This week I thought I do something different and give buyers a few tips on how to get their dream home so here’s what you can do to improve your chances of securing a property and ultimately beat you’re competition.

Be Appealing: Help your case by having your finances sorted and a mortgage approved in principle.  Some things you cannot help, for example if you are selling a property to help fund your purchase, but at the very least have a buyer already in place for your own property before you put your offer forward on a new one, or the agent will likely find another buyer in a more advantageous position that you.

Put forward your best offer if you need to:  Everybody wants to secure a good deal for themselves, but consider the level of interest the property is receiving and let this influence the amount that you offer.  For example if you turned up with another 50 people on an open day and it’s within the first week that the property has come onto the market, you’ll likely need to make a very strong offer and most likely asking price or even higher.

However, do your research and ask the agent questions, for example how long has the property been on the market (they shouldn’t lie to you about this) and how much interest they’ve had and whether there are any other offers currently being considered.  If there seems a subdued interest, start your offer lower and request you be informed if any higher offers are received by the agent for you to review your position (an agent cannot make up offers under The Estate Agents Act). 

Make haste:  If you have an offer accepted have all your details ready.  Let the agent know who your buyers are (if you are selling), pass on your mortgage broker / lender details and pass your solicitor details immediately and make sure you instruct them quickly.  Just recently we’ve seen sellers get a little agitated because a survey took too long, or because the buyer didn’t instruct their solicitor and sellers will make use of a rising market and quickly look to getting a better offer from a different buyer if things move too slowly.