When we sell a house through an estate agent we are asking them to act on our behalf as we want to get the best price possible. They work for us in this instance. So it is important to remember, when we are buying a house via an estate agent, they are not there to help us get a good deal, they are there on behalf of the seller. We need to treat the estate agents with caution when talking to them, because they are not merely middlemen, they are trying to do the best for the people who are paying them to sell their house, and rightly so.
Obtaining the best sale price for their customers is what they do best. That is their job, and they are experts in their field. When if you are looking to buy, it is you versus them.
From the moment they first take you round the property, they could be trying to read you. So straight from the go, it isn’t a good idea to go in there and tell the estate agent how much you love it, and this is the one for you, because they will have you in the palm of their hands. Tell them you think it is ok, but how much work you will need to do to it, tell them what you don’t like about it, tell them about how many other houses you like better than this one, let them think they would be lucky if you even thought twice about it, let alone make an offer to buy it.
Then, when it comes to placing your first offer, don’t make any of the three schoolboy errors. Firstly, don’t let them know what price you have the ability go upto, by either simply telling them your price range or seeing their in house mortgage broker. Keep your cards close to your chest. Secondly, don’t make out as if your first offer is your first offer, make it seem like it is your last offer. Thirdly, the most common mistake is saying something like ‘We will offer £95,000, but we are willing to go up to £100,000’. It may sound obvious, but if you don’t realise the estate agents are not your friends and you can’t say things like that to them, it can easily be done.
You can try other things too, there is no right or wrong way to do it. Play it how you feel comfortable with and how you think it will work. For instance, imagine the house you have been to see just like a date you have just been on. You don’t want to text them as soon as you have left them and let them know you are too keen, you need to hold yourself back and play it cool. Not too cool though, because you can run the risk of doing that and somebody else wading in there before you.
Another method somebody inadvertently used recently which ended up working well, was that Mr A placed an offer without consulting Mrs A first. When Mrs A found out, she called the estate agents and said she wasn’t happy with her husband at all, and told them in no uncertain terms that the offer was a few thousand less than what he had said, and the lower offer was then accepted. This could backfire, and there is a moral issue of getting peoples hopes up and then down in doing this on purpose, so I wouldn’t like to say it was a good idea, but it just shows how there is no right or wrong way to do it.
Jason Hinde DipPFS, Cert SMP
9th November 2015
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