Solicitor - House Buying

alienuk

I really appreciate if experts answer my trivial questions. These are questions which are fundamental about conveyancing for buying a property.
1. Offers are going to be closed soon for the property that i have placed an offer. Will my solicitor know the highest bid that is currently in place for the property.
2. My Solicitor gave a hint 'the offer seller may go far is not very far from yours'. He asked if he want to go with the same offer I placed earlier. Question - Do Solicitors try to increase the property value? In otherwords, I was under the impression that he will be helpful and try to finish the offer for a lesser prices.
3. How and on what basis closure date is set on the property...Is there a criteria? say 3 note of interests or 3 offers?
4. Can the seller reject all offers after the closure date and readvertise the property? Is this even a possibility that seller will consider? Do the seller's solicitor communicate the offers to seller regularly.

I do apologize if the questions are basic, but I am a newbie in this area and I would be grateful for genuine answers.
Finally, thanks for your time.

Owain_Moneysaver

Assuming from "closing date" and "note of interest" this is Scotland:

1. Your solicitor will not know the other offers (unless he is also acting for another buyer).

2. Maybe the solicitor is also acting for another buyer, or maybe has had some helpful feedback from the vendor's solicitor or agent. They will not disclose the amount of one offer to another buyer, but a hint that your offer is within striking distance of the highest might be made.

In general solicitors do not negotiate on price for buyers as this might be construed as valuation which is outside their professional expertise. They would probably seek clarification if you instructed them to put in a wildly extravagant offer. They will not try to knock a few £k off the price for you.

3. A closing date is set when the seller's solicitor or agent decides. There are no set criteria. If the agent expects a property to sell quickly (or the buyer needs to sell quickly) they may set an initial closing date as soon as they start marketing the property.

4. A seller is not bound to accept the highest, or any, offer. If none of the offers are satisfactory, or missives cannot be concluded for some reason, the property will be readvertised, although I would expect the seller's agent or solicitor to invite other offers from unsuccessful buyers or noters of interest before going to full remarketing.

A seller's solicitor or agent will pass on offers to the seller promptly, usually by the end of the same business day - unless a closing date has been set, when there is no point informing the vendor until that date has been reached and the vendor can be in possession of all the offers.

Because of the Scottish style of offers, the date of entry stated in the offer is often as important in the price. The seller's solicitor will refuse to negotiate with more than one prospective buyer at a time, so a seller is not in a strong negotiating position to try and renegotiate a date of entry away from that stated in the offer.

davidmcn

Firstly, most people around here are from south of the border (where they do things strangely) and are liable to be confused if you don't highlight that you're talking about procedures in Scotland.

Also, your solicitor is your best port of call for basic questions - it's what you're paying them for.

alienuk wrote: »

1. Offers are going to be closed soon for the property that i have placed an offer. Will my solicitor know the highest bid that is currently in place for the property.

No, only the selling agent (usually) knows, and in any event those offers are liable to change immediately before the closing date.

Do Solicitors try to increase the property value?

Not really, though it's helpful for them (and you) if you submit an offer which is accepted, so they may try to guide you away from unrealistically low offers.

3. How and on what basis closure date is set on the property...Is there a criteria? say 3 note of interests or 3 offers?

Entirely up to the sellers, though it's a waste of time if there aren't going to be competing offers so generally they'll wait until there are at least a couple of people keen to offer.

4. Can the seller reject all offers after the closure date and readvertise the property?

In theory yes, though more likely they'd try to negotiate with the highest bidder(s).

Do the seller's solicitor communicate the offers to seller regularly.

Yes.

alienuk

Many Apologies, this question is for Scotland.

Thanks for your answers.