Getting your offer accepted in a difficult market 

I think buyers should draw boundaries between the types of properties they offer on. If the sale is of someone's current home, then the seller is going to need as much money as they can get to be able to afford another one, move in with children and give them a hand, afford decent elderly care etc. So, offer a fair offer as you would like to receive yourself when you come to sell. Homes like this have usually been well-looked after and the seller can give you a lot of useful background information about the building and neighbourhood. If the house is clearly just part of a landlord's rental portfolio or used as a holiday let then offer as low as possible because all that seller is interested in is profit and they would never sell at a loss anyway.

I concur with Jackie; you are the best RU-vid channel on the housing market. 👍

If a sale falls through then your conveyancer can often sell some of what they've done to the conveyancer for a new buyer and the estate agent will be keen to enable this because all the searches may be done saving time. We had this when a purchase failed to go through so at least we got some money back.

As a part of the audience of the hopeful I'm watching the local market constantly. The problem is that the "market" seems to be disappearing. The number of new properties coming up for sale seems to be minimal and this is making it a difficult market in my view. Negotiating a deal becomes academic if there's little to buy.

Charlie, you said the most important thing is you do not overpay. Just want to add that if you can afford it it does not matter if you overpay. I have kicked myself in the past for not overpaying and losing the property. In the long term it doesn't matter if you overpay just that you can afford it.

There are Estate Agents who are really nasty. Burchell Edwards, Connells Shipways every single estate agent was aggressively nasty pushing for the lowest sell & the highest offer. I turned away from them.

I think there are distinct advantages in providing reasons if they are objectively justified. You're providing the agent with reasons by which he can persuade the seller that they may not have considered. I'm a first time buyer so have little experience but as long as you're not providing rope to be hanged with, you're not going to make your position worse.

Thank you Charlie

Thank you 💚💚💚💚

Evening all

Just received the survey & valuation. House is only worth 210k with 18k in issues that need to be fixed. We have also been advised to get additional surveys due to the high risk of surface groundwater flooding and potential subsidence due to coal mines. We offered 220K in September. Do you have any advice on trying to renegotiate? Unless you suggest that we run for the hill? ☹ So fed up with house hunting and people hiding stuff. Sick of repeatedly wasting money on inspections with no recourse when the seller obviously lied or withheld information!

You’ve spent a long time making this very complicated. The housing market is simple in reality, the price of a house will be what the seller and the buyer agree at the end of the day. Sounds obvious, and it is!You are right in talking about the various scenarios that can occur but they always eventually conclude when both parties agree. Agent manipulation of either seller or potential buyer I find slightly odd, if that’s possible it just means those people are weak! Our house is now on the market, we had an offer £30000 below asking price from a really nice young couple. We didn’t accept that, and I do think it was the top figure they could afford which was fair enough. If as you’ve previously suggested, the housing market is liable to collapse then we probably won’t be selling, that’s life, no problem with that. For me, the main issue with buying or selling is dealing with solicitors who in my experience are generally hopeless, deliberately delaying throughout, so finding a decent one is a major plus. You seem to talk from the buyers side, my advice to both seller and buyer is have a figure in mind that you are happy with. If you don’t get it and you aren’t under any pressure to sell or buy, wait until you do to avoid any future disappointment!

My hero

The days of arrogant sellers are gone.

Hi Charlie. Today, I've read two different articles claiming that there will be a shortage of buyers and sellers. Therefore, fewer properties coming to the market.

Hi Charlie, My family and I are very interested in a property that is not currently on the market. It came off the market around 8 months ago and before it cam of it did get reduced in price (it never went under offer). My question is should I approach the owners or Savills the old estate agent? PS: we never saw the property when it was listed but we know this is the property for us… Thanks,Simon

Hi Charlie, You mention we should offer the maximum we are prepared to pay. How would you go about an estate agent who emails/texts everyone viewing the property what the highest offer they have received? Surely they are at an advantage and can put in an offer to beat my offer. Therefore, its better to offer something below my max offer so i have some wiggle room? They do then go to final offers and even tell you weve had offers in the region of XYZ, would you like to improve your offer? The current offer they've had is already above asking price (so they say).

Hi Charlie. You advised cash buyers to always take structural survey. How about mortgage buyers? Would the lender do this type of survey and it's enough for FTB to take a home buyer survey only?

Hi Charlie, I’m looking at buying a new build house on the First Home Scheme at 30% Discount (so 250k house available for 170k) However I’m not sure if it’s wise to wait as prices are about to fall in the next few years so don’t want to risk falling into negative equity (have to sell it at 30% discount off future market value..would you advise to wait although i’m not sure developers would reduce their prices?

I'm sorry Charlie I know I am late to the party here, but can I change my offer once I have made one and it has been accepted? Thankyou

Is there any way of finding out how much the asking price of a house was compared to how much it actually sold for?

We need the 10% deposit system in this country.

please can you comment on London prices? Had a quick look online and it seems prices have gone up. ! Is this really the case or people with an interest propping the market up

Hi I've seen house £350k the house needs alot of work to be done to get it modernised. I was thinking of offering £290k and £300k maximum the most I'm willing to offer. Is this an extremely low offer? Plz advise 🙏 🙂

That's interesting that you advise leaving the offer on the table for a couple of weeks. To me that seems counter intuitive. As a seller, I would be thinking "ah - insurance. I've got two weeks to beat that offer so I'm not going to sell to him." Alternatively: "I can't go back to that offeror because then I'm admitting I can't get another offer so he might lowball me even more cos I'm clearly desperate"

WRT conveyancing, a friends wife is a paralegal handling conveyancing at a law firm. She's suggested going with her firm. Would going with someone I know ensure that the conveyancing is efficient as possible?