If you are looking for a location to buy a quirky piece of real estate then you might find yourself searching for unusual properties for sale in Scotland. This article will help you to locate some odd properties that you would be hard pressed to find in any other countries.

Scotland is a beautiful country with a rich and varied heritage. It is a nation of people that are proud to be Scottish and perhaps in their hearts many actually dislike being called British; and you had better run for the hills if you ever make the mistake of calling a Scotsman or woman, English.

When looking at buying investment property in Scotland you will come across all sorts of options; even properties such as, converted water towers, have been put up for sale from time to time.

Converted barns can be an ideal thing to buy in Scotland. They come in all different types of shapes and sizes and they vary hugely in the style and décor. The more recent conversions tend to have modern interiors, yet they still try to keep the outside in a more traditional style.

When looking for unusual properties for sale in Scotland, if Scotland is not the country you reside in, you need to make sure that you understand all the rules and regulations that govern buying property in Scotland.

If you are a UK resident, don’t just assume that buying a property in Scotland is exactly the same as in the UK. While there are many similarities, there are also enough differences to catch you out and to cost you significant amounts of money. You must educate yourself in the Scottish way of buying property. You must do this in order to avoid some of the costly mistakes naive property investors have made and continue to make.

Websites like: residential-property-scotland.co.uk/ or property.scotsman.com can be ideal places to start your Scottish investment property search.

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Buying a house in Scotland is slightly different from buying a house in other parts of the UK. It’s not particularly complicated, and buying north of the border can often be quicker, but for those relocating from England and Wales there are a number of points you need to bear in mind.

Agreement in principle

Before you begin house-hunting in Scotland you need to have an agreement in principle for your mortgage. An agreement in principle takes the form of confirmation from your lender that, subject to various conditions, they are prepared to give you a mortgage up to a certain amount. This amount will be based on your income in much the same way as it is in the rest of the UK. Without an agreement in principle in place, any offers you make on properties are unlikely to be taken very seriously.

Sealed bids

In England and Wales, houses are normally advertised at a given price and the vendor accepts that he may well have to settle for a price that is lower than the original asking price. Under the Scottish system, the vendor sets a price and invites offers in excess of this via a sealed bids system. Although this type of secret bidding is sometimes seen in the rest of the UK, it is normally only in cases where the property is particularly expensive or desirable.

Commitment

When you buy a house in Scotland, if your offer is accepted, you are immediately under an obligation to buy that property. This is why an agreement in principle is required before you go house-hunting. By contrast, in England and Wales, you can pull out of buying the property without penalty up until the time when contracts are exchanged.

The Scottish vendor is also committed to the deal as soon as he accepts the buyer’s offer. Hence the risk of gazumping (where the vendor later accepts a higher offer from someone else) is removed.

Solicitors

Because of the earlier commitment to buy, solicitors play a much greater role in the buying and selling of homes in Scotland. In many cases the solicitor will act as the selling agent for a property rather than an estate agent.

The actual house-hunting process in Scotland is much the same as anywhere else. But don’t forget, when you are looking at properties, that the advertised price is the minimum you will have to pay, and is not a starting point for bargaining downwards.

As a buyer, you will need to appoint a solicitor before, or as soon as, you see a property you want to make an offer on. Once you are ready to make an offer, your solicitor will contact the selling agent and ask them to “note interest”.

Finalising the mortgage

After this, you will need to finalise your mortgage application by going back to your lender and providing details of the specific property you are planning to buy. Once this is done, the lender’s valuation and your own survey can be carried out.

Arranging a survey

Although your own survey is not compulsory, it is strongly recommended that you have one done before making an offer.
Because you are legally committed to buy the property once you make your offer, it is important to know as much as you can about its condition. The results of the survey will help you as well when it comes to deciding how much to offer.

Of course, at this stage, there is no guarantee that your offer will be accepted, and so it is not uncommon to end up having to pay for surveys on more than one property. This is, unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of the Scottish system.
In England and Wales, where you can make your offer and then pull out before contracts are exchanged, buyers normally only have to pay for one survey.

Making an offer

After the seller’s solicitor has received notification of interest from two or more buyers, he will announce a closing date by which all of the offers must be received. Because a sealed bids system is used, no-one knows what anyone else has bid. Also, each buyer can only bid once, so it is important to think very carefully about what size offer to make and get it right first time.

Your solicitor will make the offer on your behalf and will also advise a “date of entry”. This is the date when you will be given the keys to your new home, and is the equivalent of the completion date used in England and Wales.

Once the closing date for offers comes, the vendor will accept the highest bid and from this point on both parties are committed. There are no deposits involved unless you are buying a new property, but if either the buyer or the seller pulls out from here on, they are liable for any losses the other party may have incurred.

Concluding the missives

After the offer is accepted, the buyer’s solicitor will “conclude the missives”. This is similar to exchanging contracts under the English system. Once all the details of the sale have been agreed via this procedure, you as the buyer are responsible for the structure of the building and need to make sure you have adequate buildings insurance in place.

Settlement

All the funds to buy the property, together with all the fees, need to be ready for forwarding to your solicitor about two weeks before the date of entry. These monies will be transferred to your solicitor the day before your date of entry, and you will then need to sign the title deed to the property.

Finally, the vendor’s solicitor will hand over the keys and the “disposition document” which legally transfers ownership of the property to you.

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Copyright 2004 David Miles. You are welcome to reproduce this article on your website, so long as it is published “as is”
(unedited) and with the author’s bio paragraph (resource box) and copyright information included. In addition, all links to external websites must be left in place.

David Miles is the editor of a number of mortgage and personal finance websites including Scottish Mortgages – a website that contains a range of useful information on mortgages, remortgages, and house-buying in Scotland.

When you sell a house in Scotland the legal process is very different to the rest of the UK. It is not only different but many say it is more superior to the outdated practice in England and the rest of the UK. In Scotland everything moves quicker and gazumping is virtually unheard of because contracts are binding as soon as seller accepts the offer.

When you are selling or even buying in Scotland the Solicitors get involved a lot earlier in the sale than in England. They also get involved in the marketing and selling of the house a bit like the estate agents job in England.That means that the seller can deal with one person and not have to get involved with an estate agent at all which is music to some sellers ears and some buyers as well.

The major advantage of selling a house in Scotland is the sale goes through a lot quicker than the rest of the UK. The other good thing is that there is rarely any chance of being Gazumped as once the missives are concluded, the person can make an offer and know that the sale will go through. Generally once the offer has been made the solicitors go to work, with a series of exchanging letters to complete the sale. Unlike in England, the offers made are generally above the asking price. The price is set by the seller as the minimum that they are willing to accept and it is advised to offer over the asking price to secure the deal. As soon as your offer is accepted the sale should go through with no problems. England is completely the opposite. Offers are generally put in below the asking price as the seller normally sets the price expecting to take some sort of discount off.

The problem with the English system is the seller may be tempted by a higher offer and then you could end up loosing the property part way through the transaction after much money may already have been spent out on surveys and such like. The Scottish system is better put together meaning there is less sleepless nights during the process.

As the process does move a lot quicker in Scotland, it is more important to make sure most of your paperwork is in order a lot earlier. Otherwise you may find yourself accepting an offer before your solicitor has everything in order. When you are selling in Scotland, it’s important then that you instruct a solicitor as soon as you are thinking of selling as they will need to do some work before the property can actually be put on the market. The other advantage with the Scottish system is that the solicitors also help with the advertising so you may want your solicitor to find you a buyer as well, which will save you one more job to do as well.

Now you can see that there are different procedures to selling your home if you are living in Scotland or England and Wales. The Scottish system seems to be faster, less risk of not completing and dealing with less people to the system in England and Wales and the rest of the UK.

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Buying a house or apartment is exciting. But don’t let your excitement blind you to the real value or the problems you may encounter.

Many people when they purchase property let their imaginations run to what the property could be like if they renovated rather than what it is like now.

1. Ensure you hire a proficient building inspector to thoroughly check every aspect of the building. Best to get someone who has been recommended. Areas of concern are wet areas, check adjacent walls to bathrooms. Look for any water damage near dishwashers.

2. Can you really afford this home. The sub-prime debacle taught us that not everyone who wants a home can really afford to buy one. Ask yourself honestly can I afford the repayments. As I write this interest rates are near their historical lows. Currently they are around 6%, but 20 years ago they were 17%. How did we survive? Simple the average home loan then was around $70,000 now it is $350,000. But our incomes weren’t 5 times less, we were actually much better off.

How much would interest rates have to go up before you couldn’t make the repayments?

What happens if you lose your job, get sick, or die what insurance do you have in place?

3. Check how old the stove top, oven, hot water system and dishwasher are. Check to see they work? If they are near the end of their life can you afford to replace them?

4. Have a look in the ceiling to see if there is insulation.

5. What kind of roof does it have? You may be prepared to buy an older house with a asbestos roof, but it will affect resale and will cost about $20,000 to be replaced.

6. The condition of the wall and floor coverings that you accept will depend upon your level of resources to replace them. They may prove to be a negotiating point.

7. Don’t accept the asking price. Did you know that someone who buys a home under $500,000 is far more likely to accept the asking price than someone who buys a $1,000,000 home. Why because wealthy people are more comfortable with negotiating then lower income earners. You need to get over this and stand your ground.

8. Sure you may have less roof to move on a lower priced home but you never know the circumstance of the seller, so you don’t know what you can buy the house for. We attended an auction for a home, they had listed it for $570,000 a few months earlier. They dropped it to $530,000 as the market fell. It was passed in at auction.

We knew the buyer was leaving the country the next Monday so we made an offer of $430,000. We got the house, painted it inside put new carpet in and a few months later it is valued at $530,000 and the market is still fairly flat. This was still a good profit as the owner had been in the house many years, but they could have got $500,000 earlier if they weren’t greedy.

And now for your free information on house and apartment buying go to http://www.livingwellpublications.com/home/selling/. This is sellers information which gives you the buyers an insight into what they are doing to get a better price from you!

For my regular blog on many aspects of health plus many fun and interesting topics. go to http://livingwellpublications.com/blog/