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Our free and impartial information service aims to provide you with the answers that are important to you:

How to submit an offer for a property

It's your God given right to haggle - Your in Scotland

To submit an offer for a property you wish to purchase, in Scotland, simply contact your solicitor and provide them with the name of selling agent, the address and reference of the property you wish to buy, the amount you wish to offer and the date of entry (this is the date you will pick up the keys for your new property).

Prior to submitting your offer it is advisable to:

• Have financing in place (Mortgage)
• To have taken advice or had a survey carried out which provides a valuation for the property you wish to purchase

When submitting an offer through your solicitor, if your offer is unsuccessful it is unlikely your solicitor will charge you for this service and this will be absorbed into the conveyancing fee that you've pre- arranged with them.

Once your offer is submitted in writing to the sellers agent - the agent will usually notify your solicitor to advise whether or not your offer has been accepted. Please be patient on this one. Sometimes it can take a couple of days to get feedback from the selling agent.  Usually though, you would expect to hear the same day if your offer was successful - it really depends on the complexity of the offers that have been received by the selling agent and the individual circumstance of the seller.1

Detailed below is some further information about the sort of selling costs you can expect from your solicitor as a selling agent.

A typical selling commission will vary between 0.75% and 2% depending on the property being sold.  However, this fee is always negotiable given the competitive nature of the marketplace. What you must ensure though is that whilst you want to get the lowest commission possible, you also want your agent to take an active interest in selling your property.  After all, if you are only paying them £500 to sell your property - how many man hours will that buy before your property is left to the ever growing number of properties relying on a For Sale board and an internet listing to get them sold.

Think about offering an incentive to the selling agent for a quick sale - normally estate agents will say they'd expect to achieve a given price and a timescale of expectation.  Whilst, none of these statistics are truly going to be the case only time will tell.  However, if they mention them to you ask them to reduce their fee if the price/ time scale is not reached or think about increasing their commission if a price greater than your expectations in a shorter time period is achieved.

Always get at least 3 agents to value a property.  Why?  Because, this will probably be one of the only times you see and talk with your estate agent unless your estate agent conducts the viewings for you. When you meet with your estate agent ask these questions:

• How many properties of this style have sold in this area over the past year and what is the average price achieved?
• How many properties of this style have YOU as an individual sold over the past 2 years?
• How many properties does your office have listed in this area at the moment?
• If I find a buyer for the property myself I don't want to pay your commission (Sole agency agreement) how do you want to set this up?
• How should I conduct the viewings on my property and which rooms should I present first/last to my client?
• Could you provide me with discounted legal fees?
• Where will you advertise my property free of charge?
• You said you are pro-active in selling my property - what does this mean, shouldn't you be proactive anyway?
• Would you recommend newspaper advertising, how much will this cost - do you get a discount?

What these questions are designed to do is to provide the estate agent with an opportunity to explain the benefits in your choosing them as an agent.  If they cannot answer these questions confidently then perhaps you should ask your neighbours or friends to recommend a selling agent.

I realise that in some small towns and villages there may only be one or two estate agents. However, given that you are reading this website - you are on the world wide web and it is reckoned that upto 70% of property buyers use the internet to find their next home so, spend a few hours searching the web until you are satisfied your selection of selling agent is appropriate to your region, budget and personality.

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