Any offers that you make to the estate agent MUST be taken to the owner- it is an estate agents responsibilty and duty to take ALL offers to the seller, even if the offer is lower than the home report value or if the offer is lower than the sellers expectations. Owners may not give an idea of what they would accept and the sellers circumstances can also change during the process so a figure/ expectation that they may have given an estate agent initially can change, so no one should assume that an offer won't be accepted, it is the owners decision to make for themselves.

If you have recently sold a property, you will most likely have entrusted a professional and knowledable estate agent to value and market your property and it is advisable to entrust a professional and trusted solicitor to negotiate an offer on your behalf. If you are a first time buyer, you will have spoken to a mortgage advisor or spoken to your bank who will have helped find the best mortgage for you and your circumstances to buy your first home so why would you not enlist a professional to negotiate an offer on your behalf for what will undoubtably be one of the highest value transactions you will make.

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In our experience we would strongly advise to submit an offer via your solicitor. The solicitors that we can recommend are very experienced and give a logical view and great advice, they will submit an offer free of charge and only when an offer is accepted there will be costs involved to progress matters to purchase the property. Your solicitor like ourselves would have many years of experience in negotiating and advising clients through the process and can be very helpful and knowledgeable in advising what you should / could offer, they will also find out helpful information from the selling agent;

1. How many people have viewed and are interested, and are there any other viewers.

2. Have there been any offers made.

3. Is there a closing date.

4. Would the seller consider an offer.

5 Are there any notes of interest.

When your solicitor submits an offer on your behalf, they submit the offer in writing and put a clause in that they require and answer regarding the offer made by close of businsess that day. The estate agents may ask for a little longer (maybe a day) depending on the sellers circumstances.

There are some exceptions to the rule that may delay on a decision being made, below are a few examples; .

You can of course make a verbal offer at time of the viewing or call the agent once you had decided that the property is for you and make the offer verbally, however, if you are not cofident and not sure of the process, then a solicitor is much more experienced to negotiate on your behalf. We would stress that if you have made a verbal offer yourself, advise the estate agent that your offer is on the table until close of business the next day, this gives the agent plenty of time to speak to the sellers and for them to have a chat and get back to you. If you do not have an answer by the time given, call your solicitor and ask them to submit the offer in writing along with a deadline for an answer, there are very few cases where making a decision on an offer should take longer than a day or two at most.

Once an offer is made, the agent may come back to you/ or your solicitor to say that the seller is looking for a higher offer or that they would like to continue with viewings, especially if the property is in high demand, you would then decide if you are happy to wait - leave the offer on the table or continue your search and possibly withdraw the offer.  (The estate agent should only make contact with you if you make a verbal offer, if your solicitor submits the offer then the agent should ONLY make contact and negotiate / correspond directly with the solicitor)

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