What's the best way to make an offer?

lookstraightahead

Email or phone call?

cattie

Phone call all the way for me, with emails you can't be 100% it gets to it's destination & is read.

moneysavinghero

Email - Quicker, you have a record and you won't have the agent trying to weasel the price up (well they will still try, but will be take them longer).

duggana

Both, email and follow up with a call to confirm receipt.

eddddy

Is it via an EA?

The EA will probably want to do a cursory check that you're not a time waster - and get info from you that will help them persuade the buyer to accept your offer. Like for example, you're a FTB, you've got a mortgage AIP with xxxx lender, you're really keen to move quickly, etc etc.

So you could phone, or you could put all the important info into a very concise email - but the EA might phone you anyway to check details.

bravotango

I did both.

Email with the offer. Then maybe an hour later, follow up with a telephone call to make sure.

Thrugelmir

Telephone call. Otherwise you be sitting wondering what's happening. 

AlexMac

Do waht bravo tango said... but...

While unlikely, assume the worst... that the EA is lazy, incompetent or both, doesn't pick up voicemails, doesn't read emails and forgets to pass on messages.  So cover all the bases.  We made an offer by phone one midweek, orally by phone, had it refused, upped it on the next Monday, in the Agency office in person, then sat tight in hopeful expectation.   

Days passed.. obviously still refused,

So we moved on to a second choice property, which was going to "sealed bids" with a different EA the subsequent Monday.  We viewed it, decided to buy it, drafted our best bid and, just before we delivered the letter over the weekend (a full five days after we'd lost the first property) we rang  the original EA on the Friday to complain that that it would have been courteous to let us know we'd failed...

And were told by the office junior.. "oh; didn't the agent tell you?  Your offer was accepted last Tuesday. It's yours",  Grrr!  Cross my palm with silver and I'll tell you the name of the Agency in Kent, SE England, which nearly screwed up.

Byt that won't happen to you- after all, I bet your vendor is dealing with the bestest, most efficient EA in the business; a bit like us with the really wonderful young guy in an Agency in Ryde on the Isle of Wight who made our last sale a dream; the most effective communicator in the business. (cross my palm with silver....)

RelievedSheff

We put our offers in in person at the estate agents office. That way we knew that they had the details they required and our offer.

lookstraightahead

All makes me want to go round in person and sit on the EA step
Think my plan of action will be to get OH to deal with it. Ha! 

SpiderLegs

lookstraightahead said:

Email or phone call?

Have you considered semaphore?