Property buying - Keep your options open

There is no law preventing you putting an offer in on as many properties as you want. You can withdraw an offer at any time before a contract is signed and so don’t stop when you have found a property you like.

Someone who works in our office put an offer in on 6 properties when he was looking to buy a flat last year! He was happy to move into any of them but put in offers at least 10% below asking price. He didn’t think anyone was going to accept the offers but the reaction from the estate agents gave him a good sign as to which sellers were going to be most likely to do a deal. He told the estate agents that he was desperate to buy, wanted to complete quickly but had a number of properties that were interesting in the area.

Many of the sellers came back saying that the offer was derisory but the ones that didn’t were the ones he focussed in on. He smelt blood with these sellers, especially the ones who had bought to let but who at the time didn’t have tenants. He ended up getting a 7% discount on the market value of the property …. And he still dragged out completion to over 6 months while he lived at his parent’s rent free!

Summary:- When you find a property you like that is not the end of your search it is only the beginning. Look at lots of estate agents and search the internet to build up a portfolio of possible properties.

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