Facts to know before buying a house in Scotland:
Before beginning the search for the house it is important to keep an Agreement in Principle for the mortgage, it is considered as confirmation that your lender is prepared to provide you a mortgage till a specific limit subject to conditions. This amount limit is based on your income just the way it is in other parts of UK. Without Agreement in Principle, any of your offers on property are not likely to be taken seriously.
In case of selling houses in England and Wales, the vendor may have to settle for a less price than the original asking price. According to the system in Scotland, the vendor sets a fixed price and invites the offers higher than this via secret bidding, a sealed bidding system. In other parts of UK this kind of secret bidding system is normally applicable for those properties which are very expensive or desirable.
According to the Scottish system, when your offer is accepted you come under an obligation immediately to buy that house and this is where the Agreement in Principle is needed. In Scotland, as soon as a vendor accepts the buyers offer he is committed to the deal and thereby the chance for the vendor accepting a higher offer for somebody else gets removed.
In buying or selling homes in Scotland, the solicitors play a big role and in most cases they act as a selling agent than an estate agent.
Like the other parts of UK purchase of house is much the same but when looking for properties what you have to pay minimum is the advertised price and in Scotland it is not the starting point for downwards bargaining.
As a buyer, as soon as you find a property to make an offer you need to appoint a solicitor who will contact the selling agent to ask "note interest". What you need to do after this is getting back to your lender and giving details of the property you intend to buy and finalise your mortgage application.
Before making an offer is it highly recommended that you make a survey of the property because as soon as you make an offer you get committed to buy the house and you need to get as much details as possible about its condition. Depending on the results of the survey you can decide how much to offer.
In Scottish system you might end up paying for surveys for more than one property as there is no guarantee that your offer will get accepted.
On receiving notification of interest from the buyers, the seller's solicitor announces a closing date which is the last date of receiving all offers. After this the vendor accepts the highest bid and from this point both the parties get committed.
When the offer is accepted, the solicitor of the buyer concludes the missive and on agreeing upon all the details of the sale the buyer becomes responsible for the house. Once the monies are transferred, the title deed is signed and vendor's solicitor legally transfers the ownership of the property to the buyer by handing over the keys as well as the "disposition document".
About the Author:
Rowan Saunders is a real estate advisor who has been in this field for fifteen years by now. He has a thorough knowledge of real estate market trend in UK and the latest developments in this field of Homes to Rent. He has written a number of articles and blogs on real estate market. His study helps us to understand the current real estate market scenario in UK.
