Whether the purchase of a property represents a home for your family, a downsize, or a buy to let, the sale will be an important purchase.
We have put together a step-by-step guide of the buying process to pre-empt common question and offer time-saving solutions, all with a view to making the buying experience as easy and stress free as possible.
Find a property you like – search our properties for sale here. You will also search on popular property portals Rightmove, Zoopla and S1 homes.
It’s also a good idea to do your research by looking at recently sold prices in the local area and considering how these compare to the property you are interested in. Consider things like inside and outside size and space, key selling features, and overall condition and presentation. This (along with the Home Report valuation), should give you a guide as to what a reasonable offer might be.
You should request the Home Report of the property you are interested in and review it. The Home Report has three sections :
1. A Single Survey – based on the visual inspection by a chartered surveyor, tells you about the home, its condition, its accessibility and any repairs you may need to carry out, either urgently or in the future. You should consider the cost and/or inconvenience of any required repair works. It also gives a valuation (an opinion on how much the home is worth). Though please keep in mind that, depending on the market, in Scotland properties can often achieve in excess of home report value.
2. Property questionnaire – with information on different categories including:
3. An Energy Report – containing an Energy Performance Certificate. This tells you about the house’s energy efficiency and roughly how much heating, lighting and hot water will cost. It also rates environmental impact in terms of carbon dioxide emissions.
If you need a mortgage, get an agreement in principle from your lender. Also known as a ‘Decision in Principle’ (DIP), ‘Mortgage Promise’ or an ‘Agreement in Principle’ (AIP), a mortgage in principle is a certificate or statement from a lender to say that ‘in principle’ they would lend a certain amount to a prospective borrower or borrowers based on some basic information. Sellers will take your offer more seriously if you have this in place, so it puts you in the best position from the outset.
Anthony McGoldrick at Moving is a qualified Mortgage broker. He will assess your affordability and liaise with lenders on your behalf.
You will need to appoint a solicitor to act on your behalf in the purchase of your property. It’s crucially important to get a good solicitor to communicate effectively with you, protect your investment and represent your best interests in the sale transaction. The team at Moving have dealt with many great solicitors over the past decades. We have a panel of trusted solicitors whose details we can provide you with, or you can select you own solicitor.
We will normally confirm your viewing appointment by email so that you have a record of the time and place. Your viewing will take place with either a member of Moving staff or the owner of the property. If you have to cancel a viewing, or are running late, please call our office on 0141 334 7000 and let us know as soon as possible so we can give the person showing you around plenty of notice.
Please feel free to ask as many questions about the property as you’d like at the viewing, although please be aware that if the owners are showing your around, they will direct you back to the moving team if you would like to discuss the asking price or offers.
After a viewing, we’ll be in touch with you to ask for your feedback, and we invite you to be as honest as possible. It really helps us to inform our seller what ‘the market’ feedback is.
If the property is not for you, speaking to us about your preferences may allow us to put forward alternative homes for you to view or alternatively sign you up to our property alerts so that you get early access to all suitable new properties coming to market ahead of the crowd.
If you are interesting in purchasing a property, you should formally note interest via your solicitor. Submitting a Note of Interest is a way of indicating to Moving (and the Seller) that you are interested in submitting an offer on the property.
If you wish to make an offer, please call or email us. We will need to ask you a number of questions relating to your position (is your offer subject to the sale of your own property, for example) and how you are intending to fund the purchase.
You will then instruct your solicitor to make an official offer on your behalf, which will take account of your specific circumstances and detail any specific clauses and requests. We will discuss that offer with the seller and come back to you with their response.
If a number of parties note interest in a property, a closing date may be set for offers to be made. A Closing Date is a time and date, by which all offers on a property should be submitted, in writing, by any interested party’s solicitor. If a closing date is set, and you have noted interest, we will get in touch with you to let you know and give you an opportunity to submit an offer at the Closing Date. You will submit your offer by the allocated time and without knowing what the other parties are offering. We will review all offers submitted and their terms with the seller and take the seller’s instructions on which they wish to accept
If and when your offer is accepted by the seller, we will usually list the property as ‘Under Offer’ on our website and cease viewings.
We will send your offer to the seller’s solicitors and this is the solicitors’ cue to begin the conveyancing process. Your solicitor will guide you through this process. In addition to requesting information from you, they order conveyancing searches and the title deeds for the property you want to purchase, liaise with your proposed mortgage provider regarding finances, and request a pack of information about the property from the sellers’ solicitor. These will all be reviewed, with questions going back and forth until your solicitor is satisfied with the information that they have.
The team at moving will keep lines of communication open throughout this process and are always there to answer any questions that you may have.
Once all parties are satisfied, missives are finalised, finances are lined up and a date of entry is set. The date of entry is the agreed upon day when your solicitor transfers the balance of money to the sellers and the property ownership is transferred to you.
Once we have confirmation from the seller’s solicitor that completion has taken place, we will arrange for keys to be handed over to you. Time for you to open the door to your new home!
omar alfakayh31 January 2024I am very happy with the quality service from Moving Estate Agents. They visited my property prior to put it in the market. They provide me with very helpful advises. They helped me to prepare my property for sale, handled all the viewings. Also, they were very friendly. Highly recommended
Margaret-Mary Morran22 December 2023We used Moving to sell our house in Broomhill and were absolutely delighted with their service. They guided us through the whole process with both professionalism and friendliness and we were able to accept an offer for our house less than three weeks after we had first contacted them. We found everyone we dealt with at Moving honest and straightforward and always felt we knew exactly where we were with them.
Douglas Humphris13 December 2023Very happy with the quality service from Moving Estate Agents. They helped us prepare our property for sale, handled all the viewings and were diligent in the sale process.
Lauren Paterson30 November 2023Excellent service from start to finish. Lovely family run estate agents who were knowledgeable and professional. Would recommend to anyone selling in the future.
dean mcbride30 November 2023Friendly, personal and efficient service with excellent and timely communication throughout the process. Went above and beyond to help when it was needed.
Marco Donatello31 October 2022I would like to recommend this company to anyone looking to sell your property top service and competitive price. Christine and the team provided top class service start to finish couldn’t be happier with this company. Thank you Marco
Jack Drysdale17 July 2022Christine dealt with the sale of my flat and I could not fault her service. From going over the top to secure an excellent sale price substantially over home report . Answering all my questions no matter how late at night, with it being my first time selling a property. I would highly recommend Moving estate Estate agents.
Richard Oxland4 July 2022Great service from Christine - very knowledgeable, friendly, responsive and helpful. I would not hesitate to go with Moving Estate Agents again.
Yvonnemcv1@gmail Craig12530 June 2022Very efficient and helpful Agency. Dealt with my sale effectively and took all the pressure of selling off of myself.
