Under Offer / Sold SSTC

MadMonkey

What's the difference and when does one become the other ?

Also can someone break down the process from offer to moving day please in simple terms ?;)

otter1_2

I'd appreciate any help with the second question in particular, too, thank you! Just had our offer accepted on Friday.

pink_muppet

I think the difference between under offer and sstc is simply agreeing a price for sale and progressing to having valuation/surveys done and a mortgage in place (or other funds) to go through with the sale

The process in simple terms is (if everything proceeds smoothly!)

Offer accepted
sort out mortgage agreement in principle (if needing one)
instruct solicitor
lenders valuation/survey done
solicitor gains local authority searches and receives draft copy of contract from your vendors solicitor
solicitor may raise any queries from the contract and discuss with you
mortgage offer comes through to you and your solicitor if valuation ok
survey comes through to you if you have had one done
once solicitor is happy with all searches/contract etc, he will discuss with you and your vendors solicitor a date for completion
then you can go in to sign your copy of the contract and this is exchanged with your vendors solicitor
from this point the sale is legally binding, if you or your vendor back out you/he is liable to pay 10% of purchase price plus costs for failing to complete
completion (the day you move) usually happens a week or so after exchange

hope this helps!

Gillibobs

MadMonkey wrote: »

What's the difference and when does one become the other ?

Also can someone break down the process from offer to moving day please in simple terms ?;)

As far as I am aware under offer means that someone has put in an offer on a property that has yet to be accepted. Sold STC is when an offer has been accepted and the property is taken off the market prior to exchange of contracts. I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong although this is what I understand it to be.

We have just exchanged contracts on the sale of our property and basically once we had the offer accepted we instructed the solicitor to start the conveyancing process. They will liase with the vendors solicitor in terms of sorting out the contracts, searches and any other paperwork and liasing with the mortgage lender etc. You need to sort out your mortgage offer asap and get a survey done as this also shows the vendor you are a serious buyer and not likely to pull out (not sure if your vendor has taken the property off the market yet, but some - including ourselves stated that it would stay on until the survey had been done) Once all surveys and searches have been done and both you and the vendor have signed the completed contracts then these will be exchanged and deposit paid. Once this has happened neither party can pull out without losing the deposit which is usually quite a large amount of money depending on price of the house. You will then sort out a moving day (or completion) between yourselves and any other parties in the chain which is usually a week or so after exchange.

There is a lot of paperwork involved in the process but your solicitor is being paid to sort everything out so it's not really something you have to think about too much. Solicitors can be quite slow (it will be nearly 3 months since offer to completion for our sale/purchase including xmas period) so you do need to keep bugging them if you want to get everything sorted as quickly as possible. We hired a solicitor based only round the corner so we could post returned paperwork through their door saving time through the post.

Hope this helps and good luck with the process

Doozergirl

Under Offer and SSTC are both the same thing. It's just different agent speak.

OLS

Doozergirl wrote: »

Under Offer and SSTC are both the same thing. It's just different agent speak.

And we all know the agents speak Rubbish!!

The property we were proceeding to buy (which we have no lost due to our buyer pulling out last minute) had a SOLD STC sign up on the board, and also on the Agents website. I rung the Agent and said to them, if anything were to fall through, would they take my details and let me know, they said no as it was sold, I pointed out it was SSTC and they refused to take my details. So I got a pen and paper, wrote a note, explaining the agents wouldnt take my details but we were interested and if the sale were to fall through to contact me, I popped it through the box. The next day the owner rung me, said could go for viewing as it wasnt even SSTC, they had an offer, accepted but it never went further (i.e no survey, no AIP Mortgage) and he had told the people who made the offer to s*d off 1 week earlier!! He accepted our lower offer as he was saving on EA fees as has promptly taken it off the market with them!

So the moral of the story is, if there is a property you are interested in, pop a note and say to contact you if anything falls through / changes - you may strike it lucky!:beer:

AndrewSmith

Having previously spent many a 'happy' year working in estate agency I can tell you there is no difference at all. It is just, as Doozer says, estate agency speak. It is down to the preference of the agents which they seem to prefer to use.

At the end of the day all they both mean is that an offer has been received on the property.

It is the same as a mortgage 'Decision in Principle or Agreement in Principle'. They are one in the same.

CHR15

So you can still wade in and Gazump them?

Jorgan_2

CHR15 wrote: »

So you can still wade in and Gazump them?

If you want to, yes you can.

CHR15

Jorgan wrote: »

If you want to, yes you can.

Need to change my Search Filter on Rightmove!