Read on as Jenny Carswell, Regional Sales Manager at egg partner Gilson Gray, brings you up to speed.
Read All About It
Before you can market your home, you’ll need to get a Home Report. The Home Report will be conducted by a Surveyor (appointed by your Estate Agent) following a visit to your home, but it also contains a Property Questionnaire for you to complete.
Gilson Gray has strong relationships with a number of trusted, RICS regulated, Chartered Surveying firms across Scotland so you can be assured that your Home Report valuation is accurate. This is important as you take the next step towards putting your home on the market.
Money Talks
The Scottish pricing system can seem complicated at first glance, but your Estate Agent will help you to decide to list your property at a ‘fixed price’ or ‘offers over’ – or, sometimes, ‘overs around’.
“When a property is listed as ‘Fixed price’ this means that the property is typically sold to the first person to offer the advertised price,” explains Jenny. “While ‘Offers over’ means you sell to the highest bidder. Bids can also be submitted at a closing date, which is set by the seller, when they feel there is enough interest in their property to do so.”
So, how do you go about setting an asking price? “Your agent will help determine the asking price once the Home Report is ready. In Edinburgh and the Lothians, properties are often set with offers over pricing around £5,000 - £10,000 below the valuation. This strategy is highly effective, as buyers will often search for homes within a pricing bracket of around £50,000 above and below their budget, increasing your property’s visibility and attracting more interest.”
115 Milligan Drive Edinburgh EH16 4XD - Gilson Gray
Marketing Matters
Marketing is essentially the process of promoting a property so that it’s seen buy your potential buyer. It covers everything from getting your photographs taken and writing up the perfect description of your home, to arranging for your listing to go live on the right property portals. “At Gilson Gray we use ESPC, Rightmove, Zoopla and OnTheMarket as well as our social media platforms for maximum visibility of your home,” says Jenny.
Gilson Gray has an in-house team that support with getting listings live and sharing properties online. “Firstly, there’s a questionnaire to fill in about your property – this gives us the information we need to write about it and what to put in the particulars (the fine print of what exactly is being sold beyond the bricks and mortar. We require details including factoring costs, council tax band and maintenance costs – as well as a list of items that you’d like to leave or take with you such as curtains and light fittings. The general rule is that anything that’s attached has to stay – but there can always be exceptions,” explains Jenny.
“In addition, all of our listings receive a special egg mention which involves the team at egg writing about your property when sharing it with their extensive audience on Facebook. This is a fantastic way to promote your property and it’s exclusive to egg members!”
The Photographs
Your photographs are a hugely important part of selling your home. Your Estate Agent will put you in touch with a photographer/videographer that they recommend.
Photographs are the first impression of your home to potential buyers so, the more that you can do to make your property presentable, the better. Have a good tidy and a clean before your photography appointment so that your home can be captured in its best possible light.
129 Lanark Road West Currie EH14 5NZ - Gilson Gray
The Viewings
Once your home is on the market, interested parties will want to come and see it so you’ll need to be on hand, or instruct your Estate Agency to arrange for these to be conducted for you.
“If you’re unable to manage viewings personally, we offer a viewing agent service to assist at a competitive price,” adds Jenny. “Our viewing agents go in to each property fully informed on the history and key features, ready to answer any questions that the viewers may have.”
Closing The Deal
If an interested party decides they want to buy your property, then they can submit an offer or a note interest via their solicitor to your estate agent. You can either accept the offer as it is, or ask your estate agent to negotiate on your behalf for a slightly higher offer. Your estate agent will always work to get the best possible price for your home!
Alternatively, you can wait for there to be enough notes of interest on the property that you feel comfortable setting a closing date. The closing the date is the date by which all offers must be submitted, with the highest bidder typically being successful at the end of the day.
Weighing It Up
Once the formal offers have been made, you then need to consider what’s on the table – remember you don’t have to accept an offer or the highest. Take the buyers position into consideration (are they yet to sell their home are they a cash buyer?) and also any conditions they’ve attached to their offer such as a moving date or the need for a more in-depth survey.
“Take a holistic view and accept the one that’s best for you – or if the person who made the highest offer has added conditions you can’t meet - ask your solicitor to see if they’re open to negotiation,” says Jenny. Once you have an offer you're happy with, your solicitor will send a letter called a 'qualified acceptance' – detailing any conditions you attach to you agreeing to sell to them - to formally accept it and fire the starting gun on the next phase of the legal process.
Reaching The Finish Line
Concluding Missives. You’ll hear this term a lot. Essentially, once you’ve accepted an offer, your solicitor will work on all the legal aspects of the sale and send each other a series of letters called 'missives'.
This process will include the buyer’s solicitor doing various searches on the property, checking for historic planning permissions and finding out about any works due to be carried out nearby. Be prepared to answer any questions and have a think how much those curtains mean to you – in case you’re asked to leave them. Once you're both happy with the conditions you will be in a position to conclude missives, a binding contract between buyer and seller, after which point neither can withdraw without penalties. It may sound scary but this is an exciting milestone!
At this point, the conveyancing (the legal process of transferring a property from one owner to the next) starts – the process of actually transferring ownership. As part of this, the buyer's solicitor will inspect the deeds to your home, dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s in terms of checking there are no legal limitations that may affect the sale.
New title deeds (the documents which prove the ownership of a property) are then drawn up ownership is transferred.
After that it’s a case of the money from the sale being transferred, your existing mortgage being repaid, and any profits being paid to yourself (your solicitor will take care of all of us). The only thing to worry about after that is collecting your keys on the agreed date of entry.
Timing is Everything
“From initially getting your property valued to being live on the market, we aim to get it up and running in just ten working days,” says Jenny. “There are several stages to this - receiving the formal Home Report form your surveyor, getting photography and videography done, as well as ordering signage and agreeing the brochure wording. We will always work to go live on a specific day if you are under pressure or alternatively if you are not in a hurry, we will get everything ready for when it suits you.”
At the moment, houses in Edinburgh take on average 24 days to go under offer according to latest data from the ESPC. The only key thing to note is that a Home Report is deemed to be out of date after 12 weeks, at which point you’ll need to get it updated which will incur an additional fee.
“Our advice is to leave as much time as possible before you ‘need’ to sell – to put yourself in the best position possible,” she says. “But we understand that this is real life, and often there are pressures to sell in a specific timeframe, especially if you’ve got your heart set on the house of your dreams and need to sell your current one to secure it.”
All being well, in Scotland it typically takes around 6-8 weeks from accepting an offer to keys being handed over to the new purchasers – but every sale and purchase is different, so timescales will always depend on individual circumstances. Gilson Gray are here to guide you and offer support whenever you need us!
For more information on home-buying, selling or renting across Scotland, visit gilsongray.co.uk or email [email protected]. You can also call their women-strong team on 0131 516 5366.
All eggs can benefit from 10% off residential conveyancing fees. So, if you’re looking to buy a property, just quote 'egg' when you email. All egg members also receive a whopping £400 discount on houses valued up to £400k, and a further 10% discount on values thereafter. Landlords receive 50% discount off management fees for 12 months if you're a paying member, 25% off for non-paying egg members. For all enquiries and valuation requests please email [email protected]. Free online valuation here.
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