Our initial visit to you property will be led by one of our partners, assisted by a member of our Estate Agency Group. This is an opportunity for you to get to know the group and the services we provide and for us assess the property and your personal requirements.
At this meeting, we will provide a review of the current market climate, local area prices and recent sales figures, plus potential strategies for marketing your property.
Selling your home in Scotland
We will also give you an indication of the costs and outlays likely to be incurred in selling your property.
All information will be provided to you electronically and will be available for future reference via our websites and or by email.
We do not believe pre-sale valuations are required at this stage in the process. With the legal requirement for a home report, prior to advertising your property, we see these as an unnecessary overhead at the outset.
Marketing Strategies
Murray Beith Murray offers a breadth of high-quality material and a diverse range of tactics for marketing your property and we will tailor these to meet your needs and budget.
Standard options include:
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- Property schedules
- Professional photographs and floor plans
- Property videos
- Website advertising
- Online advertising
- Newspaper advertising
- Social Media promotion including Twitter
- Trained viewing agents
In addition, our group will always consider new and alternative ways to promote your property.
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- A recent Murray Beith Murray property was showcased on the Channel 4 programme "Phil Spencer: Secret Agent" with the house held up as a shining example of how to present your home for selling
- Working with a media advisor has allowed Murray Beith Murray to forge close links with the Scottish Property Press, with certain properties receiving free editorial coverage, where appropriate.
- We have a well-established property database, plus close links to many other solicitor and estate agency firms in Edinburgh and the Lothians. These contacts are often used to market / promote properties discreetly.
Prepare your paperwork
It is essential for you to pull together all documentation relevant to the sale of your property as quickly as possible. Missing paperwork could delay and/or make your purchaser nervous; it is good to avoid giving them anything to worry about.
The key items which must be provided are as follows:
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- Building warrants, stamped plans, planning permission & listed building consent (where appropriate) plus completion certificates for any property alterations
- Guarantees with survey specification(s) for any specialist works
- Notices relating to your property over the last 3 years
To comply with money laundering requirements, your solicitor is required to hold a copy of your current passport or photographic driving licence, plus an up-to-date utility bill or bank statement showing your current address. These documents can be scanned and either emailed or posted.
As well as the formal property questionnaire we have created a short marketing questionnaire. These are useful guides in determining the paperwork required.
Market preparation
On your instruction, we will make all necessary arrangements for marketing your property. A member of our Estate Agency group will visit along with our professional photographer and floor planner. Our agent is there to discuss any final property improvements, the wording for all advertising material, viewing arrangements, key & security management and our customer care programme.
Home Reports
All houses for sale in Scotland must be marketed with a home report. This is a pack of three documents: a single survey, an energy report and a property questionnaire. These documents must be made available to all prospective buyers.
Murray Beith Murray works closely with a range of well-established surveyors, one of whom will be instructed on your behalf to produce the single survey and energy report. We will also assist you in completing the property questionnaire, a job made easy when all paperwork has been organised in advance.
Included in the single survey will be a valuation price for your property. Our solicitors will use this, plus other market information, to discuss and agree the advertising price for your property.
We will also discuss any property issues flagged up in the home report and any remedial work which might be required. Murray Beith Murray can recommend and organise specialist workmen where appropriate.
Go live
Wherever possible we arrange for properties to go on the open market by Monday lunchtime each week. All websites are immediately available, with advertising in the ESPC showroom & paper organised for later in the week. You will receive an automatic email update once all websites are live.
At this time we will also automatically notify all interested parties on our property database.
On the market support
We are there to assist you throughout the marketing process. Our solicitors and our estate agency group are available to take your calls and emails, and are happy to discuss any aspect of the property sale.
In addition, using our new systems technology we will create a communication plan for managing your property updates.
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- You can select to receive viewings arrangements by text, email or telephone. Automated reminders will be set up to remind you on the day of appointments.
- We will follow up with each individual who visits your property. You can choose how you receive feedback following viewings.
- You will also receive regular updates on the ESPC statistics. This will give you information on how many times your property has been viewed on the website, plus how many property schedules and home reports have been requested.
- You will also be automatically notified regarding any notes of interest on the property.
Closing dates and offers
We will immediately contact you to discuss any offers received on your property and will negotiate on your behalf with the purchaser's solicitor.
Where more than one party has offered or noted interest in your property, we may recommend setting a closing date. This is a designated day when any interested parties can submit an offer before a set time.
Setting a closing date creates a competitive environment and encourages all interested parties to submit their best offer. A closing date is also preferable to entering into negotiations with a buyer, which can be a long and protracted process.
You are not obligated to accept any offers received at a Closing Date, nor are you obligated to take the highest offer. We will help guide you into accepting the offer best suited to your requirements.
Conclusion of Missives
Any offer received for your property will contain a number of clauses. Our solicitors will go through each of these with you and document any amendments you wish made. A written qualified acceptance will be issued on your behalf for the purchaser to consider. The bargain is concluded and the sale confirmed, when both parties agree to the terms. The process of exchanging formal letters is known as 'concluding missives'. Scots Law requires both a written offer and a written acceptance before the sales contract becomes binding.
Conveyancing Process
There are two main parts to the 'conveyancing' process, each of which is undertaken on your behalf by our solicitors supported by our conveyancing team.
Title Deeds
As part of the sales process, the title deeds for your property must be forwarded to your purchaser's solicitor. Murray Beith Murray will request, check and issue the deeds on your behalf. You may hold your title deeds, but more likely they will be with your current mortgage provider. At this point, we will also ask your mortgage provider for a redemption figure, the sum required to repay your existing mortgage.
Our legal group will answer any questions raised by the purchaser regarding the title deeds. Thereafter, we will receive a Disposition from the purchaser's solicitor. This is a deed transferring ownership of your property to the new owner. We will check the deed and, where necessary, amend and issue a revised Disposition.
Local Authority Certificates (Property Enquiry Certificates)
In Scotland, the seller is responsible for obtaining the Local Authority Certificates which disclose information regarding planning, roads, water and statutory building notices. We will request these on your behalf. If your property is in Edinburgh, you will be responsible for all notices served on your property up to and including the day Missives are concluded.
Settlement Arrangements
On the date of settlement, the purchaser's funds will be transferred to the Murray Beith Murray bank account and we will hand over the keys, Disposition and Title Deeds on your behalf. It is important for you to hand in a set of keys promptly, before the settlement time, to ensure the sale completes as quickly as possible.
If you have a mortgage it must be repaid from the sales proceeds. We will arrange both this, plus a Discharge, a deed removing your loan details from the property. Once any excess funds have cleared, we will arrange for these to be transferred to your nominated bank account.
Finally, it is the seller's responsibility to notify the local authority of the change of ownership of the property for council tax purposes. We will do this on your behalf. This ensures the tax is correctly apportioned between the seller and the buyer.
Specialist Property Lawyers Edinburgh
We provide a personal, attentive service aimed at making your property transaction run as smoothly as possible. We use our knowledge and experience of the law and local property market to clearly outline the implications from initial contact, helping to dispel the mystery behind the process. For more information, please contact us today.