ISLE OF SKYE ESTATE AGENCY

Selling your home is the most expensive financial transaction you may ever make and needs to be handled with care, efficiency and speed, so make your FIRST MOVE the RIGHT MOVE. We offer a comprehensive range of services covering every aspect of selling your home. Our dynamic and direct approach ensures that your property is exposed to all our prospective purchasers. Our staff are highly motivated, experienced and trained and offer a flexible service that understands individual needs and wishes.

OUR INCLUSIVE PACKAGE INCLUDES:-

• Full colour sales brochures
• Prominent window display space in Portree, Kyle and Dingwall.
• Local marketing by local professionals
• Regular follow up and progress reports
• World wide web – dedicated site with full property details and photographs – www.iosea.co.uk
• No hidden extra costs.
• A flat rate commission fee of 1% for properties over £100,000 & 1.5% for those under this figure.
• We make a charge of £250 plus vat should you decide after marketing that you wish to withdraw the property from our books. This fee simple covers our outlays.

PREPARING YOUR HOME FOR SALE . . . .
The most important sale you ever make surely deserves a bit of thought and planning and not necessarily a lot of expense. Preparing your home for sale is a popular topic for television programmes and we are bombarded with advice of what to do and what not to do. Obviously a lot of it is just good old common sense and a realistic ‘asking price’, avoid the temptation to be greedy and be guided by your agent. No one wants to see over flowing litterbins, rusty gates, cluttered rooms and a sink full of dirty dishes but by going just that one step further you can really make a difference. The first thing to remember is that ‘first impressions’ count for so much. It has been said that a sale is usually made or lost by the time the front door has opened!

When you are living in a house day in and day out, it is very difficult to see it objectively or through ‘fresh eyes’ and that’s when it is important to ask your Estate Agent to be brutally frank with you and tell you exactly what should be done to improve your chances of obtaining the best possible selling price. If you decide against your agents advise you could be making a rather expensive mistake! The general rule is to depersonalise your home so viewers can easily imagine themselves living in it.

So lets start at the beginning and at those first impressions . . . is there adequate space for viewers to park their car safely on arrival . . . is your house clearly numbered or named so they don’t have to work to hard to find your property . . . . and once found is your gate freshly painted, your path weeded and your front door welcoming? You would be amazed at how many properties I visit in the course of my work and find pots of dead flowers, broken fences and dustbins at the entrance!

Fresh, tidy and appealing!

Once inside ensure that your house is light and airy, keep curtains well off windows (which should be sparkling clean) and make sure that your hall areas are not full of coats, boots and general junk. Your living areas should be made to look as spacious as possible and this may mean removing a chair or two and clearing tabletops and worktops of unnecessary items. The kitchen areas should be immaculately clean washing machines should be empty! A vase of flowers on the dining room table always gives a good impression, as does a strategically placed plant. Beds should be well made with fresh linen and clothes should be tidied away in drawers and wardrobes. Bathrooms are often the place were the worse mistakes happen for instance no one wants to smell damp towels or even worse! The minimalist approach in the bathroom is the best, so tidy away shampoo bottles, medicines etc. and remove unnecessary bathroom mats. If you are thinking of decorating prior to sale remember to go for light plain colours and resist the temptation to try something dramatic by painting in dark colours. Floor coverings are again, best plain, but if you do have patterns on your floor coverings it is doubly important to have those plain walls and curtains. Patterned carpets, wallpaper and curtains were acceptable in the 1950s, but not now. Finally smell, that very important sense that can tell us so much and send the positive or negative messages to the brain. If you do have a dog or dogs then keep them outside or at least at a distance, it is so off putting walking around a house with a dogs nose stuck to you and not everyone loves dogs or their smell. As for cats, the worst possible smell is a dirty litter tray so bin it. Many people are still smokers and feel quite justified in smoking in their own home, however the smell of stale cigarette smoke is an instant negative so therefore ensure you have allowed for lots of fresh air and make sure all ash trays are empty. Remember that as a smoker you probably do not smell the smoke but viewers will. Yes, fresh coffee is good as is baking bread but more realistically neutralize odours and remember that high fragrant air fresheners make viewers suspicious of a ‘cover up’.

Finally smile, you may be thinking ‘oh no here we go again another time waster’ but the point is you really don’t know, so make all your viewers feel welcome and appreciated, they may be the ones to make you the offer of a lifetime! Good luck.

GUIDE TO THE PURCHASE
OF HERITABLE PROPERTY

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GUIDE TO THE PURCHASE
OF HERITABLE PROPERTY

Introduction
The purchase of your home or a plot of ground on which to build your home is probably the most expensive investment you will make and this guide has been prepared to assist in providing an understanding of the Scottish Legal System for the purchase of heritable property. It is by no means an exhaustive treatise of the subject and should be regarded as no more than an explanatory leaflet. You should always consult a solicitor before committing yourself in any way for the purchase of property and direct to him or her any queries on the process which are not for reasons of brevity covered in this explanatory leaflet.

It should be noted when purchasing property in the north and the north west of Scotland that these areas constitute the designated crofting counties and are largely subject to Crofting Law and Crofting Tenure. It is imperative therefore that the solicitor acting for you in the purchase is familiar with the operation of Crofting Law and in particular how it affects your intended purchase. All the partners and legal staff of this firm are familiar and practised in Crofting Law and will be very pleased to act for you in your purchase.

Identifying the Property
The property you wish to purchase may take the form of a house, a plot on which to build a house or a croft and peculiarities will apply to one which do not necessarily apply to the others.

House
The purchase of an existing dwellinghouse is a very similar process to the purchase of a dwellinghouse anywhere else in Scotland or the United Kingdom and will largely be guided by the appeal to you of the property and the price at which it is offered. If it is your intention to use the house as your main residence but also for a business use such as a bed and breakfast it is important to ensure that there is no prohibition in the title deeds which would frustrate your intentions. Your solicitor will of course check this for you but it important that you advise him of your proposals as early as possible.

Building Plot
The purchase of a building plot is somewhat more complex. As a first rule of thumb you should ensure that having purchased the building plot you will be able to erect thereon a dwellinghouse and particularly a dwellinghouse which meets your expectation and requirements. In purchasing a building plot regard must be had to the suitability of the site for development, access, the availability of services such as water, electricity etc. and particularly that the plot is being sold with Outline Planning Consent. Before committing yourself to a purchase and particularly if you have a definite style of house in mind it is sensible to consult with the local Planning office to ensure the type of house you envisage building will be granted the approval of the Planning Department. It is advisable to employ a project manager to monitor the building of your property especially if you are not close-by to watch the progress yourself.

Croft
A croft is an area of land designated for agricultural use and there may or may not be a dwellinghouse on the croft. Crofts fall into 2 distinct categories namely tenanted crofts and owner occupied crofts.

Owner-occupied croft:- The purchase of an owner-occupied croft is more straightforward than the assignation of a tenanted croft and in effect you are purchasing a large area of land with or without a dwellinghouse thereon which is however subject to crofting tenure. Your purchase of the croft does not require the approval of the Crofters Commission as is the case when acquiring the tenancy of a tenanted croft. Nevertheless the croft will almost certainly be subject to crofting tenure and if you are not utilising the croft for agricultural purposes you may very well be required by the Crofters Commission to grant a tenancy to someone who will work the croft.

Tenanted croft:- In the case of a tenanted croft what is being acquired is a large area of land with or without a house thereon which is held on a crofting lease. The outgoing crofter is assigning to you his lease of the croft. A crofting lease is completely different to a commercial or urban lease and you should consult a solicitor on its terms and implications. Subject to certain criteria it constitutes a secure form of tenancy and you can pass on succession to a member of your family. The important aspect to note is that when seeking to acquire the assignation of a tenanted croft the assignation must be approved by the Crofters Commission who will require some detail of your background to assess your suitability as a crofting tenant and your proposals for the future use of the croft.

Funding The Purchase Price
It is necessary to have all your funds for purchasing in place prior to offering. An offer that is submitted subject to finance is not a ‘clean’ offer and therefore would not be considered.

Survey
Having identified the property you wish to purchase it is sensible and indeed strongly recommended that you should have the property surveyed by a member of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland. There are 3 basic types of survey available:-

1. The Mortgage Valuation Report.

2. The Homebuyers Survey and Valuation, and

3. The Building Survey - essentially a structural survey.

A more detailed leaflet is available on request outlining the extent and scope of the 3 different survey options. The surveyor will charge you a fee for carrying out the survey and so you should perhaps consider with your solicitor whether to immediately instruct a survey or alternatively submit an offer couched as being conditional upon obtaining a satisfactory survey report. This avoids the expense of instructing a survey if the price you propose to offer is not acceptable. Your solicitor will guide you on which course of action is more suitable in your particular case. A survey should be carried out prior to offering, if any offer is subject to survey it is not considered to be a ‘clean’ offer and therefore will not be acceptable.

The Offer
Having identified your chosen property, determined the financing of the purchase and the timing of the survey the next step in the progression of purchase is the preparation and submission of a formal offer. The offer will be prepared on your behalf by your solicitor and will typically contain provisions including the price to be offered the date of entry (the date on which you obtain the keys to the property and pay the purchase price) any apportionment of price between heritable and moveable having regard to Stamp Duty implications and a host of conditions designed to protect your position dealing with aspects such as the exhibition of Property Clearance Certificates, the existence of Servitude Rights for drainage and sewage, the nature of burdens affecting the property, the existence of any right of pre-emption in favour of a third party, confirmation that the property is not subject to Crofting Tenure, in the case of a property less than 10 years old that there is an existence NHBC or comparable documentation that all construction work including extensions and alterations to the property are supported by the relevant Planning Consent, Building Warrant and Completion Certificate etc. etc. If the offer is in principle acceptable to the seller the seller's solicitor will respond with a Qualified Acceptance usually accompanied by the title deeds to the property which may then highlight matters hitherto not apparent. Your solicitor will carefully discuss these with you before proceeding to conclude a bargain. If the offer is subject to survey on receipt of the Qualified Acceptance your solicitor will attend to instructing a survey on your behalf and will make the survey report available to you for consideration before the contract for purchase becomes binding.

Once Missives or the contract are concluded neither party to the contract (i.e. the seller and the purchaser) can unilaterally withdraw from the contract without serious implications. It is therefore essential that you are satisfied with the terms and conditions of purchase before instructing your solicitor to conclude Missives.

The Conveyancing
After conclusion of the Missives your solicitor will then examine the seller's title, check property Clearance Certificates, Planning Documentation, Servitude Rights, Property Searches etc and will prepare the Disposition conveying the property into your name. He will also ensure that any securities for loans granted by the seller are being discharged and will call upon the seller's solicitors to produce any other deeds or documents which is necessary for him to examine. Once your solicitor is satisfied that you are obtaining a clear, valid and marketable title to the property unencumbered by any outstanding securities or unacceptable conditions of title he will proceed towards the next stage of the purchase which is settlement.

Settlement
On the date of entry specified in the contract the ownership of the property transfers into your name. In exchange for the payment for the purchase price the whole titles to the property including the conveyance transferring ownership into your name, discharges of any securities granted by the seller and the keys of the property are delivered to your solicitor. Sometimes the procedure can vary and settlement can be effected against payment of the full price, payment of part of the price with an agreement to pay interest on the outstanding balance or consignation of the price in whole or in part on deposit receipt. The particular circumstances of each transaction will dictate the method of the settlement and will be closely addressed by your solicitor at the due time.

After Settlement
Following settlement the title conveying the property into your name along with the discharge of any security the seller may have had and if you are having a building society or bank assist you in the purchase the standard security by you in favour of the building society or the bank will be sent to Register House in Edinburgh so that these deeds may be registered in the Registers of Scotland. On completion an Inland Revenue return must be made on any property in excess of £125,000 (1% of the purchase price up to £250,000 and 3% thereafter). Recording is effected on receipt of the title deeds but the processing of the titles may take up to 6 months. On return of the recorded deeds most solicitors are happy to retain these on your behalf for safekeeping in their titles safe. If, however, you have a loan over the property the title deeds will be held by your bank or building society for the duration of the loan.

Crofting
Crofting tenure is peculiar to the 7 crofting counties in the north and west of Scotland and it is imperative when buying property in this area that you do so with the assistance of a solicitor versed in Crofting Law. The question of Crofting Tenure has already been addressed. In purchasing a house or building plot particularly where there is an intention to create a security in favour of a bank or building society it is imperative that the house site and garden ground or the site of the proposed dwellinghouse has been decrofted.

Summary
The foregoing is designed as a simple guideline to the purchase of heritable property in this area. We hope you find the leaflet of assistance and will be happy to discuss this with you in more depth and answer any questions prompted by a reading of it.

PORTREE OFFICE ADDRESS
The Isle of Skye Estate Agency
Bridge Road
PORTREE
Isle of Skye IV51 9ER
www.iosea.co.uk
Email: sales@iosea.co.uk
Tel: 01478 612683

KYLE OF LOCHALSH OFFICE ADDRESS
Main Street,
Kyle of Lochalsh,
Ross-shire.
IV40 8AB
Tel: 01599 534555
Fax: 01599 534480
Email: sales@lochalshproperties.co.uk

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It is important that if you retain an interest in the acquisition of this property you arrange for your interest to be formally noted to this Agency, otherwise a sale may be concluded or a closing date set without you having been advised.