What to tell estate agent about my budget?

Mergic

MaxTheCat wrote: »

I didn't disclose my budget to any estate agents... I could have spent another 200k was none of their business.

But showing an interest in a particular house is giving them an idea of 'your budget'. Showing interest in 3 or 4 gives them a better idea of what you're looking for. Your budget isn't necessarily what you can afford, but what property requirements you're looking for (location, size, features etc.). At the end of the day, it's balancing these requirements that will dictate your budget and not the maximum price you can afford. For some this will be pushing up to the maximum you can afford while others will just want the 'right house' even though they could afford a lot more. For us, we didn't want to over stretch ourselves and could have afforded a lot more, but we had an idea of what we did want and the range of prices we may have to pay for this, depending on it's actual location, condition, size etc. By giving this to the Estate Agent we demonstrated we were serious, understood the market and knew what we wanted.

Miss_Marple_2

I didn't tell the estate agent what my budget was, but I suppose they got an idea from what I was looking at, but then I kept upping my budget when I realised what was available with the initial figure I had in mind ( I had an inheritance, so i was lucky enough to be able to do this)

When I offered on the house that I am now buying, after my first offer was initially rejected and the estate agent came back with what the buyers really wanted for it, I did say that there was no way I was paying that, and that my decision was not based on budget restrictions but on the house not being worth it. The vendors did then lower the amount that they would accept. Not sure if me saying that had any sway in the matter, but that was the first time I showed my hand to the estate agent.