A Guide To Selling Your Property

Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP can handle all aspects of the sale of a Scottish property. For residential houses we can take care of everything, from the initial marketing all the way through to final settlement of the sale, guiding you through the entire process to ensure your transaction runs as smoothly as possible. This short guide highlights the important stages of selling your property.

Selling Agents
Your property can be marketed for sale either by a solicitor or estate agent. WJM can offer you a combination of these services. This means that you have one point of contact for everything. Our solicitors have excellent local knowledge and will be able to advise you on the price at which you should market your property. When you instruct WJM, we place your property on the market and advertise it through both the Highland Solicitors Property Centre (HSPC), Glasgow Solicitors Property Centre (GSPC) and Rightmove. We recommend our viewing service for both occupied and vacant properties. Details are available on request.  

Home Report
Before your property is put on the market, a surveyor must prepare a Home Report. This is made up of a Survey, an Energy Report and a Property Questionnaire. The purpose of a Home Report is to give prospective purchasers as much information as possible about the property, and its running costs, before making an offer. We are able to recommend locally based surveyors so that your Home Report is as appealing as possible.

Noting Interest
When a prospective purchaser is interested in your property they will often instruct their solicitor to “note interest” with us as selling agents. This does not commit the prospective purchaser to making a formal offer, but indicates that it is likely they will do so. If a number of people note interest, we may advise you to set a closing date, when offers can be made by all those wishing to do so. 

Offer
Once you have received an offer on your property, our experienced solicitors will take over and advise you on all of the conditions attached to it. Offers often require you to make guarantees about the property and its title, so it is important that careful consideration is given. We may advise you to accept an offer subject to qualifications. Only once all the qualifications made by either party have been accepted by the buyer and the seller is there a binding contract. This is known as Concluding the Missives. At this point neither the buyer nor the seller can usually withdraw from the sale without a financial penalty. 

Fees
We will issue you with our Letter of Engagement at an early stage of your transaction and will give you an estimate of the fees and other sums which are payable in relation to your sale.

Settlement
Once the Missives have been concluded, we will send your title deeds to the purchaser’s solicitor for examination. The purchaser’s solicitor will then prepare a Disposition for you to sign. A Disposition is the legal document which transfers title to the property to the purchasers. We will instruct the necessary searches on your behalf and on the date of entry the funds will be transferred to us in exchange for the signed Disposition. At this point the transaction is settled and the keys will be handed over.

We will repay any outstanding mortgage from the proceeds of sale and deduct legal and estate agency fees. The balance will then be transferred to you. 

For more information or to make an appointment,
email enquiries@wjm.co.uk or visit wjm.co.uk