How To Buy?

[sutemiwaza]

"How to Buy" when you are ready which for most on this forum may not be for a very long time

As an agent I would like to offer some advice

• Put the offer in writing in letter form with your contact details
  
• Give the details of your solicitor (telephone, fax, address etc)
  
• Your offer in figures and in writing
  
• Give details of financing (mortgage, cash, property to sell)
  
• Give details of timing and how quickly you can exchange and preferred completion (timing can be as important as price to some sellers)
  
• State what your offer includes eg curtains, white goods etc
  
• Put down the reasons for the level of your offer and recent sales to validate your opinion.
  

Good luck

Edited May 10, 2009 by sutemiwaza

[D Vardy's Shadow]

"How to Buy" when you are ready which for most on this forum may not be for a very long time

As an agent I would like to offer some advice

• Put the offer in writing in letter form with your contact details

  I have never needed to write

• Give the details of your solicitor (telephone, fax, address etc)

  Have a solicitor ready, ideally

• Your offer in figures and in writing

  If the agent does not understand £, then you are sunk anyway, so a verbal offer should be enough if you come across as a credible buyer

• Give details of financing (mortgage, cash, property to sell)

  In order of preference, Cash, Mortgage, Property to Sell. Don't be too keen to give the agent too much detail, or he might assess you as being good for a bigger offer, but make it plain if your offer does not depend on Property to Sell

• Give details of timing and how quickly you can exchange and preferred completion (timing can be as important as price to some sellers)

  Agree

• State what your offer includes eg curtains, white goods etc

  Decide what you want before bidding, but bid for the house without them. When the vendor comes across with an acceptable counter offer, agree subject to curtains, carpets etc

• Put down the reasons for the level of your offer and recent sales to validate your opinion.

  Complete waste of time. Either the money, the timescale and your position sell it to the vendor or they do not not. Leave the agent to start off this discussion and give him short shrift if he does

Good luck

PS, I am the friend of the Estate Agents according to Alfie Moon

[AteMoose]

My adviceYour first offer should be insulting, remember you will meet in the middleAs a buyer your in control give your offer and wait, leave the offer on the table as a temptationDONT tell the EA your salary, or go to see there FA, get your mortgage agreement in principle from a bank/other placePlay the sob story, tell them your at the very edge of your budget, you cant raise your offer by much, BUT you are a cash buyer and can move quickly (less than 4 weeks) if everything goes well with solicitorsDon't worry about the one that got away, if they dont want to sell walk awayIf you have to raise your offer by small amounts

[OzzMosiz]

AteMoose, tell them you're a cash buyer, even if you're not?

[AteMoose]

AteMoose, tell them you're a cash buyer, even if you're not?

No just tell them the truth, if you don't have anything to sell and have a mortgage lined up your almost as good as a cash buyer...

[Propertybuyersnetwork]

Very good advice.

THis is the way I alway approach agents.

1, You should always put your offer in writing.

2, Make a low offer to begin with. You can always go up but it's very difficult to go down.

3, Tell the agent that you have another property that your interested in an if you lose this one your just put in an offer on the other one.

4, Always act cool and not like your desprate to buy.

5, Do always have your mortgage arranged before hand, as you'll be able to instruct the survey very fast and show the EA that your a serious buyer.

6. I alway treat it as a game. It's you vs the agent.

[mrjake]

These are great tips :-D thanks

[PbroAgent]

Don't lie to us about whether you need a mortgage or not. By all means get your finance in advance and from elsewhere, but if you've told us you are cash and we get a phone call a fortnight later for survey access, we will be asking questions about your honesty and motivation and in all likelihood advising the vendor to remarket the property.

Also know what you can afford. The number of buyers who offer without knowing how much they can afford to pay is truely staggering.

[tim123]

Don't lie to us about whether you need a mortgage or not. By all means get your finance in advance and from elsewhere, but if you've told us you are cash and we get a phone call a fortnight later for survey access,

Why?

Cash buyers would still have a survey on a house. Not getting one is stupid, cash buyer or not

tim

[PbroAgent]

The mortgage companies and various brokers tend to use the same surveyors. It can be quite easy to tell.

Besides which, if the buyer isn't telling us about something as basic as a mortgage, what else aren't they saying?

All we want by this stage is to keep things smooth and hassel free until exchange. I know many people on here think badly of agents, but a good, experienced agent can often make the difference if problems start to occour with bad surveys, searches etc. But not if there is distrust and poor communication between the agent and buyer.

[luvadealme]

"Make a low offer to begin with. You can always go up but it's very difficult to go down". This is the thing I always love to do at first. Thanks everybody.

Tried that, and then the slimy estate agent came back and said another couple offered more 30 mins after me, it was accepted and now house if off market ( EA won't even discuss if we wanted to up our offer, says he will help us to find somehwere else, but keeps emailing junk).

Pissed me off as the property has been on market for over 4 months and we bid first thing Monday after viewing on the Satruday.

I already had the picture in my head of what it would look like after I did it up!

Doh! Back to viewing aother 20 houses now.

[Van]

I would just like too add:

Make it a condition of your offer that the property is taken off the market immediately. No more viewings.

There is a very bad practice that the seller will want to leave the property on the market, hoping that your offer acts as a placeholder. Other buyers (perhaps cash buyer) will then match or improve on your offer, and you are forced into a bidding war or lose the property altogether.

[emmkay]

I've been through at HSBC mortgage website and obtained a 'mortgage in principal' and I can provide proof of deposit. Is this enough to show I am serious when making an offer?

Thanks

[Flybait]

I've been through at HSBC mortgage website and obtained a 'mortgage in principal' and I can provide proof of deposit. Is this enough to show I am serious when making an offer?

Yes, for the right seller and agent but most don't even ask for any sort proof which is part of the problem. When we were hunting around for Plan B house in case the chain fell apart on Plan A (almost did) not a single agent cared that we had a large cash deposit (30%+) and a mortgage offer (not just in principle, but offer documents) on the table. Sad really.

[emmkay]

Yes, for the right seller and agent but most don't even ask for any sort proof which is part of the problem. When we were hunting around for Plan B house in case the chain fell apart on Plan A (almost did) not a single agent cared that we had a large cash deposit (30%+) and a mortgage offer (not just in principle, but offer documents) on the table. Sad really.

Luckily the two properties in which we are interested are chain free.

[Son of Taeper]

Don't lie to us about whether you need a mortgage or not. By all means get your finance in advance and from elsewhere, but if you've told us you are cash and we get a phone call a fortnight later for survey access, we will be asking questions about your honesty and motivation and in all likelihood advising the vendor to remarket the property.

Also know what you can afford. The number of buyers who offer without knowing how much they can afford to pay is truely staggering.

Reminds me of a situation a few years back.

We had done the rounds of all the agents in town one saturday morning in person to get on there mailing lists.

There was only one agent left and I was happy to skip them as they were about as down market as you could get in our area but we had a few minutes free so we went in.

Conversation went a bit like this -

Us - Good morning, we'd like to go on your mailing list please, price range £xxx - £xxx

Agent - Sure, our financial expert is with a customer at the moment, be about 10 minutes.

Us - We don't want a financial expert, we just want to go down on your mailing list.

Agent - You'll need to finance it so you need to speak to our finance expert.

Us - The Finance is in place, mailing list only please.

Agent - Ah, So you're property owners. You'll need to speak to our financial expert so we can arrange another mortgage for you

Us - No, Our finance is all taken care of, just the mailing list please

Agent - But you need a mortgage, everyone needs a mortgage

Us -( now irritated ) No we don't..

Agent - Why not?

Us - Because we are cash buyers

Agent - Having a mortgage could save you money you know and you just keep your cash in the bank or take a holiday

Us - Care to put that in writing with exactly what we would save?

Agent - Not allowed to sir

Me - (standing up and leaving) Forget about the mailing list

[WageSlaveBear]

How to handle EA negotiation, like house, hate price?

Advice please

I need to move to Maidstone for new job, otherwise hours commute each way will be exhausting me, let alone petrol costs.

Put in 120,000 offer and got flat refusal by letter. Older lady vendor wants 140,000, previously at 160,000 ??

Tried 130,000 (we have 125,000 cash husband's combined "voluntary" redundancy and early retirement) and after about a week got answer phone message from estate agent asking us to get back in contact.

I am expecting message to be still refusal, but at least open negotiation.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-for-sale/property-16977903.html

Seriously think this is overpriced, but Maidstone prices are mad.

[24gray24]

It's obvious the agent is getting in touch, because woman wants to sell the property.

It's also obvious they are going to bluff you, and say other buyers are interested etc when no such buyers exist.

So I'd say: 1. Let agent phone you. Don't phone them. Phoning them tells them you're really interested. Them phoning you tells you, she really wants to sell.

2. Stick to £120,000. Don't go up. Wait while they tell you there's no chance, and let you stew for a couple of days, fictitious buyer etc. Remember the EA is a crook, who is on the side of the vendor, not your side at all. He's just lying to you when he pretends he's a middle man.

Finally, I think you're mad to buy now, just as the euro is lurching into its death-throws. Are you too much of a snob to rent? If you put your money in silver, there's a pretty good chance it won't go down far, and a reasonable chance it will go up to £200,000. House prices fell 90% in the last Great Depression; you seem to be betting they will not fall in this one.

[WageSlaveBear]

Thanks for the response 24gray24

We are trying to hold back as advised.

The estate agent didn't ring us on Monday, but we also didn't ring her.

We are fully aware that prices are due an almighty drop, but I am exhausted by commuting and we both are reluctant to rent.

OK we are snobs.

A place we actually like is not that common. I hate nothing more a modern fitted kitchen.

We are just not the types to invest in silver or shares. Just out of our league.

We are not looking to make any profit, just would prefer not to throw away thousands of pounds.

Therefore going to hang back for a few more months .

Cheers

[WageSlaveBear]

Nearly a month since we came to stand off with EA, just no response after 130 offer on 140 house.( Actually really glad we got slapped down. House prices are so going down this year)

Looking at the graphs on property bee I keep seeing the same pattern repeating.

House comes on obviously over priced. (as per usual EA shenanigans).

After a short few months of nothing doing, a drop down.

Sometimes even a second drop.

Then they flatline for ever.

Have sellers reached a bottom line due to negative equity, or some preconceived limit based on maximum reached by neighbour? or have they actually not selling just still on there in zombie mode.

[WageSlaveBear]

But.....Wait.....

Can't get picture to attach, but check out house prices " Up my Street" ME15 Maidstone...

Wow!

What a beautiful graph!

[Snozzle]

Can you put offers in on more than one house at a time?

[georgesmith]

...and improve your negotiating skills whenever you can!

[tyres]

Can you put offers in on more than one house at a time?

you can, but generally not a good idea, specially if its with the same EA

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Is this a new government scheme to lend you the money to put down 5% on a wigwam?