Quite the start

fewcloudy

AnotherJoe said:

From how you've described it there does t's eem to be much difference plus there's certainly soem confusion for example if peopel will pay above the home valuation price because it's especially desirable and likely o appreciate in price why isn't that already factored into the home valuation price?
and if it's a crummy place in a bad area and people  offer under the valuation (I presume that happens) then is that any difference to England? It's just that a different person has arbitrarily valued it. 
so I think I agree with your friend it's just another way of saying "asking price" with TBF one key difference it's agreed what a mortgage company will value it at whereas that can go wrong with the English system. .  So that's definitely better. 
The other big difference is also in the way the legalities work (better IMO)

@AnotherJoe
The Home Report valuation is a surveyors estimate of what the house is worth.
The actual/real value is what the winning bidder pays for it. Depending on location etc. that can be a lot higher that the surveyors estimate.

Because of the way the Scottish system works (basically blind bidding, and no idea if you are the only bidder, or one of many) it is really akin to being at an auction, except the buyers are sitting in different rooms unaware of how many other bidders there are if any, and they only have one bid they can make. The auctioneer/surveyor gives an estimate of what they think the house is worth beforehand, but when the hammer comes down it is very possible that the "estimate" seems woefully low. Of course some "items/houses" fail to reach the estimate, or only sell very close to it. Some are massively higher.  But the surveyor cannot factor in that someone might be prepared to offer a hefty price.

I bought my current house about a year before the crash in 2009, and I paid almost 30% over the Offers Over price for it. I was only able to do that by using equity from the previous house sale, which sold for 100% more than I had paid for it only 6 years earlier. But further back in time I've bought, and sold, at Fixed Price before, when the market is flat.