I have the chance to buy my dear aunts flat who recently passed away.
Unfortunately relatives want to put it on the market as "this will get us the best price"

I dont disagree with this , however the flat is in need of an upgrade.
She smoked 40 a day and never left the house for 21 years!

My question is:

Flat in Edinburgh shows 6% a year increase in value...will this continue?
New bathroom and kitchen needed, , decorate all rooms(4)
refloor entire flat, stamp duty(£700) legals £2k , estimate flip time after refurb 5 weeks.

I estimate £15k is needed to get it up to good standard

Approx value is £210k
What rough purchase price seems fair , are my calculations reasonable correct
and what sort of offer should I make?

TIA

A few random thoughts from an Edinburgh resident:

- Which area of Edinburgh is it? Properties in the "nice bits of town" always seem much in demand, especially in the tourist town for AirBnB type properties or for student HMOs. And I don't see much sign of that changing. Not so sure about the more outlying regions though. (And be aware there has been much talk of a crackdown on short-term letting e.g https://www.edinburghliv...ncil-crackdown-21303711 , although the reality seems to be that the council has less appetite for controls than long suffering residents do).

- "Approx value is £210k". Was that a "probate valuation" for the estate executors? I believe those are generally lower than the normal sort of valuation an estate agent would give.

- If not already aware: property sales in Scotland generally operate on a "offers over" sealed bids system. IMHO, this greatly favours the seller - at least when the market is buoyant - as desperate buyers put in highball offers to have a chance of winning anything. In more depressed times, more properties seem to be offered at a "fixed price" (which will then be reduced until someone bites). Not noticed any of those in local property sales recently though. If *I* was your relative, I'd be wanting *you* to have to put in just such a "sealed bid" yourself and compete with other potential buyers, to maximise *my* profit. Note also that due to "anti-gazumping rules" Scottish solicitors probably wouldn't be happy collaborating with any process that put the property out to sealed bids offers, but then gave you an option to match the highest bid. However it's also true that the seller is under no obligation to accept the highest sealed bid offer or indeed any of them, so there may be some wriggle room.

- Local online chat group seems to have many threads along the lines of "I need a plumber/electrician/builder/decorator" / "We use X" / "I tried them and they said they're so booked up they're not taking on new jobs". And that's been the trend since all the Polish people disappeared. A property we let out just needed a refresh of paintwork between tenants and all the quotes were about double what we expected. Don't know if you've factored that into your cost calculations.

- I get the impression buyers are either perfectly prepared to take on fixer-uppers (certainly a couple of "old lady's flats" sold near us recently - quickly and easily it seemed to me from the short times the for-sale posts were up - and from what we could see of photos on the ESPC site little or no effort to modernize the interiors) OR they want to buy somewhere completely finished they can immediately rent out (or AirBnB) or move into themselves and start using. IMHO there's little point in spending thousands to only do a halfway job; the former group's budget is based on gutting and refreshing the place completely anyway, and the latter group isn't interested in half finished cosmetic efforts that'll need further attention. Honestly no idea how much of a spread there is between what the two groups are prepared to pay though.

Btw, probate valuation came in at 175k.

Stamp Duty Reduction: If you are one of a number of beneficiaries and wish to buy the property, then remember that you can take your inheritance as a share of the property and on that part you avoid SDLT (you woud pay it on the rest).

the other thing you can consider, depending on your circumstances and relationship with the other beneficiaries, is for the other beneficiaries to redirect their inheritance to you, then you take the property in its entirety as inheritance and avoid SDLT altogether.

I am currently going through something like this. I am an Executor on a relative's estate and there is a provision in the Will for one family member to be given a first refusal option to buy a house (it's on a farm and needs to be kept as part of the farm) . In order to reach an agreed price and stop yourself or the Executors getting sued by a disgruntled relative we had to get a professional probate valuation done (this is more than an estate agent just showing up and giving an idea of what to price it for ) which costs about £1k. In this situation part of the family who are beneficiaries wants a high valuation and the buyer obviously wants a low one. I have ended up with a family meeting where I presented the valuation (which was lower than everyone expected) and got them to agree to an offer price.