Making an offer on a house

You’ve seen a potential new home, it’s in budget and you want to know what to do next. Don’t make an offer just yet. Here’s what we advise. 

First step, look on Rightmove and other property sites to find out what the average house prices in that postcode/area. The figures won’t be perfect, but if you look at the most recently sold comparable properties (same number of bedrooms etc), it should help you gauge if the one you’re looking at is listed at a sensible price. If the property looks too expensive or cheap by comparison, it’s worth a chat with the estate agent to find out the sellers reasoning. 

Mortgage in principle 

If you need a mortgage to purchase the property, that’s where we come in. You can speak to one of our brokers and answer a few simple questions to see if you’re eligible for a mortgage and if so what your borrowing potential is.  

Estate agents may ask for evidence of a mortgage in principle or decision in principle to make sure your offer is proceedable. We will send you over a pdf copy once our initial call is complete. Be sure to disclose any issues you may have had in the past with credit as this can affect your likelihood of being accepted for a mortgage.  

If you have been given the mortgage in principle, you’re then ready to make an offer on your potential next home! 

Make an offer 

With your decision in principle in hand and confidence in the property price, you can make an offer. Contact the estate agent that is selling the property and tell them you’re calling to offer on the house you like. 

They will ask questions about whether you have a mortgage in principle, what deposit you are putting down and where your deposit funds are from. Sometimes they will want to see bank statements showing funds. It all sounds a little intrusive, but they work for the seller and are trying to establish if your offer is genuine and proceedable. There may be some back and forth as they communicate with the sellers but keep your budget in mind and be prepared to walk away if they are asking too much.  

Next Steps 

An offer in England is not legally binding and the seller can still accept other bids if a more attractive prospect comes along, so it’s important you ask the property is listed as sold STC at the very least and ask the vendor stops accepting viewings (they may not agree to this). 

You will need to instruct a solicitor to do your conveyancing, either ask for recommendations from family and friends if they’ve used someone they were very happy with, or we can recommend a firm we’ve worked with. 

You might want to instruct a survey on the property and the mortgage application will involve you sending over documents and evidence, but we’ll cover that in another blog, Happy house hunting.