Do we have to have our house on the market to be able to view other houses?

fewcloudy

GlasgowExpat2 said:

The problem with the Scotland system is the offers over.  Flats near me are on for offers over £190k, home report says £225k but they will probably be sold for over £250k. 

I don't want to sidetrack the thread, but what is the problem with Offers Over? Maybe if someone was unfamiliar with the Scottish process I suppose, but I'd be pretty lost in the English house buying/selling system until I understood it.
I have bought (and sold) at Fixed Price before, here in Edinburgh. 

boots_babe

Scotbot said:

boots_babe said:

Even pre-Covid, surely a vendor doesn't want people traipsing around their house if they're not proceedable and able to actually make a meaningful offer? And of course with Covid that makes it even more understandable.

I must admit I don't understand at all the approach of first finding your dream house, and only then putting yours on the market. Surely by doing it that way round, you run a very high likelihood you'll be unable to find a buyer on your own house and put an offer in on the one you want, before it is sold? So it seems like you'll only end up disappointed.

I could now buy my next house with cash. I will only buy a property that ticks every box. If I sell my house first my buyer could  be waiting a long time. I have seen a property on line I like. 18 months ago I would just have organised to view it. Now I have to show my investments to the EA which I am not comfortable with. Lord knows what the vendor will say. Surely people don't view houses just for fun?

Then that's a completely different situation. The OP was asking about a case where they need to sell in order to complete an onward purchase.

Of course where someone is a true cash buyer with no linked sale, then that's a totally different kettle of fish.

Ashworks

Scotbot said

I could now buy my next house with cash. I will only buy a property that ticks every box. If I sell my house first my buyer could  be waiting a long time. I have seen a property on line I like. 18 months ago I would just have organised to view it. Now I have to show my investments to the EA which I am not comfortable with. Lord knows what the vendor will say. Surely people don't view houses just for fun?

They absolutely do. My parents had their house on the market a couple of years ago (beautiful big house in the Peak District) and their agents filtered out lots of people wanting to view who had no ability to buy, but were just nosey and fancied a nice day out in the countryside. A couple of people even lied and said they could afford it, then admitted to my parents they just wanted a look! The same happened to my friend who has a fabulous house. It doesnt seem to cross people's minds that they are causing the seller unnecessary effort.

Lou76

davidmcn said:

Suseka97 said:

boots_babe said:

I must admit I don't understand at all the approach of first finding your dream house, and only then putting yours on the market. Surely by doing it that way round, you run a very high likelihood you'll be unable to find a buyer on your own house and put an offer in on the one you want, before it is sold? So it seems like you'll only end up disappointed.

Certainly I find the system in the UK to be a bit of a minefield to navigate - as opposed to binding offers in Scotland, but I can't see it changing anytime soon.  

Scotland is still in the UK (there's a clue in the name!). 

And despite popular mythology, offers in Scotland are not immediately "binding" - in practice you still have to wait until both parties are happy to commit themselves. Which will tend to be earlier than in England /Wales (and generally the whole process is faster), but often still a last minute thing before completion. 

Scotland's not as easy to buy in, as it once was.

I bought my first flat in 2002, didn't have a clue about house buying, just knew I was going to be able to afford a mortgage on my own, but not renting on my own.

Anyway, bid on a few properties that were offers over, not realising that it meant bidding 15%- 20% above the price.

Finally found a fixed price property to bid on (there was a reason for that 🥴) and phoned my Lawyer to put in an offer.  At that point I was told, if it was accepted [over the phone] it was legally binding. 

Needless to say it was accepted (30 minute later had a call to say it was legally binding), and I was bound by it before ever signing anything, the only thing I had was my valuation survey- before the days of Homebuyer reports.

Since then things have changed, as far as I can see, it's much more like the English system in so far as gazumping, signing missives etc, but still the offers over exists.

One thing that seems to still exist though, not that I've bought proper for 9 years, so may be wrong, is that you can report an issue and it's the seller's responsibility e.g heating not working etc.

Although I believe that's also been reduced; used to be 28/14 days, now you have 7 days to report??

Was great as a buyer, having those 28/14 days to find out something wasn't working, but not so great as the seller. 🤣

Lou76

fewcloudy said:

GlasgowExpat2 said:

The problem with the Scotland system is the offers over.  Flats near me are on for offers over £190k, home report says £225k but they will probably be sold for over £250k. 

I don't want to sidetrack the thread, but what is the problem with Offers Over? Maybe if someone was unfamiliar with the Scottish process I suppose, but I'd be pretty lost in the English house buying/selling system until I understood it.
I have bought (and sold) at Fixed Price before, here in Edinburgh. 

Possibly not a problem now, as people are armed with the internet and sites such as this.

However, back in 2002, when I was a FTB, I was getting Estate Agents phoning me about properties that were within budget, and I had to pay for a survey before putting an offer in, only to find out [the hard way] that ofo meant adding 15%- 20% on, therefore pricing me out.

Back then you only knew how much a property sold for is if you heard word of mouth.

Granted, that was almost 20 years ago, so may be different now, but back then it gave us a false sense of security when paying for a survey and bidding on something we, realistically couldn't afford.

Either way, I dare say the EA's benefited from our naivety...

fewcloudy

Lou76 said:

Possibly not a problem now, as people are armed with the internet and sites such as this.

However, back in 2002, when I was a FTB, I was getting Estate Agents phoning me about properties that were within budget, and I had to pay for a survey before putting an offer in, only to find out [the hard way] that ofo meant adding 15%- 20% on, therefore pricing me out.

Back then you only knew how much a property sold for is if you heard word of mouth.

Granted, that was almost 20 years ago, so may be different now, but back then it gave us a false sense of security when paying for a survey and bidding on something we, realistically couldn't afford.

Either way, I dare say the EA's benefited from our naivety...

We were FTB 10 years earlier, in 1992, and yes we too paid for a few surveys only to lose out to a higher bid.

We soon got very good at valuing houses that's for sure, and it actually became the norm here to put in an offer "subject to survey" i.e. if our offer was accepted/the highest, only then would we commission a survey, and could withdraw from the sale if the survey found problems.

I would say it was the surveyors that were laughing all the way to the bank under that old system, and it was no surprise to see them sobbing into their beer at the introduction of the Home Report in 2008.  Chancers, the lot of them! 

youth_leader

I sold at traditional auction and had 33 viewings in terrible weather last February/March, my carpets really suffered, shoe covers were ignored.  I was angry when the young viewing agent told me that one viewer had said she liked the house so much 'she was going straight home to put her house on the market'.  I went to auction for speed, and thought that all viewers would have had their finances in place.  

powerful_Rogue

We were able to view our dream house before we had put ours on the market. As soon was we saw it, ours went up for sale.

We also remortgaged on a sell to buy mortgage, to release the funds so we could offer and buy before ours had actually sold.