Need basic advice for buying/selling in Scotland

aaz01

Currently in my first house, which I bought as a new-build.
I want to buy another (not new) house and sell mine.

There are some blanks in my understanding of how this works, I'd appreciate if anyone can answer these questions

1) In order to put in a formal offer on the house (which is "offers over") I understand that I need a solicitor... How much will this cost, and when do I pay?

2) Apart from writing up the formal offer, what else does the solicitor do before/after the offer?

3) I have a mortgage agreement in principle... Assuming my offer is accepted, what happens next? Will the mortgage provider ask me to pay for survey/valuation or anything like that?

4) What happens if it all falls through, but the solicitor/mortgage provider has already done some work like writing up offers? Do they just wait until I find another house I like even if it's next year?

5) For selling my home, I understand that typical estate agent fees are 1-2%. What does this include? If I go with Purple Bricks, what am I losing out on (if anything)?

6) Other than the above (solicitor / mortgage company / estate agent) what other things/costs are there? I know I need to get a home report done - anything else?

Many thanks

ScottishSaver14

Hi there,

Afraid I can only offer advice from the buying point of view. You'll have to factor in extra steps /costs for selling, however most ask if you're selling as part of the initial chat .

1) In order to put in a formal offer on the house (which is "offers over") I understand that I need a solicitor... How much will this cost, and when do I pay?

It depends on the price of the property. Contact a few solicitors and find out if they have a standard cost for residential conveyancing. This will be around 400-700+ VAT in my experience. There shouldn't be a limit on how many offers you can make etc, but check this.

Searches and other bits and bobs are extra and land registry fee depends on the price of the house .

As a total, for a purchase price of 230000 expect between 2-3000.


2) Apart from writing up the formal offer, what else does the solicitor do before/after the offer?

Searches, boundries , paperwork, dealing with money/deposit, queries to seller, contracts etc.

3) I have a mortgage agreement in principle... Assuming my offer is accepted, what happens next? Will the mortgage provider ask me to pay for survey/valuation or anything like that?

If you want to do your own survey, this is when you do it.

Then apply for the mortgage based on the final price negotiated. Home report valuation is usually accepted in Scotland for mortgage purposes

4) What happens if it all falls through, but the solicitor/mortgage provider has already done some work like writing up offers? Do they just wait until I find another house I like even if it's next year?

Not sure, sorry, but I imagine here will be fees

5) For selling my home, I understand that typical estate agent fees are 1-2%. What does this include? If I go with Purple Bricks, what am I losing out on (if anything)?

PB tend not to push viewings etc. A good local agent can make a big difference im told

6) Other than the above (solicitor / mortgage company / estate agent) what other things/costs are there? I know I need to get a home report done - anything else?

In Scotland the home report for the house you're buying is done by the seller (so you will need to sort one for your current house)

Our costs for buying are: solicitor, mortgage app fee, broker, survey (us instructing)

Hope this helps

ScottishSaver14

Oops. Forgot to say, solicitor fees are payable on completion in most cases, unless you cancel the process in guessing , and will include all fees


Any good solicitor will ensure you know thr total way in advance.

davidmcn

Firstly, you give the impression that you're thinking of buying before selling, which isn't a sensible way of going about it - sellers aren't going to take your offer very seriously if you haven't got a buyer for your own house.

aaz01 wrote: »

1) In order to put in a formal offer on the house (which is "offers over") I understand that I need a solicitor... How much will this cost, and when do I pay?

If you mean the cost merely of submitting the offer, in effect nothing as it usually forms part of the total fee for the purchase and you pay the whole fee on the date of entry. And solicitors will usually include some unsuccessful offers as part of a fixed fee.

2) Apart from writing up the formal offer, what else does the solicitor do before/after the offer?

Answer all your preliminary questions (like these ones!), give any initial advice about the property in question, formally note your interest with the estate agent (if you're not submitting the offer immediately e.g. because it's going to go to a closing date), advise on the price to offer, any issues brought up by the Home Report and what conditionality to add to the offer, submit the offer, report to you on the response and carry out any further negotiation on the price / date of entry / included items etc, carry out due diligence in relation to titles, searches, and report on those to you, draft deeds, advise you on the sellers' qualified acceptance and negotiate the final terms of the contract, deal with your lender's requirements and report to them, prepare a completion statement and deal with money-laundering requirements (particularly with any additional funds coming from you), prepare and submit your LBTT return, arrange settlement, chase up the other parties as appropriate, register the deeds. Much of those ought to be familiar to you anyway given you have previously bought a property (though the process is a bit different for newbuilds).

3) I have a mortgage agreement in principle... Assuming my offer is accepted, what happens next? Will the mortgage provider ask me to pay for survey/valuation or anything like that?

Possibly, but it depends on the lender and the mortgage product you're going for. If your offer is accepted then you'll need to submit a full application for the specific property and taking into account the agreed price.

4) What happens if it all falls through, but the solicitor/mortgage provider has already done some work like writing up offers? Do they just wait until I find another house I like even if it's next year?

As above, probably, though it will depend on the amount of work they've done and what the delay is.

5) For selling my home, I understand that typical estate agent fees are 1-2%. What does this include? If I go with Purple Bricks, what am I losing out on (if anything)?

Shop around as there are various different feeing structures. For traditional estate agents I would expect more like 1% (or maybe a bit less) commission (plus VAT), probably a fixed fee for the Home Report, maybe some other modest charges for preparing marketing material etc.

6) Other than the above (solicitor / mortgage company / estate agent) what other things/costs are there? I know I need to get a home report done - anything else?

LBTT and registration costs for your purchase, search costs for your sale (all paid via your solicitor). Possibly things like getting copies of local authority consents, indemnity policies if there is anything missing in the paperwork or title oddities.

ProDave

Don't forget all houses in Scotland now come with a home report and a valuation. Let that report and valuation guiide you how much to offer, not the estate agents price. Many houses are offered for less than the HR value but "offers over"

Unless the market has suddenly woken up, much of the Scottish housing market remains subdued and I don't see much if anything selling for more than the home report value.

davidmcn

ProDave wrote: »

Unless the market has suddenly woken up, much of the Scottish housing market remains subdued and I don't see much if anything selling for more than the home report value.

Really depends where you are, there are various markets in Scotland and the popular areas in Glasgow and Edinburgh are still featuring closing dates and selling prices significantly above the HR valuation.