Selling a home in Scotland runs on different rails from England. The survey happens before marketing rather than after an offer, offers arrive as formal letters from solicitors, and the point where everyone is legally committed comes weeks earlier. Here is the whole journey in the order it happens, including the parts agents tend to gloss over.
First, the appraisal and the pricing decision
Everything downstream depends on the figure you go to market at. An appraisal should be the number, the comparable sales behind it, and what the surveyor is likely to put in the Home Report, all in writing. An inflated figure wins the instruction and then costs the seller months: viewers arrive, read a Home Report valuation well below the asking figure, and offer against the report rather than the advert.
You will also choose a pricing label. 'Offers over' invites competition above a guide figure and suits homes where several buyers are likely. 'Fixed price' says the first offer at the figure wins, and suits a quicker sale. 'Offers around' signals room to negotiate in both directions. The label matters less than where the figure sits against the Home Report valuation, because the valuation is the number a buyer's bank will lend against.
The Home Report comes before the advert
Every home marketed in Scotland needs a Home Report first: a Single Survey with a valuation, an Energy Report and a Property Questionnaire you complete yourself. The report must be no more than 12 weeks old when marketing begins, and once a buyer asks for a copy you have nine days to provide it (Housing (Scotland) Act 2006; rules checked against mygov.scot in August 2026). Take the home off the market for more than four weeks and the report may need refreshed before you relist.
A surveyor sets their own price for producing one, typically £350 to £600 depending on the size and value of the home. We arrange the surveyor at their own published price with nothing added, and every viewer gets the report before they view, so the offers that arrive come from people who already know the number.
Marketing and viewings
Photography, a floorplan and the listing on our website are the visible half of marketing, and the buyers on our register whose search fits get a call about it first. The other half is what happens after each viewing: every viewer followed up, and the feedback passed to you whichever way it went. A fortnight of honest feedback is the earliest, cheapest signal that a price needs to move, and far cheaper than three quiet months.
Notes of interest and the closing date
When a buyer is seriously interested, their solicitor formally notes interest with us. A note of interest costs the buyer nothing and commits nobody, but it obliges us to keep them informed and, most importantly, to tell them before the home sells. Once several notes have accumulated, we will usually advise setting a closing date: a deadline, classically 12 noon on a named day, by which every interested party submits one written offer through their solicitor.
You then see every offer with us and your solicitor, and you are free to accept any of them or none. You are not obliged to take the highest figure, and the highest figure is not always the best offer: an entry date that fits your own move, a buyer with a mortgage agreed and nothing to sell, or an offer with fewer conditions can be worth more than a few hundred pounds of headline.
Offers, missives, and the moment it becomes binding
A Scottish offer is a formal letter from the buyer's solicitor: the price, the proposed date of entry, what is included, and the legal conditions, almost always the Scottish Standard Clauses (Edition 6, in force since 1 January 2025, published by the Law Society of Scotland). Your solicitor rarely accepts outright; they issue a qualified acceptance adjusting terms, and the letters go back and forth. These letters are the missives.
When one side finally accepts the other's last letter without qualification, the missives are concluded and a binding contract exists. Before that moment, either side can walk away without penalty, and a verbal acceptance commits nobody. After it, a buyer who fails to pay or a seller who fails to move faces contractual interest and damages. Concluding promptly protects you both.
Gazumping is rare in Scotland, and not by accident: a solicitor whose client has agreed a sale and then wants to entertain a higher offer will generally withdraw from acting rather than assist. It is one of the quiet reasons Scottish sales fall through less often than English ones.
Between missives and the keys
Your solicitor now proves and transfers title: answering the buyer's solicitor's queries, obtaining the redemption figure for your mortgage so the standard security can be discharged, and lodging an advance notice with Registers of Scotland to protect the transaction. Your own list is practical: redirect the post, read the meters on the day, and keep your buildings insurance running: under the Standard Clauses the property stays at your risk until settlement, not the buyer's.
Settlement day
On the date of entry the buyer's funds move solicitor to solicitor. Once your solicitor confirms receipt, we release the keys. Your solicitor repays the mortgage from the proceeds, settles the fees, including whatever of ours is still outstanding on the route you chose, and sends you the balance, usually the same day.
What it all costs
Three real costs: the estate agency fee, the Home Report and the legal work, plus whatever your mortgage lender charges to be repaid early, which is worth checking before anything else. Sellers pay no LBTT at all; the transaction tax belongs entirely to the buyer. Our fee is published in full and you pick one of three ways to pay it: 0.75% of the Home Report valuation, settled once at launch with nothing owed at settlement; £595 at launch and 1% of the sale price at settlement; or 1.5% taken from the proceeds when the sale settles. A minimum of £2,000 on any of them, all three include VAT, and the identity check the law requires is £70 for each person named on the title. The full breakdown, including the costs that are not ours to set, is in the cost-of-selling guide below.
Selling with a tenant in place
A tenanted property has two honest routes to market. Sell to an investor with the tenancy continuing: the tenant keeps their home, the rent keeps arriving until settlement, and the buyer pool is smaller but knows exactly what it is buying. Or recover possession first using the intending-to-sell ground of the Private Residential Tenancy, which means a Notice to Leave, the proper notice period, and a Tribunal order if the tenant does not move. We run lettings and sales under one roof, so we will put both sets of numbers in front of you rather than steering you at the one we happen to sell.
Frequently asked
- Do I need a Home Report before I can market my home?
- Yes, with narrow exceptions. The report must exist before marketing begins and be no more than 12 weeks old at that point. New homes sold off-plan, newly converted homes, right-to-buy sales and seasonal holiday homes are exempt, though an Energy Performance Certificate is still required. Rules checked against mygov.scot in August 2026.
- How long does a sale take in Scotland?
- Time on the market varies with the home, the price and the season. Once an offer is accepted, six to eight weeks to settlement is common, but the date of entry is agreed between the parties in the missives, so it can be faster where both sides are ready, or slower where a chain needs to line up.
- Do I have to accept the highest offer at a closing date?
- No. You may accept any offer or none of them. Entry dates, conditions attached to the offer and the buyer's position, such as a mortgage agreed and nothing to sell, are all legitimate reasons to prefer a lower figure.
- When am I legally committed to selling?
- When the missives are concluded, which is when one solicitor's letter is accepted by the other without further qualification. Accepting an offer verbally, or even in writing yourself, commits neither side. Only concluded missives do.
- Do sellers pay LBTT?
- No, never. Land and Buildings Transaction Tax is paid by buyers. A seller's costs are the agency fee, the Home Report and the conveyancing, plus possibly Capital Gains Tax if the home was not your only or main residence throughout, which is a question for an accountant before you agree a sale, not after.
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Law and practice change, and individual circumstances vary. Check current guidance at mygov.scot and take professional advice on anything affecting your specific position.
