Selling a house
When it comes to selling a house, there are a number of stages in the process. Before you even put your house on the market, we recommend you get in touch with us to make us aware that you’re selling. When you do that, we’ll discuss what we need to do and explain the process to you. Our aim is to make the entire process as seamless as possible for you.
We’ll look after your interests from the time you receive the offer until you hand over the keys at settlement.
Selling a house - First steps
The very first step we’ll take is to order up your title deeds. More recent titles are available through the Registers of Scotland in electronic form whilst older titles are mainly in paper form. If you have a mortgage, we’ll contact your lender to let them know we’re representing you and we’ll ask them to tell us how much is outstanding on your mortgage.
What happens when an offer arrives?
We’ll send you a copy of the Offer and explain it to you. There are lots of technical conditions that we’ll discuss with you and we’ll then issue what’s called a Qualified Acceptance. That means you’re accepting the offer but subject to certain conditions. It’s then up to the buyer’s lawyer to accept those conditions on behalf of the buyer. The contract to sell is only completed once you and the buyer have accepted each other’s conditions. Up until then either party can walk away from the deal. Lawyers call this stage the “Missives” stage in your sale and when the contract is agreed, you’ll hear us refer to this as “Missives being concluded”.
Title questions and transfer of title
The next stage in the process involved us exhibiting your title to the buyer’s solicitors and answering any questions they might have. We also agree the terms of the deed you’ll sign to transfer ownership of the property to the buyer. We’ll be in touch with you from time to time during this part of the process and explain some of the questions being asked and may ask for your response. Once we’re happy with the deed transferring ownership of the property, we’ll ask you to sign it – but we’ll hold onto it until we receive the price on the date of entry
Settling your sale
When the date of entry arrives – the date your sale completes, we’ll receive the price from the buyer’s solicitor and we’ll send them your titles and the signed deed. We’ll authorise you to release the keys to the buyer and we’ll repay any mortgage that’s outstanding over the property. We’ll deduct our fees and the expenses of your sale and then we’ll then either send the net proceeds to you or use them for your deposit for your new home.
The basics of selling a house are pretty straight forward. However, we need to depend on the buyer and the buyer’s solicitor to co-operate in the sale. We also have to depend on the buyer’s Lender providing mortgage funds to allow the buyer to complete the purchase. All of these things can have an impact on your sale and we will do our very best to achieve settlement on the date of entry as planned.
Thinking about selling a house?
Contact us first and we’ll guide you along every step of the way