House price negotiation ...

"Offers in excess of" is how property is priced in Scotland. The whole process is quite different there, arguably more straightforward than in England and Wales. Solicitors act as estate agents there. If property does not attract the asking price, the solicitor/estate agent might ask for sealed bids from interested buyers. Once an offer has been accepted, that is binding and neither party can go back on it.

Romola

"Offers in excess of" is how property is priced in Scotland. The whole process is quite different there, arguably more straightforward than in England and Wales. Solicitors act as estate agents there. If property does not attract the asking price, the solicitor/estate agent might ask for sealed bids from interested buyers. Once an offer has been accepted, that is binding and neither party can go back on it.

Most properties in Scotland are advertised by estate agents. Verbal acceptance is not binding. The process is:
House prices in Scotland can be advertised in various forms including "Offers Over", "Offers in the Region Of", or "Fixed Price".
If you are interested in purchasing a house your solicitor "Notes an Interest" to the seller's solicitor. You may, or may not, make an offer at this point, if the house is likely to go to a closing date it is better not to offer unless you can offer enough to prevent that happening. Whilst the estate agent and/or solicitor prefers any bids go through them you can negotiate with the seller directly.
A "Closing Date" is the Scottish equivalent of English “Sealed Bids”. If there is enough interest a seller may decide to set a "Closing Date" when the interested parties can submit their best offer.
The contract is not binding by verbal acceptance, the "Missives" (the terms of the contract) are drawn up by the solicitors and the contract is binding once these are exchanged (signed).
I gave sold/purchased a properties both in Scotland and England. Both systems have their positives and negatives but in all cases the support of the solicitor is key. I've completed purchases in Scotland within two weeks, they were exceptionally helpful solicitors and uncomplicated properties

Thank you all, for your advice. I must say, I'm not particularly looking forward to the whole process! It all sounds so stressful!

I did read somewhere that offers of 5-10% less than the asking price were suggested, although I did think that was rather pushing it a bit! I was thinking more in the region of 3-5% wasn't too insulting an offer to begin with? However, I do realise that in a nice location, it's unlikely the vendor will need to reduce the asking price at all.

My DH is someone who likes think he's getting a good deal, whereas I'm more the sort of person who, if I see the house I want, I'd be happy to offer the full asking price! I can see a few arguments brewing! Wish me luck!

Nansnet when my daughter and son in law brought their latest home they paid £12,000 over asking price as they didn't want to lose it as another buyer was going to pay £5,000 over asking price. Once their off was accepted they insisted it was taken off the market.

Also beware of being in a long chain as that has more chance to break . As you are cash buyers you may be better looking at properties of deceased or people who have gone into a home as there won't be a chain but the place will need work.

Make a list of what you are prepared to do and what you don't want to do. Another list of what you want and don't want in your new home eg how many bedrooms,type of property.
List of areas you like and if you can visit the areas. Think of access and weather conditions during different seasons. I live in the north west now we rarely get snow but have very high winds as I live not far from the sea and lot of rain . West Midlands where I moved from the area I lived we always had heavy snow . My last winter there I was snowed in for a week with 9" of snow . Also where I lived was very hilly but here it's flat.

Will this be your forever home if so think about how you will manage as you get older . Also can you manage the property on your own if one of you dies . I know it's a horrible idea but you have to think about things like this especially as you get older .

The other thing to consider when buying a house in a new area, whethr you are moving in the UK (as we are doing at the moment) or coming from abroad, is whether the area you are moving too offers the right opportunity for you to build up a social circle.

We did a prospecting visit and viewed a house area, but apart from the house not being what we wanted, we had a good look round the small town it was in, read noticeboards, looked in shops and did a bit of googling, but in the end crossed the town off our list as well, because to take up activities that we enjoyed we would have to get in our car and drive to one or other of the several local towns nearby.

Do you know the area(s) you might move to? Many places have changed a lot over the last 20 years. I recommend renting somewhere first for a while and getting a idea of the area.

We've always found that finding the right property is the hardest bit and usually there's been a lot of interest. We offer the asking price as long as the house is taken off the market and on one occasion we offered more. However trying to downsize we accepted an offer well over the asking price from someone who had sold theirs STC. We just couldn't find the right property and had to let them down, which I hated doing but we were not prepared to rent.

It goes without saying house purchases are stressful A friend of mine and her husband put their house on the market. It was a 70s house that they had totally renovated some four years ago Close to a bus stop it’s lovely views over the sea
Mother And daughter put in an offer almost immediately. No chain, Cash purchaser and wanted a quick exchange
Sounds good, doesn’t it? But they heard nothing Then we told that the purchases solicitors were not cooperating and we’re very tardy. Was this a scam ? This went on for months then they were advised to put it back onto market by the estate agent And their solicitors. The bungalow they Had an offer in on were going to pull out
They returned from a walk to find that the prospective purchaser was sat in their garden in tears having been told they were going to put the house back on the market. It appears that she had also been told that it was their solicitors that were being so negative and that they didn’t want to sell the house to her
They both agreed to contact their solicitors the following day The sale went through very quickly
In all of that who was to benefit was there by chance another purchaser waiting in the wings to put in a lower offer?
Who knows any thoughts?

Just a thought. If you're relocating from abroad, you need to be on the ball transferring your monies to this country in advance of the purchase date. The funds can get held up while they do checks on money laundering too. We exchanged amounts in chunks bit by bit.

My daughter and her partner had recently bought a house in a lovely village. They and their buyers made the mistake of using the solicitors recommend by the estate agent.

Their solicitors were so incompetent. There was hardly any chain, their buyers were first time buyers and the seller was moving to a park home but the process still took six months.

The estate agent wanted to see the financial evidence - their bank statement showing the deposit for the new house and the mortgage approval in principle before the property they were buying was marked sold online.

If you are transferring money from abroad, you need to transfer below the money laundering threshold, I think it is about £20k per transaction. Check with your bank.

Due to climate change, avoid buying a property near a river even if there was no history of previous flooding.

If you are a cash buyer, you are in a strong position, can put a cheeky offer if the house you are buying is dated in need of modernising with no chain. Usually, buyer offers 10% below asking price.

Beware Sheffield where the custom is to haggle and the price goes up, not down

JackquiOh - I love it - a new take on the fine art of ‘haggling’

The best of luck to you Nansnet!
I would say that you need to have written proof of the availability of funds for your deposit or the total purchase price if you are a cash buyer. You can show this to your solicitor who can confirm to the estate agent that the funds are available. You do not actually need to show this to the estate agent, in my experience if they see you have cash they want to push the price up.
It is important to have a solicitor in whom you have faith, don't under any circumstances use one recommended by the Estate Agent or use a firm of "conveyancers". If you do you may find that you are speaking to a different person every time you call and that nobody knows what is going on.
Ideally, if you have friends in the area you are moving to, use a solicitor recomended by somebody for whom they have acted previously when buying a house.
You can check the sold prices of similar houses in the area on Zoopla or Rightmove though they are just a guide as houses can vary so much.
Not all Estate agents value properties over the price they expect to achieve and if you are moving to a popular area or want to buy a particularly attractive house you may need to offer the asking price to get the property. We did that for our current home as we knew that properties sell very quickly here, usually for the asking price, even when the general property market appears to favour buyers.

Just over a week ago we put our house on the market and I'm already stressed beyond belief. We've had one viewing so far, which was a No.
We've lived in this house (London Borough) for 25 yrs and when we bought the property, in 1999, we moved in within 8 weeks of viewing it
Now, I'm told by our estate agent, that it takes twice as long as that to even get the searches back !
Good Luck

Go and see your prospective house at different times of day. You'll then discover if traffic or road noise is an issue or if the neighbours are noisy when they get home from work etc.

My daughter has just sold her house after confirming that the buyer had all the paperwork in place. She went to sealed bids and was offered 10% over the asking price. Both she and the estate agent were very surprised. This was in the NE where property is usually far cheaper than elsewhere. All the paperwork takes time so I hope it doesn’t drag on.

All the best for your relocation

There are several property sales websites which give additional info on things like demographics of an area, local crime rate, schools, doctors, supermarkets and things - Zoopla, Prime Location, On the Market, Rightmove etc. You can look at sales in the street/ area and check out sold prices and how many have been sold recently. Some offer a rough guide to prices but this often won't map onto actual asking prices, they're often too optimistic. Looking at flood risk is also useful and there's plenty online where you can see if you've got a risk of flooding.

I live in the NW...lots of properties here going for well above asking price ...going to final sealed bids.....my nephew just offered 10k over for a house up for 289k and he didn't get it

MzOops will complete on her house at the end of April, the house she wants to buy is going very slowly, the sellers won’t let her have a second visit with builders ( cracked chimney and loose tiles) until she has exchanged.
Her solicitor has just found a page full of covenants attached to the property which will have to be adhered to or ignored, the Estate Agent said that the sellers hadnt told him about any covenants ( one is that no pets are allowed) we are sure that they have all been ignored up until now.
The process is going very slowly and it looks as though she will come to Oxfordshire to live with us until the sale goes through or has to be abandoned.
Sellers don’t always try to help sell their own house! So be prepared for a slow process. BTW she is a cash buyer but it hasn’t helped so far.

We bought in mid 2022 at the peak of property prices. Unfortunately then, everyone was wanting to move and many were after the same property with it going to the highest bidder, often well above the initial asking price. We were up against 3 people wanting the house we’re now in so there was no negotiation. The seller said first one who comes up with the money can have it.
Since then, prices have dropped slightly as mortgages have risen due to several interest rate rises and houses aren’t moving so quickly, so you may have more luck with making an offer. If you’re a cash buyer it’ll be easier and of course depends how many are in your chain.
It takes on average 3 months from start to finish. Its a long winded, stressful experience. Good luck!

Zoopla is not a good guide to house prices unless you live on an estate of identical houses. Its prices are simply an average of all houses selling in a specific post code.

If like us you live in a village with the mix of houses it can be particularly misleading. My post code of about 30 houses contains two bedroomed semi bunglaows selling for £350k and large listed period properties that sell for around £1.5 million and everything in between. The average price for this postcode applies to about 2 properties.

One strange bit of advice from me but it did work for us. Do not offer in round numbers add an extra sum like £124 to your offer . We learned that when we bought our last house . It went to a closing date and our solicitor told us we outbid the other party ,who really wanted this house , by only a small amount.

My husband who was 65 years old at the time negotiated the sale of his parents house and purchase of a retirement flat (for over 60's) for them. They were in their mid nineties at the time.

The house was all boxed up awaiting the removals. PIL were already staying at ours in anticipation of the move. We dropped the keys into the solicitors on the way home (200 miles away) only to be met with a request for their birth certificates to 'prove' they were over 60.

Back to the house we went and luckily found the required documents without too much hassle.

One look at my husband and you would know it was biologically impossible for his parents to be under 60................

Floradora9 We have never put a round number on a house sale that is going to sealed bids and with one exception, we, or our AC, have succeeded in getting the house.

The time we lost, someone put in a bid 10% above ours, as we have recently discovered. We were second, and there were quite a few bids below ours. At the time it was well in excess of anything we could afford, and probably more than the house was really worth, but nearly 30 years later the successful biddes are still living in the house and house prices have gone up so much that the original over bid, is neither here nor there.

Of course if you are looking to buy, thn the state agent has already been chosen by the seller (or of course, occasionally thy are selling direct).
A good estate agent will guide you as to the likelihood of offers being accepted, the kind of interest already shown etc. I would, where appropriate, use their expertise.