Effective offer letter

suljka

Hi all,

Looking for a template for an effective and professional sounding way to put our offer on a property in writing. The EA is playing games a bit and we feel that he's not taking us or our offer seriously so would really like to put that offer through to them in writing, hoping it would help.

We're in very good position, first time buyers, so nothing to sell, no chain to worry about, have mortgage offer on the table (can provide paperwork if needed), solicitor on the stand by, 20% deposit and are very keen to get things moving, so would be very proactive to get the ball rolling.

Property needs some work, but our offer is not miles off, and it would be subject to the usual, contract, survey and information given by the EA being trutful...
We feel it would be also be useful to gently nudge the EA, remind them of their obligation to pass our offer on to the seller, and to confirm it in writing as per best codes of practice etc, etc. - of course all should be done in a very diplomatic way

If you have put your offer in writing and it worked, or if you have used a good template, or if you are just good at doing this sort of thing than please we'd really appreciate your help.

Many thanks in advance

undetterred

Obviously the offer must be short of what the EA thinks is required.

Why would a letter make it any better?

DVardysShadow

A letter will not kick an obstructive agent into action. Offers are dealt with verbally all the time, it is the norm. If the Agent wants something in writing, he will put it into writing himself. You need to work out why he is not taking your offer forwards.

Is the property a repo? Can you outline viewings and negotiations so far?

kingstreet

What work is needed? The agent may feel you'll simply make this offer then expect a big reduction later on when the extent of the work is known.

The agent may be trying to discourage you from attempting to purchase a property which you wouldn't be able to complete and which would cost you heavily to reach the conclusion the agent already expects/knows.

If there was a retention, could you afford the bigger deposit needed to bridge the gap to allow completion, then enough money to get the required works done before the retention is released?

DVardysShadow

kingstreet wrote: »

What work is needed? The agent may feel you'll simply make this offer then expect a big reduction later on when the extent of the work is known.

The agent may be trying to discourage you from attempting to purchase a property which you wouldn't be able to complete and which would cost you heavily to reach the conclusion the agent already expects/knows.

If there was a retention, could you afford the bigger deposit needed to bridge the gap to allow completion, then enough money to get the required works done before the retention is released?

While these are all judgements a good agent will make, this should manifest in advice to the seller when the offer is passed on.

There is no excuse for not getting back to the OP with an answer one way or the other.

kingstreet

I couldn't agree more, DVS.

I found the OP's comments about the agent a little vague, TBH, but

The EA is playing games a bit and we feel that he's not taking us or our offer seriously

and

gently nudge the EA, remind them of their obligation to pass our offer on to the seller, and to confirm it in writing

does indicate an issue and it would be helpful if the OP could clarify what has gone before and to answer my questions.

I've come across cases where the vendor, on being told of an offer, instructs the agent to accept, despite knowing the sale will not be able to complete because of a defect or issue with the property. The agent has no alternative but to act on his client's instructions and the end result is a load of wasted time and money for the purchaser and a thread on here which starts "The agent never told me...!"

DVardysShadow

kingstreet wrote: »

... I found the OP's comments about the agent a little vague, TBH,

Me too. Which is why OP needs to clarify as I requested, in order to get the right advice

suljka

undetterred wrote: »

Obviously the offer must be short of what the EA thinks is required.

Why would a letter make it any better?

DVardysShadow wrote: »

A letter will not kick an obstructive agent into action. Offers are dealt with verbally all the time, it is the norm. If the Agent wants something in writing, he will put it into writing himself. You need to work out why he is not taking your offer forwards.

Is the property a repo? Can you outline viewings and negotiations so far?

undetterred thank you for your view, that might well be the case, but it should not be down to the EA to make decisions on what is required and what not, as it is his job to pass on all offers to the seller, not to veto them. If the offer is lower than what the seller wants than that should be communicated back, and that hasn't been done. In fact that is one of the reasons why we believe the letter would be more effective way to put our offer forward, as it is much more difficult to ignore and also there's no EA interpretation of the offer getting in a way of the communication.

DVardysShadow - yes, offers are dealt with verbaly all the time, I agree, but if you were in our shoes and felt that the EA is not taking you seriously and therefore you are wondering even if your offers are being put forward, wouldn't you put your offer in writing? It might not kick them into action, but it also might do exactly that.
So rather than "try to work out why he's not taking [y]our offer forward", why not make it rather difficult for him not to take it forward?
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but number of posters on this forum seem to agree, as it is more often than not suggested to "put your offer in writing to be taken seriously", so I am slightly confused why all the oposition to do exactly that?

kingstreet wrote: »

What work is needed? The agent may feel you'll simply make this offer then expect a big reduction later on when the extent of the work is known.

The agent may be trying to discourage you from attempting to purchase a property which you wouldn't be able to complete and which would cost you heavily to reach the conclusion the agent already expects/knows.

If there was a retention, could you afford the bigger deposit needed to bridge the gap to allow completion, then enough money to get the required works done before the retention is released?

I'm sorry but your post is thorougly confusing and I simply can't see how it has anything to do with my question? You asume we wouldn't be able to complete - why? As for retention, again, what and why???

The property isn't in perfect condition, it needs some work, we aknowledged work that is needed in our offer and no we do not expect big reduction later when the extent of the work is known, as the extent of the work is known to us now. We had a builder view the property and have taken his quotes in consideration when putting in our offers. An no I didn't state any of that in my original post as it wasn't relevant to my question, which was how to put an offer in writing effectivly, not wheather we should do so or not.

If you have a look at my original post I outlined the relevant issue and asked a question about how to write an effective offer letter as we would like to put our offer in writing because we feel we are not taken seriously by the EA. Why we feel we are not being taken seriously isn't relevant and it makes no difference to anyone who can offer valuable advice on how to put an offer in writing in a good effective way.

Please if you can offer valuable and practical advice on how such letter should sound, or even better if you can give a template that can be adjusted to suit any particular circumstance buyer might find themselves in, that would be much appreciated.

Please forgive me if I am a bit impatient - don't mean to be rude of dismissive, but I simply don't think discussions based on lots of ifs, buts and maybes are most effective use of anyone's time. The EA so far has been very unprofessional, and he's been treating us as clueless FTB who are waste of his time - us putting our offer in writing might make him change his view of us, it might not, but unless we try we won't know - help with that much appreciated.

Thanks

kingstreet

What I'm trying to figure out is if it's possible the agent knows something about the property he can't tell you and in a roundabout way he's trying to put you off without bringing himself into conflict with his client.

Over the years I've come across what turned out to be unmortgageable properties which the vendor repeatedly agreed a price on in the hope their purchasers wouldn't find out the extent of the problems. A decent agent may try to put off a potential buyer to save them the costs involved in finding out they can't buy it and never could...

By establishing if there was anything in your make-up which the agent may have seen which would cause him to doubt your ability to purchase the property, I hoped to be able to give you an insight into what the agent might be thinking. I thought this might be more helpful than a simple "if the agent won't put your offer forward, all the letters in the world won't help."

Quite frankly, if I was concerned that my offer(s) weren't being communicated to the vendor, I would search out the vendor myself and ask the question directly of him, or her.

DVardysShadow

suljka wrote: »

... DVardysShadow - yes, offers are dealt with verbaly all the time, I agree, but if you were in our shoes and felt that the EA is not taking you seriously and therefore you are wondering even if your offers are being put forward, wouldn't you put your offer in writing? It might not kick them into action, but it also might do exactly that.
So rather than "try to work out why he's not taking [y]our offer forward", why not make it rather difficult for him not to take it forward?
Please correct me if I'm wrong, but number of posters on this forum seem to agree, as it is more often than not suggested to "put your offer in writing to be taken seriously", so I am slightly confused why all the oposition to do exactly that?

Up to you how you handle it. Yes, there have been times when some posters [rather obsessively] to my mind suggest putting an offer in writing. And then they make what are to my mind excessive suggestions that you justify the price that you are knocking it down to and you stress the excellence of your position. I don't subscribe to this position, I have never needed to do it and what's more, something is wrong if you do need to do it.

suljka wrote: »

... The property isn't in perfect condition, it needs some work, we aknowledged work that is needed in our offer and no we do not expect big reduction later when the extent of the work is known, as the extent of the work is known to us now. We had a builder view the property and have taken his quotes in consideration when putting in our offers. An no I didn't state any of that in my original post as it wasn't relevant to my question, which was how to put an offer in writing effectivly, not wheather we should do so or not.

If you have a look at my original post I outlined the relevant issue and asked a question about how to write an effective offer letter as we would like to put our offer in writing because we feel we are not taken seriously by the EA. Why we feel we are not being taken seriously isn't relevant and it makes no difference to anyone who can offer valuable advice on how to put an offer in writing in a good effective way.

Please if you can offer valuable and practical advice on how such letter should sound, or even better if you can give a template that can be adjusted to suit any particular circumstance buyer might find themselves in, that would be much appreciated.

OK, you have decided that a letter is what is needed to solve your problem. And you have studiously avoided telling us what has happened in negotiations. I would prefer to understand what the problem is before making suggestions. But as you have decided that you understand the problem and that a letter is the answer, I would say that you are the master of this problem more than anyone here, so perhaps you are best placed to write the killer letter. You certainly shouldn't rush off with an ordinary offer letter designed for a situation where the agent is not being obstructive without thinking about how it will address your situation.

newhome4us

DVardysShadow wrote: »

A letter will not kick an obstructive agent into action. Offers are dealt with verbally all the time, it is the norm. If the Agent wants something in writing, he will put it into writing himself. You need to work out why he is not taking your offer forwards.

The problem with verbal offers is that they can be misunderstood, misinterpreted or even simply manipulated by unscrupulous EA - which is exactly my experience with the EA, which in the end resulted in a formal complaint to Property ombudsman.
And in hindsight if I knew it would ever end up that way I would put every bit of communication I ever had with the EA down on paper, or in an email or even recorded it somehow. It is wonderful to have trust in people, but unfortunately when it comes to EA most of them don't understand the meaning of the word.

The OP is right wanting to put his offer in writing - as a matter of fact my advice to anyone buying a property would be to put everything in writing, that way you have a very tangible proof of what's been said and when, rather then your word against theirs.

kingstreet wrote: »

I couldn't agree more, DVS.

I found the OP's comments about the agent a little vague, TBH, but



and



does indicate an issue and it would be helpful if the OP could clarify what has gone before and to answer my questions.

I've come across cases where the vendor, on being told of an offer, instructs the agent to accept, despite knowing the sale will not be able to complete because of a defect or issue with the property. The agent has no alternative but to act on his client's instructions and the end result is a load of wasted time and money for the purchaser and a thread on here which starts "The agent never told me...!"

The OP comments on the EA might be vague, but as they ask for a template offer letter we really do not need to know the background or their circumstances to provide that, do we?

As for the rest of your post, while it is a valid assumption, it is an assumption nonetheless and as far as I can see OP does not suggest there're any issues with the property as such.
If there are issues that would create potential problems for the buyer, OP does not mention them, nor does he mention EA suggesting any issues.

Property needs work, but they had advice from the builder about the work so it is unlikely there'll be any surprises, any more than in most cases of property purchase.
In fact they did well as they had builder have a look which, if the posts on here are anything to go by, is much more than most people do before putting in an offer. If you are suggesting property might be undervalued that's the danger with any purchase, so no escaping from it and it does not explain why EA would be playing games. It is simple, EA play games because thet is what they do!!!
As FTB I can totally relate to OP as I had to go through similar experience, some EA I had to deal with make a judgement that's based on what shoes you wear, what clothes you wear, or god forbid if you name isn't quite right, and surprise, surprise, they decide if you are actually worthy of their time. Anyways!

suljka wrote: »

If you have a look at my original post I outlined the relevant issue and asked a question about how to write an effective offer letter as we would like to put our offer in writing because we feel we are not taken seriously by the EA. Why we feel we are not being taken seriously isn't relevant and it makes no difference to anyone who can offer valuable advice on how to put an offer in writing in a good effective way.

Please if you can offer valuable and practical advice on how such letter should sound, or even better if you can give a template that can be adjusted to suit any particular circumstance buyer might find themselves in, that would be much appreciated.

Please forgive me if I am a bit impatient - don't mean to be rude of dismissive, but I simply don't think discussions based on lots of ifs, buts and maybes are most effective use of anyone's time. The EA so far has been very unprofessional, and he's been treating us as clueless FTB who are waste of his time - us putting our offer in writing might make him change his view of us, it might not, but unless we try we won't know - help with that much appreciated.

Thanks

You shouldn't feel bad about trying to put people straight, if anything they should feel bad about jumping to conclusions rather than thinking about what you are asking.

I am sorry that I can't offer any practical advice regarding offer letters, but I felt strongly about the issue and from my personal experience would recommend you put your offer in writing always.
I will most def do so in all my future dealings with the EA, so will follow your post with interest.

I do remember reading some useful advice on how to do so in this forum before, but couldn't find the link. Maybe someone else can provide that link?
Nothing useful comes from google, but I imagine you've done the search before asking for help anyway.


I second your plea for a template for an effective, serious, well thought out letter of offer and hope few can be provided by those more experienced, as they'd be most useful for many novices.


Good luck with your purchase, hope it works out