Your Edinburgh Estate Agents Service

It’s easy. Just use our online free valuation tool for an estimate of your property’s value. If you would like a more accurate valuation, get in touch and one of our award-winning estate agency team will pop round to carry this out with no obligation to use our estate agency service.

We’re here to help! Contact our Edinburgh estate agency team by email or call us on 0131 221 8289 and we’ll take you through the process end to end and answer any questions you have.

Edinburgh Estate Agents will normally charge a percentage estate agency fee and a marketing fee for upfront costs (to pay for things like photos, video, floorplan etc). There will also be a charge for a Home Report which is carried out by a local surveyor with fees normally based on the property’s value. Once a sale is agreed, the transaction is passed over to solicitors who will charge a fee which is normally fixed and based on the property value. There are also a number of other small costs relating to the sale including registration, statutory check and some small admin fees.

If your property is rented out you should serve notice on your tenants so that the property is vacant and ready to sell. If the property has been rented out as an HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) make sure the HMO license is still in place and is unlikely to expire during the selling process (if it is it’s normally worth applying for a renewal so the property can be sold with an HMO license in place – our experienced lettings team can advice about this). If you’ve had any work carried out at the property while you’ve lived there, make sure you have all planning or building warrant completion paperwork from the council as, if not this could hold up or inhibit a sale. If you have a mortgage on the property you should also check the terms of the mortgage in case you’re in a fixed period and there are any early redemption penalties, in which case it might be worth delaying the sale.

If you’re ready to go ahead with selling your property with Umega Estate Agents, just let our team know and we’ll send you a link to our online terms and conditions, following which we’ll send out our online ID checks and an invoice for upfront marketing costs.

The time it takes to sell varies depending on the market conditions and things like how busy lenders are. It can take less time to sell if the buyer is using cash to purchase and is not reliant on a mortgage. Generally speaking it’s best to assume anything from 8 to 14 weeks to sell your home.

The market for selling properties can change very quickly. It’s best to keep an eye on our blog to read our most up to date market reports or just give our Edinburgh estate agency team a call on 0131 221 8289 and one of our award-winning team will give you our take on the current market conditions for selling.

There are a few things we recommend in advance of selling in order that your property appeals to the widest range of buyers, to hopefully drive the best possible sale price. Decluttering is definitely worth doing so that each space looks its best and is maximised (clutter can make spaces look much smaller). It’s also normally worth taking care of any small jobs that have been outstanding and you’ve just got used to. We also often recommend staging or dressing properties before listing on the market. This can make a huge difference and bring a property to life. If you’re living in a property yourself it’s likely that it will be dressed sufficiently but dressing can be particularly beneficial for say, ex rental properties or properties that have been lying empty. This can help buyers imagine what it would be like living there – Sell the lifestyle, not just the property!

We tailor our estate agency marketing package for each property we are instructed to sell. We’ll normally create professional photographs, a video (either professionally edited or a series of more snappy social media videos), a floorplan and a virtual tour. This gives potential buyers the best possible impression of your property before undertaking a physical viewing. In fact, with all of these tools at their disposal, some buyers are happy to offer for a property without physically visiting it. The Home Report must also be made available during the marketing of the property so potential buyers have full transparency of condition, value and energy efficiency.

The most important places for Edinburgh estate agents to advertise are the national online property portals including; Rightmove, Zoopla, Primelocation and OnTheMarket. At Umega Estate Agents we also put an emphasis on social media promotion to capture the attention of potential buyers.

Our Edinburgh estate agency team are happy to carry out viewings on your behalf at an additional cost. We’re also happy for you to take care of your own viewings if this is your preference. Any interested parties will normally speak to our estate agency team directly if they are interested. We prefer to have these direct conversations with buyers to negotiate the terms of any offers before getting solicitors involved as we find this is the best way of reaching a successful outcome. If a closing date is set (which is normally if say 3+ people note interest in the property) then offers will come in on or before the closing date. There’s sometimes some negotiation at this stage around elements such as date of entry or any surveys the prospective buyer wishes to be carried out.

Read our ‘looking to buy’ FAQs which explain what interested parties should do in order to express interest and offer for your property

Yes you do need a solicitor to sell a property in Scotland. Once we’ve negotiated a suitable offer we then loop in your solicitor to send out a written acceptance to the offer. Your solicitor would then take the lead from there on to completion, with our Edinburgh estate agent team playing a supporting role. We have our own preferred solicitor partner we recommend but are happy to work with any solicitor of your choice.

Normally your solicitor will inform you and us when the sale completes and funds have been transferred across into the solicitors bank account. At this point we can release the keys to the buyer. Depending on the buyer’s location sometimes we’ll get keys sent over to their solicitor and on other occasions the buyer will pop into our office at Quartermile to collect the keys to their new house! You should make sure you have utility meter readings from, or close to, the completion date for closing off your energy accounts. It’s also worth setting up mail forwarding to your new address.

Capital Gains Tax is due on the sale of residential property that is not your sole residence so if you’ve been renting a property out it’s likely you’ll have to pay CGT on any profits generated from the sale. We can introduce you to an experienced accountant if you’re looking for more information on capital gains tax relating to your sale.

Before offering for any properties you should 1. Get yourself set up with a solicitor so they are ready to offer on your behalf – this will normally just involve them carrying out ID checks on you. 2. If you plan to arrange a mortgage on your purchase you should also get a ‘Mortgage in Principal’ from a lender; that way you’ll know how much a lender is willing to lend you. Instead of going direct to a specific bank for this it’s normally worth instructing a mortgage broker to source the best mortgage deal, for you.

You can arrange a viewing of any of our properties for sale, via our website. If you want to discuss the property with one of our Edinburgh estate agents we would be delighted to answer any questions you have so please just email us or phone us on 0131 221 2829.

We always recommend viewing a property if you can, however you don’t have to view a property before offering for it and ultimately buying it.

We like direct conversations so if you’re interested in one of our properties please reach out to our Edinburgh estate agency team. If you have an offer in mind we can verbally or informally put this to the seller. If the seller expresses an interest in accepting your informal offer we would then ask you to instruct your solicitor to send us a written offer which we can then share with the seller before coming back to you to accept, negotiate or reject. Often, interested parties will ‘Note Interest’ with us. This means that we would keep them informed of any changes relating to the property, including a closing date being set. In most occasions we would not normally accept any other offer while parties have noted interest. This isn’t always the case however if a very urgent or appealing offer comes in the seller is still within their rights to accept that offer, even though other parties have noted interest. An estate agent will normally set a closing date once they have multiple notes of interest and this is an opportunity to submit their best offer to us, via their solicitor ahead of the closing date.What happens once my offer is accepted?
If the seller is happy to accept your written offer we would loop in their solicitor who would then send a written acceptance to your solicitor or may negotiate some of the terms. Some offers will include the requirement for a survey to be carried out, perhaps relating to damp, stonework or the property’s roof. Neither party is legally bound until ‘Missives’ are concluded, meaning a contract has been signed and this regularly doesn’t happen until a couple of days before completion. Before this, solicitors will be working through a series of steps to ensure the sale can go ahead including checking title and any outstanding notices on the property. During this time, lenders will progress mortgage checks and paperwork.

Once all due diligence has been completed and you or your lender has paid funds to your solicitor and they’ve paid over to the sellers solicitor, the purchase can complete. At this time keys will be released to you; either at our office or we will get these sent to your solicitor for collection. Your solicitor will also submit a LBTT return informing HMRC of the purchase price and paying the appropriate fee while also settling necessary registration fees.

When you move into your new property the first thing you should do is give yourself a big ‘Cheers!’ and enjoy that special moment. Once you’ve done that, you should take utility meter readings. You have 5 working days to report any defects to your solicitor who will advise you of the extent of these defects that need to be legally rectified by the seller.