Negotiating and making an offer

Whether you want to progress things quickly or slowly, is your schedule convenient for them?

Are you also selling a property and will the availability of your funds be affected by this?

It is advisable to have a written agreement in principle from your mortgage lender, to demonstrate your ability to move forward with the purchase.

There are many reasons that you might decide to make an offer below the asking price:

• Other, similar properties in the area have sold for less
  
  
• The property requires some work
  
  
• The property has been on the market for a long time without any offers

Your bid needs to be sensible and reflect the value of the property. If your offer is too low, then it may not be taken seriously, or may trigger a drawn out negotiation process. In a drawn out process, it is possible that by the time you settle on a price, another buyer may have made a higher bid.

Estate agents will be able to tell you if there have been other offers, but not how much they are for. To some extent, this information can help you decide upon the size of your offer.

There are occasions where offering the asking price - or even more – can be the right decision. In areas where competition is high, property generally attracts many offers and is purchased quickly, so exceeding the asking price may be required.

Bidding wars can occur if there is more than one interested buyer. One approach a seller may take in this situation is to instruct their estate agent to contact all potential buyers and ask them to submit a sealed bid. If you find yourself in this situation, put emotions to one side and only enter a bid you are comfortable with.

To make the offer, you will need to contact the seller’s estate agent and they will manage the process between you and the seller. The offer you submit should be subject to satisfactory survey reports, the terms of the contract and your ability to get a mortgage, which should have been arranged in principle ahead of making the offer. 

If your offer is accepted in principle, you may wish to ask for the property to be removed from the market and not shown to any other potential buyers, though the seller is not obliged to do this. 

You will then need to arrange for the necessary survey. The survey will give you a clear indication of the state and value of the property and go into greater depth than the mortgage lender’s cursory valuation. More details on surveys can be found in our guide to the costs of buying a home. 

Once the offer has been accepted, your estate agent will confirm this to you in writing and your solicitor will begin to prepare the contract ahead of the next phase of the process. More details on the next steps can be found in our guide to exchanging and completing.