Scottish house prices - Offers over?

hawfannybaws

I am looking at buying a property in Glasgow but I've noticed that most of the property seems to be advertised as "Offers Over £xxx". What does this mean in the real world? Does it mean that this is the lowest price the vendor will take? How much over the quoted price would be a reasonable offer?

lipidicman

Don't the Scots do a 'sealed bids' type sale? I'll leave it to someone in the know to explain this better than I could

but from http://www.themovechannel.com/howto/sell/receiving-offers.asp

In England, the seller gets the property valued by several estate agents and will often set the initial asking price at, or marginally above the highest valuation. They will usually expect the buyers to come in with offers below the asking price. To Scottish people, this must seem like a backwards way of doing things. In Scotland, the seller will, in consultation with his or her solicitor, set a price and invite offers over and above that price. This is known as the upset price. This is the minimum price at which you are likely to consider an offer. Most properties do not get sold for less than the upset so you can normally dismiss anyone cheeky enough to come in with an offer below that level. It is not uncommon in times and areas of high demand for a property to be sold for ten, twenty, or even thirty percent more than the asking price.

have a look at the site for more details on the sealed blind bids .....HTH

hawfannybaws

So how do you know how much more to offer...seems like a bit of a lottery especially if you have paid for valuations and what not.

R00STER00

The process usually works like this:

- An interested party will note interest through their solicitor;
- The seller will then set a closing date when all who are interested make their bid;
- The winning bidder is notified (not always the highest offer).

The advertised price is definately a minimum and a house will almost never go for less than this. The actual price comes down to lots of factors (e.g. location, amount of interest, condition, time on the market, etc.) and is probably about 5% over the asking price in some areas and can be as much as 50%+ in other cases.

irnbru_2

hawfannybaws wrote:

I am looking at buying a property in Glasgow but I've noticed that most of the property seems to be advertised as "Offers Over £xxx". What does this mean in the real world? Does it mean that this is the lowest price the vendor will take? How much over the quoted price would be a reasonable offer?

This thread might help.

Generally OO means putting in an offer of 10%-30% in excess of the start price.

If your buying in Glasgow, identify your areas ASAP. Then go along to the GSPC site and see whats being asked and compare that to what nethouseprices etc are recording in that area. That should give you a good estimate as to what to offer.

lipidicman

hawfannybaws wrote:

So how do you know how much more to offer...seems like a bit of a lottery especially if you have paid for valuations and what not.

It certainly does, doesn't it?

littlereddevil

Hi roosteroo
In my experience it has always gone to the highest bidder.
When does it not?

And to hawfannybaws

Your solicitor usually advises how much over to offer.It is a real pain in Scotland as you can pay for so many surveys then not get the property.Everything here is selling like hotcakes at the moment

irnbru_2

hawfannybaws wrote:

So how do you know how much more to offer...seems like a bit of a lottery especially if you have paid for valuations and what not.

Thats why its a market - you pay what you believe to be the market rate. Your surveyor should be able to give you a reasonable valuation of the property.

Alternatively, only look at fixed-price properties.

To give you an example from when a relative was looking .......

A property purchased for 100K was 'renovated' and placed at OOs 118K after 4 weeks it went to FP at 160K. It sold a further 3 months later for about 145K.

pollocmc

The process usually works like this:

- An interested party will note interest through their solicitor;
- The seller will then set a closing date when all who are interested make their bid;
- The winning bidder is notified (not always the highest offer).

The advertised price is definately a minimum and a house will almost never go for less than this. The actual price comes down to lots of factors (e.g. location, amount of interest, condition, time on the market, etc.) and is probably about 5% over the asking price in some areas and can be as much as 50%+ in other cases.

This depends on how bouyant the market is and whether the vendors have realistic expectations. From my own point of view, I'm at the signing missives stage of selling my fourth house in glasgow. I've always taken the view that if someone comes in with a good offer then you are taking a risk by turning that away. I have gone to closing dates on buying loads of houses and it quickly becomes very expensive as you have to get a survey done each time. I usually now just make the owner an offer there and then (possibly through solicitor next day) and tell them that the offer is only on the table for 24hrs and I won't be involved in going to a closing date. Otherwise, it really is a lottery except you end up LOSING thousands!!

Whereabouts in glasgow is it and what is the o/o price? Locals will know the state of the market in their area. For example, I'm in quite a desirable locale and (fingers crossed) will get 27% over asking price if all the paperwork is signed. BUT if it is a recently built house with hundreds of similar round about and a lot for sale I would start by offering the o/o price only and see where that gets you. You can still negotiate with people in Scotland we're a friendly bunch really .

HTH

pollocmc

irnbru_2

anneg wrote:

Hi roosteroo
In my experience it has always gone to the highest bidder.
When does it not?

When their solictor phones you back and they withdraw their offer then you start phoning back others to see if they're still interested :mad:

anneg wrote:

Everything here is selling like hotcakes at the moment

Where's that then ?

R00STER00

anneg wrote:

Hi roosteroo
In my experience it has always gone to the highest bidder.
When does it not?

I have a colleague who purchased a place in Newton Mearns last month and his was not the highest offer. The reason he got the house was that he was a FTB and could conclude in 6 weeks. The vendor had move to Australia and preferred to have a guaranteed sale straight away than hold out for a few extra £k with the possiblity of the sale falling through.