Telling the estate agent your maximum budget?

RedTomato

Some people say, don't let the estate agent know your maximum budget or full deposit because they will try to always push you to your limit.

Thing is, how do you not let the estate agent know? They need to know your budget and your position as far as deposit/mortgage in order to know that you're not a time waster don't they?

Would be interested to hear views on this..

princessamy86

I'm an EA and I think people normally tell me about 10% less than their actual top maximum price that they are willing to pay. Our system is set to search 15% either side of max and min prices when we are property matching, and you often get people saying they want to pay so much but could stretch to x amount for the perfect property. I think a lot of it depends on the EA, people tend to be quite truthful with me because I'd like to think I don't act like polyester-suited idiot, whereas my manager can struggle a bit to get people to trust him as he's more "sales-y" for want of a better word.

They don't need to see your mortgage offer until you put an offer forward by the way, some vendors might ask if you have been financially qualified but most will take you at face value. I would probably tell the EA around 10% less than your top budget, rounded off to the nearest £5k.

LydiaJ

Suppose you think "I am looking to spend £X but I could just about stretch to £Y if I really loved the house." If you tell them this they will show you things that are between £X and £Y and a bit above £Y as well, to try to tempt you to stretch further.

Instead, you say "I am looking to spend £X." They will then show you properties a bit below £X and a bit above it too - hopefully still less than £Y.

sinbad182

When I was looking I told them I wanted to see properties between x-value and x-value. I prefered to not give an exact max value in case the agent used it to try and squeeze a bit more out of me.

RedTomato

Thank you for the replies, more to think about..

westv

Just keep looking on your favourite property portal and don't bother telling agents your maximum budget.

princeofpounds

The point is you tell them the values you want to see, not the values you can actually afford. If they know you have slack in the budget then they will often try to push you houses not in your original budget, or more annoyingly the overpriced houses that should be in your budget but are a bit above, because they know you want that sort of thing and can afford the overpricing. It also disadvantages you when you get to negotiations, because if they know you have the ability to go higher vendors can push it a bit more, particularly in a gazumping (or fake gazumping) situation.

Of course if you have an iron will and patience then it's not a disaster if they know, but it just helps keep the ball in your court if you don't talk about what you can afford but what you want to view.

DVardysShadow

princeofpounds wrote: »

The point is you tell them the values you want to see, not the values you can actually afford. If they know you have slack in the budget then they will often try to push you houses not in your original budget, or more annoyingly the overpriced houses that should be in your budget but are a bit above, because they know you want that sort of thing and can afford the overpricing. It also disadvantages you when you get to negotiations, because if they know you have the ability to go higher vendors can push it a bit more, particularly in a gazumping (or fake gazumping) situation.

Mrs Shadow and I did this. We said that we would look at houses with an asking price up to X, but there was no way we had that much finance. Some agents could not cope with this, but with others it worked fine. Those who could not cope were no loss.

LandyAndy

princessamy86 wrote: »

I'm an EA and I think people normally tell me about 10% less than their actual top maximum price that they are willing to pay. Our system is set to search 15% either side of max and min prices when we are property matching, and you often get people saying they want to pay so much but could stretch to x amount for the perfect property. I think a lot of it depends on the EA, people tend to be quite truthful with me because I'd like to think I don't act like polyester-suited idiot, whereas my manager can struggle a bit to get people to trust him as he's more "sales-y" for want of a better word.

They don't need to see your mortgage offer until you put an offer forward by the way, some vendors might ask if you have been financially qualified but most will take you at face value. I would probably tell the EA around 10% less than your top budget, rounded off to the nearest £5k.

The EA never needs to see your mortgage offer. They only need your lender to confirm that your offer is within your financial resources. When we last bought our lender very specifically told us not to divulge our maximum mortgage offer to any EA but simply to tell the EA to ring them and they would confirm that we were good for the amount offered.

LydiaJ

westv wrote: »

Just keep looking on your favourite property portal and don't bother telling agents your maximum budget.

If you are the sort of buyer they want - finance sorted, chain free etc - then it's definitely worth telling them what features you want and what price range you're interested in. Good agents will then tell you about properties as soon as they hear about them, while the listing for the portal is still being prepared.

I was phoned about a property on Thursday and viewed it on Friday. It hasn't appeared on RM yet.

westv

LydiaJ wrote: »

If you are the sort of buyer they want - finance sorted, chain free etc - then it's definitely worth telling them what features you want and what price range you're interested in. Good agents will then tell you about properties as soon as they hear about them, while the listing for the portal is still being prepared.

I was phoned about a property on Thursday and viewed it on Friday. It hasn't appeared on RM yet.

Unless it's likely to sell fast I don't see that waiting a few days makes any difference.