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One advantage of dealing through an estate agent means that you depersonalise the haggling over price with the vendor. Sometimes it’s very hard for the property seller or vendor to accept that making a low offer is not personal.
Negotiating the property price
Properties do not have fixed prices – it is well worth making an offer lower than the asking price. It’s possible make significant savings with a little haggling over the price.
Your opening offer should be about 5-10% lower than the asking price. You can start lower than this but you have to be careful to ensure that you are taken seriously as a buyer.
Often the asking price is set higher to encourage a higher opening offer so you need to make sure that the price being asked for is realistic
Working with the estate agent to get your offer accepted
You, as the property buyer, should have a clear understanding with the agent as to what your offer for a property includes. It’s also worth doing a bit of a sales job on the agent as to the strength of your offer for example if you have a mortgage agreed in principle that is worth mentioning, or if you have already sold your property.
Once you have made and an offer the agent will forward this to the vendor who will decide whether or not to accept it.
What happens once your offer is accepted
Once the offer has been accepted you will receive a written confirmation of the price from the estate agents giving details of what’s included
If you put in an offer, be certain to state that it is 'subject to contract'.
Once your offer has been accepted you will need to contact a solicitor or conveyancer
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