Selling process · 9 min read
How to sell your house in Edinburgh
Selling in Scotland works differently from selling in England. The Home Report comes first, offers are usually invited over a set figure, and a verbally accepted offer is not binding until missives conclude. This guide walks through the whole process in the order you will actually meet it.
1. Get a realistic valuation before anything else
Start with a market appraisal from an agent who sells in your postcode. What you want is not a number designed to win your instruction, but the evidence behind it: which properties sold, what they achieved, and how they compare to yours on light, condition, floor level and outlook.
Be sceptical of any valuation given without the agent seeing the property. Two flats in the same stair can differ substantially, and no online model can see your windows, your ceiling height or your rear outlook.
2. Commission the Home Report
In Scotland you must have a Home Report before marketing. It contains a single survey and valuation, an energy report, and a property questionnaire you complete yourself.
The surveyor's valuation becomes the anchor for every buyer conversation that follows. If your property has issues — damp, roof or stonework repairs, an old boiler — they will appear here, so it is usually cheaper to address them before the survey rather than negotiate against them afterwards.
3. Choose a pricing strategy
Offers over is the Edinburgh norm and is designed to create competition. The figure should sit close enough to the Home Report valuation that buyers believe it, and low enough that it draws a crowd, without being so low that it looks like bait.
A fixed price suits properties where competition is unlikely, where speed matters, or where the buyer pool is narrow. Offers in the region of is used occasionally for unusual homes where comparable evidence is thin.
4. Prepare and photograph the property
Reduce furniture, clear surfaces, fix the small visible faults, and clean the windows. Then photograph on a bright day. In Edinburgh, natural light is the single biggest variable in how a property presents online.
Floor plans matter more than most sellers expect. Buyers use them to decide whether to book a viewing, and a property without one loses viewings it never hears about.
5. Go to market
Your property should appear on ESPC and the major portals simultaneously, with the full brochure and floor plan live from day one. The first two weeks generate the majority of serious interest, so nothing should be unfinished at launch.
Accompanied viewings, prompt feedback and a weekly review of interest levels let you respond to the market rather than wait on it.
6. Notes of interest, offers and closing dates
Interested buyers' solicitors formally note interest. If several do, your agent may set a closing date, at which all offers are submitted in writing by a deadline and you choose among them.
Price is not the only variable. Date of entry, whether the buyer's own sale is concluded, and any conditions attached can matter as much as the headline figure.
7. Missives and settlement
Once you accept, solicitors exchange formal letters — missives — until they conclude. Only at conclusion is the sale legally binding on both sides.
Between conclusion and settlement, your solicitor handles the title and funds. On settlement day the keys are released and the price is paid.
Common questions
- Do I need a Home Report?
- Yes, in almost all cases, before you can market the property. There are limited exemptions, such as certain new-build and right-to-buy sales.
- Can I accept an offer and still change my mind?
- Until missives conclude, neither side is legally bound. Withdrawing after verbal acceptance is possible but damages trust and can cost the buyer money, so it should not be done lightly.
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Written and reviewed by The Lothian Property team, Edinburgh property research team. Last reviewed .