What’s ‘Under Offer’ or ‘Sold STC’ Mean?

We’ve updated this article (2021) with a bit more information to help you even more.

There are a lot of terms used by estate agents, in this case, these both mean about the same thing.

‘Under Offer’ meaning

What it says is what it is, the property is under offer, usually, this will be below the market asking price and the seller has accepted the offer.

‘Sold Subject to Contract’ (known as SSTC or Sold STC) meaning

Similar to under offer that an offer was made onto the property and accepter by the seller, the main difference is that the paperwork is not complete.

When the property goes under offer or SSTC the managing estate agency would also normally take the property off property portals such as Rightmove, Zoopla as well as their own systems. This is normally to stop ‘Gazumping’ which is where someone will give a higher offer for the property, this is not as common as it once was. Until contracts are exchanged either party can pull out of the deal, in fact around 30% of deals fall through. This could be any number of reasons from financial to something bought up by e.g. a survey.

According to the Homeowners Alliance, this can cost £2700. That’s because payments need to be made to surveyors, solicitors, mortgagee brokers and sometimes even builders, architects and estate agents.

The Scottish difference

Scotland things work a bit differently, you don’t really get to change your mind because you no longer feel like it. Once an offer is made it’s legally binding and this can stop some of the frustration caused by offers being made then withdrawn at the last minute.

You’ve always got options, here at Speed Property Buyers we will not back out of offers and all the fees are included in our price so what we offer is what you’ll get, feel free to come chat to us about your options today.

Original below (from 2017) –

This week we have a question from Zoopla AskMe user wkndskyrme.

Editorial note: Zoopla has closed its ‘ask me’ portal.

He’s asked – If a property is under offer by someone else can I still view and make an offer?

Is it the same as sold subject to contacts?

Video Transcription

I get asked this question a lot, what does under offer mean?

Generally there are several terms that estate agents will use so, under offer and sold subject to contracts.

These terms generally mean once an offer has been accepted by both parties, so the buyer has made an offer to the seller, they have accepted, this then goes under offer or sold subject to contracts.

It’s the very early stages of when a sale has been agreed.