Thank you very much to the Daily Mail and This Is Money for being quoted on their recent article from Angela Epstein about “How to HAGGLE for a new home: Top tactics for property negotiations”.
Mail Online:
This Is Money
How to negotiate when buying a property?
Negotiation is not easy, and before communicating a figure to the estate agent, it is worth starting with a fact finding exercise as part of the process in my opinion.
Information gathering
Asking the right questions is very important as it will assist with the formulation of a suitable offer strategy. That is why finding out as much as you can about the sellers is crucial (i.e. Reason(s) for the sale, Where are they moving to? How long has the property been on the market? How many viewings? How many offers? What is their preferred time frame? etc…).
Not all sellers have the same reasons and level of motivation to sell, meaning your offer should take all of this into consideration: a family relocating to a new area or sellers who haven’t found their next purchase will be less sensitive to timescales therefore as a buyer you might want offer some element of flexibility (i.e. delayed completion) for your offer to be well considered.
Be nice and personal
Negotiating on a property purchase should not be seen as a wrestling game, so leave any aggressive behaviour or “ego” in the changing room! Always be polite to the agent and the sellers, and when submitting an offer I would recommend to do so in writing (email is fine). Adding a few paragraphs summarising who you are and why you would like to purchase this property is also a nice little extra touch in my opinion and can make the difference between offers.
Asking price v.s. Your offer price:
Carefully research the local property market to identify comparable properties that recently sold in the same area, this will greatly help you formulating an offer with an amount that will be deemed reasonable. You can, of course, make a first offer below the asking price but avoid going too low as you could risk offending the seller and losing all your credibility with the estate agent.
