an upping of offers.

For example, if i think something is worth £55k to me, and it's on the market for £51k, i could offer £55k (my best price) even though the other person offered £51,500 and £53k would have probably done the job....if that makes sense?

Putting a closing date encourages this rather than just telling me whether my bid is the best or not....i thought?

For this property the maximum we'll pay is £62k, but our original offer was £57k, bang on valuation but £2k over the asking price...someone could have offered £56k for all we know and the £57k bid could be the best one, but now they've put a closing date on it we're kinda forced to either offer our best price or just guess as to what we think will secure the property.

I_have_spoken

Remind me when family members bought a flat a few years back. Lots of interest, went to sealed bid.

One would-be buyer harangued the seller to take their money there and then, trying to close the deal. The seller said it was only fair to await all bids on set date.

My relative took a calculate risk in bidding just over £120,000 which back in 2006 was stamp duty threshold and won by a few £100. The buyer who tried the bully the seller actually bid less!

Ironically, before exchange of missives, stamp duty was raised to £125,000 so they got the house and didn't have to pay tax

fart

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Remind me when family members bought a flat a few years back. Lots of interest, went to sealed bid.

One would-be buyer harangued the seller to take their money there and then, trying to close the deal. The seller said it was only fair to await all bids on set date.

My relative took a calculate risk in bidding just over £120,000 which back in 2006 was stamp duty threshold and won by a few £100. The buyer who tried the bully the seller actually bid less!

Ironically, before exchange of missives, stamp duty was raised to £125,000 so they got the house and didn't have to pay tax

Result :beer:

It would ease our nerves if we could just incrementally bid, but if we have to go in with our max offer then i guess we'll have to close our eyes, do it, and see what happens.

If we bid £62k and it's accepted we'll just convince ourselves that the other person bid £61,500 to make ourselves feel better haha.

fart

So....not quite sure how this stuff works.

They've said they're going to a closing date on Monday, and the conveyancers have been back onto me to confirm they've been told this. The websites with the listing on don't say anything about a closing date though which i find odd considering there's only one day of viewing left (tomorrow) before bidding effectively closes.

Are estate agents known for saying it's going to a closing date if it's not? The estate agent did say on the phone that they were probably going to closing date though before i bid.

Just don't want to be upping my offer when there's no closing date really and would rather they stew with my original offer. Does anyone think it's worth ringing and pretending to be a prospective viewer who wants to view next Wednesday or something to gauge the reaction?

beecher2

I think you should phone your solicitor and ask them for advice. He is the person who will be putting the sealed bid in on your behalf so trust what he's saying.

Remember, no-one will be 'stewing' about your offer if it is a repo. I don't think you should be pretending to be a prospective viewer - just make sure your solicitor is up to date with all the facts as they'll keep you right.

googler

fart wrote: »

So....not quite sure how this stuff works.

They've said they're going to a closing date on Monday, and the conveyancers have been back onto me to confirm they've been told this. The websites with the listing on don't say anything about a closing date though which i find odd considering there's only one day of viewing left (tomorrow) before bidding effectively closes.

If these websites are portals like Rightmove and Zoopla, then they're unlikely to have options catering to the Scots market. Besides which, the agents have got in touch with the folks who've noted interest, yourself included, and they're the ones most likely to offer anyway.....


Are estate agents known for saying it's going to a closing date if it's not?

No, and they certainly wouldn't be contacting your solicitor to say there was a closing date if there wasn't. If they made a habit of stringing other buying and selling agents along in this manner, their name would soon be mud in your area.


Just don't want to be upping my offer when there's no closing date really and would rather they stew with my original offer.

Nobody in the company selling this repo will hear anything about your offer until after the closing date, I'd wager. Probably the only folks who do know about it are your solicitor and the selling agent. Nobody is or will be 'stewing' about it.


Does anyone think it's worth ringing and pretending to be a prospective viewer who wants to view next Wednesday or something to gauge the reaction?

No, for the reasons stated above.

But, as previous poster said - if you're not sure how all this works, talk to your solicitor. He/she's being paid to advise you, to work on your behalf, and to stand his ground to argue your corner if necessary. You're now paying him/her, not us.

Take advantage of his/her experience, and recognise that most folks who post here on property-related matters are in England and Wales, and know little about the Scots system of buying and selling.

Stop trying to second-guess any supposed ulterior motives on the part of the selling agent. This is Scotland, not E&W, and property transactions are for the most part carried out with a degree of honour and good conduct up here.

You may be a FTB, but haven't you got any family who've bought and sold in the past, who you can talk to about how things work?