Best Practice Offer Letter

Schwarzwald

74jax said:

I've worked around residential purchases for nearly 25yrs, admitedly the last 10 in newbuild. Never seen a list like that.

Your solicitor takes up the 'demands' for you, the estate agents mainly agrees a price you are both (seller/purchaser) happy with and then passes to sols.

Whatever rapport you have with the estate agent, the seller is paying them. 

 you seem to be qualified to speak on this topic then, thanks for sharing that experience

jimbog

I can understand that you are trying to avoid the 10 month saga that you experienced last year in your previous transaction but introducing a second contract into the process will only muddy the waters. 

At this initial stage of the transaction you are like the guy trying to get a date with the girl. You need to come across as charming, attractive and considerate. It's a dance not a battle.

canaldumidi

jimbog said:

At this initial stage of the transaction you are like the guy trying to get a date with the girl. You need to come across as charming, attractive, and considerate and easy to get along with. It's a dance not a battle.

Indeed........

Grumpy_chap

I assume this is in England.

Schwarzwald said:

I would be interested to hear how people make their offers on residential properties and what they would consider best-in-class?

• Do you just call the EA and tell him the number?

Yes.

Schwarzwald said:

So far, I have sent a rather formal, well structured emails, laying out the offer price, how I derived at the price, information on my person and situation as well as why I believe this is a good offer and I am a good buyer.

What ?!

Schwarzwald said:

Plus I attached conditions to my offer, e.g. offer is only valid for 72 hours, acceptance of offer must result in property being taken off the market, offer is made on the basis that the property is in good and sound conditions, without any material or structural issues, I am being granted access at least [x] times between offer acceptance and exchange, etc.

What ?!

Schwarzwald said:

Which other conditions do you include, if any?

None.


All the Seller is interested in is the amount you are willing to pay and the fact that he EA has "qualified" you as a Buyer.  The EA normally does that "qualifying" prior to permitting viewings, albeit informally and through soft skills mostly so you don't even realise the process is in progress.

Particularly at the moment, it is a Seller's market.  As others said, the Seller is likely to see this type of approach as showing an awkward Buyer and with a choice between an awkward Buyer and a more relaxed Buyer, more relaxed is an easier option.  Having said that, an EA probably receives the e-mail, then simply phones the Seller to let them know an offer has been received at £x so the Seller never sees all the waffle in the e-mail.

This thread is fairly unanimous in the feedback, yet, the OP says this is a tried and tested approach that works for them:

Schwarzwald said:

so far i had 3/4 offers accepted, so it cant be received that negative, 

Schwarzwald said:

3/4 offers got accepted. I actually never had negative feedback on the offers so far,

out of the 3, I completed 1x, 1x I pulled out due to findings, and 1x is still in process.

All 4x offers were in 2021 and all 4x were below asking price, ie also the 3x which got accepted were offers below asking price and with conditions similar to the ones described. And no, these were not properties that nobody wanted.

Which rather begs the question, if the OP has a proven approach that is yielding satisfactory outcomes, what advice does the OP want from asking the question?

Schwarzwald

Grumpy_chap said:

[…] Which rather begs the question, if the OP has a proven approach that is yielding satisfactory outcomes, what advice does the OP want from asking the question? […]

Sometimes helps to read the actual opening post, first sentence: “I would be interested to hear how people make their offers on residential properties and what they would consider best-in-class?”

All I was after was hearing how others do it… yes I am fairly happy with the outcome of my offers so far, especially in light of the answers in this thread.

i’ve made my offers so far in “isolation”, therefore good to hear what “market practice” is, if such is best practice can be discussed, but market practice indeed seems to be to just call the EA and drop a number.

i got the answer to my question, thanks, we can close the discussion here if we like.

peterhjohnson

Schwarzwald said:

• Do you just call the EA and tell him the number?

That's the one :-) Always worked for me

jenni_fer

I read this thread yesterday with a great deal of amusement whilst also making an offer on a house via WhatsApp!

I wouldn't advocate that this is a standard method of making offers but would point out that online agents have a portal with little room to do much more than put a financial figure in.

For the most part,  our experience is that any additional information is purely aimed at convincing the seller to pick you, and the best and final process that we have found ourselves in multiple times does not lend to making any demands on the seller whatsoever. 

TheJP

jenni_fer said:

I read this thread yesterday with a great deal of amusement whilst also making an offer on a house via WhatsApp!

I wouldn't advocate that this is a standard method of making offers but would point out that online agents have a portal with little room to do much more than put a financial figure in.

For the most part,  our experience is that any additional information is purely aimed at convincing the seller to pick you, and the best and final process that we have found ourselves in multiple times does not lend to making any demands on the seller whatsoever. 

Exactly! The last thing a seller wants is a list of reasons why the interest party thinks they have overvalued their house. Give them a figure and wait a response.