Are these the normal questions asked when putting in an offer?

williamc10

My son is a first time buyer and has put in an identical offer to another person so his estate agent has requested he let them have your Best and Final offer in writing and cover the following. If any of these questions should be answered in a slightly nuanced and caveated way then please let me know

1. Your offer should be received in writing by 08-07-2021
2. Please supply the name and address of your solicitors.
3. You offer is to be submitted subject to contract only and any other conditions on which it is made are to be specified.
4. You must state if your offer is subject to the sale of any existing property and if so the current position of the sale.
5. You must state how you intend to fund the purchase (i.e. do you require a mortgage) and provide details of who will provide the finance. You will be required to meet our financial adviser to qualify your offer and if you are buying with cash you will be required to provide confirmation that you have the funds to proceed immediately.
6. Please list any fixtures, fittings or furnishings that are to be included in your offer.
7. You must state if your offer is subject to a survey.
8. Only offers of a non-variable nature will be considered.
9. The vendor reserves the right not to accept the highest, or any, offer made.

Justonemorecupoftea

Those type of questions are not unusual to help people compare offers on a like for like basis, however there are a couple of red flags:

5 - meeting with their financial advisor sounds like they want to sell you a mortgage. You can a) push back on this and make your own arrangements (unlikely to matter to the vendor) b) attend such a meeting and smile and nod, but say thanks, but no thanks and make your own arrangements c) use their services.

7 - sounds like there might be something in the survey they don't want people to know about and they might accept lower offers from buyers not having one done.

8 - I assume this means no negotiation after the fact - which kind of backs up the above, I'd be wary about agreeing to this. Although it's not contractually binding and you can negotiate, they may pull the plug on the sale.

london21

williamc10 said:

My son is a first time buyer and has put in an identical offer to another person so his estate agent has requested he let them have your Best and Final offer in writing and cover the following. If any of these questions should be answered in a slightly nuanced and caveated way then please let me know

1. Your offer should be received in writing by 08-07-2021
2. Please supply the name and address of your solicitors.
3. You offer is to be submitted subject to contract only and any other conditions on which it is made are to be specified.
4. You must state if your offer is subject to the sale of any existing property and if so the current position of the sale.
5. You must state how you intend to fund the purchase (i.e. do you require a mortgage) and provide details of who will provide the finance. You will be required to meet our financial adviser to qualify your offer and if you are buying with cash you will be required to provide confirmation that you have the funds to proceed immediately.
6. Please list any fixtures, fittings or furnishings that are to be included in your offer.
7. You must state if your offer is subject to a survey.
8. Only offers of a non-variable nature will be considered.
9. The vendor reserves the right not to accept the highest, or any, offer made.

I have seen most of those before. They are trying to guage the buyer's position and seriiousness.

"You must state how you intend to fund the purchase (i.e. do you require a mortgage) and provide details of who will provide the finance. You will be required to meet our financial adviser to qualify your offer and if you are buying with cash you will be required to provide confirmation that you have the funds to proceed immediately."
I will usually present to them my AIP, If they still want to qualify me fine but does not necesarily mean i will be using their broker.

"Please list any fixtures, fittings or furnishings that are to be included in your offer."
haven's seen this before but maybe they want to get rid of furniture etc

"You must state if your offer is subject to a survey."
haven't seen this before, could there be issues with the property perhaps.

AdrianC

williamc10 said:

My son is a first time buyer and has put in an identical offer to another person so his estate agent has requested he let them have your Best and Final offer in writing and cover the following. If any of these questions should be answered in a slightly nuanced and caveated way

"Nuanced and caveated"...?

You mean somewhat less than the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth...?

So which ones might he be trying to weasel around...?

Your offer should be received in writing by 08-07-2021

That's tomorrow. If that's an issue, don't waste their time.

Please supply the name and address of your solicitors.

He does have a solicitor lined up?

You offer is to be submitted subject to contract only and any other conditions on which it is made are to be specified.

What other conditions would he have?

You must state if your offer is subject to the sale of any existing property and if so the current position of the sale.

Is there a chain?

You must state how you intend to fund the purchase (i.e. do you require a mortgage) and provide details of who will provide the finance. You will be required to meet our financial adviser to qualify your offer and if you are buying with cash you will be required to provide confirmation that you have the funds to proceed immediately.

Does he have all the finance lined up?

Please list any fixtures, fittings or furnishings that are to be included in your offer.

No saying "Well, yes, I offered X, but only if you left the kitchen table, all the furniture, your missus, and the dog. Without those, I'm only offering twenty grand less".

You must state if your offer is subject to a survey.

Does he require one?

Only offers of a non-variable nature will be considered.

No trying to chisel anything off later. Especially if the lender valuation is lower.

The vendor reserves the right not to accept the highest, or any, offer made.

No complaining if his offer's not chosen.

Irishpearce26

To be honest that's a sign of a very good an diligent EA! If your son doesn't have the answer to any of these then he needs to get organised. This is a sign that the seller is authentic and wants to get the sale done quickly and diligently. 

SDLT_Geek

williamc10 said:
Only offers of a non-variable nature will be considered.

Others have said that this is to mark a card that later renegotiation will not be allowed.

Another possibility is that it means they will not accept an offer which is the nature of a formula, such as "I offer £5,000 more than the next highest offer made, up to a maximum of £260,000."

user1977

SDLT_Geek said:

williamc10 said:
Only offers of a non-variable nature will be considered.

Others have said that this is to mark a card that later renegotiation will not be allowed.

Another possibility is that it means they will not accept an offer which is the nature of a formula, such as "I offer £5,000 more than the next highest offer made, up to a maximum of £260,000."

Yes, I think it just means it needs to be a definite amount.

greensalad

We submitted the answers to most of those questions when we made our offer (emailed, then followed up by phone). With the exception of number 6. Our offer letter was something along the lines of:

"After viewing X this afternoon, we’d like to submit an offer subject to contract and survey for £X. We would be most grateful if you could pass this on to the sellers for their consideration.

We have a cash deposit and an Agreement In Principle with X bank.

Our solicitors are in place and are ready to commence. We are using X in X. Their number is X.

We are first time buyers currently living in rented accommodation, and so can proceed immediately with no downward chain. Likewise, we’re also able to wait if desired by the sellers."