By Emma Magnus.
Black Brick Managing Partner and experienced property buying agent, Camilla Dell has shared her insights and advice to buyers in The Standard this week.
The Questions Every Buyer Should Ask an Estate Agent
Buying a property is, for most people, the single largest financial commitment they’ll ever make. Yet British reticence often gets in the way of buyers asking the direct questions that could save them significant time, stress and money. As Black Brick founder Camilla Dell puts it:
“Information is critical to be able assess price, ability to negotiate, timescales and whether there are any potential hidden reasons why you may not want — or be able — to buy that property. It’s a very British thing to not ask and be polite, but buying a property is one of the most expensive things a person buys in their lifetime.”
Drawing on our experience negotiating on behalf of buyers across prime central London, here are the key questions we always recommend asking an estate agent before making an offer.
1. Why Is the Seller Selling?
Understanding a seller’s motivation shapes how an offer should be positioned and how much room there is to negotiate. As Dell explains:
“Understanding why the seller wants to sell is critical when working out how to position offers and, importantly, how amenable the seller may be to negotiating. A seller that’s getting divorced, probate or receivership sales indicate a higher probability of being able to negotiate successfully. A seller with no mortgage and no real reason to sell other than ‘if they get their price’ suggests far less chance of negotiating anything.”
2. What Is the Seller’s Timescale?
Timing is frequently overlooked at offer stage, yet it can be just as important as price. Establishing whether a seller has somewhere to move to — and whether they might accept a lower price in exchange for a delayed completion, for example — can unlock a deal that might otherwise stall.
3. Is the Property Actually Deliverable?
In other words: is the seller genuinely committed to selling? This is a particularly important question for off-market properties, where a seller may be testing the water rather than seriously pursuing a sale.
4. Is the Seller Ready to Proceed?
We always recommend asking whether the seller has instructed a law firm and whether a legal pack is ready to go, along with whether there’s a mortgage on the property — information that’s also publicly available via the Land Registry. It’s equally important to establish who the real decision-maker is; a sale involving multiple family members can move very differently to one involving a single owner.
5. Are You the Main Agent?
Buyers should always establish whether they’re dealing directly with the seller’s instructed agent, or with a sub-agent. Working through a sub-agent can leave buyers at a disadvantage, particularly in a competitive bidding scenario, where the main agent will naturally prioritise their own direct buyer.
6. What Offers Has the Property Received Before — and What Happened?
It’s always worth asking about the property’s offer history. If a previous offer was accepted and the buyer later withdrew, find out why. The same applies if a sale fell through for any other reason — and it’s worth asking how long the property has been on the market in total.
7. What Are the Terms of Any Current Offers?
If an agent is using a competing offer to create urgency, push for detail: are they cash buyers, or dependent on finance? What timescale are they proposing? Is there a related sale in the chain? Headline price is often the least important part of a bid — the strength and conditions attached to it matter far more.
8. Whose Price Is This — the Seller’s or the Agent’s?
If a guide price feels out of step with the market, it’s worth understanding how it was reached. Sometimes a seller overrides their agent’s pricing advice, in which case it may simply take time for realism to set in. Where the price has come from the agent, ask for comparable evidence to support it — if none is forthcoming, that’s a useful signal in itself.
Our Take
The right questions, asked early and directly, can transform a negotiation — helping buyers judge not just whether a price is fair, but whether a deal is realistically achievable at all. It’s an area where an experienced buying agent, with direct access to sellers, agents and off-market intelligence, can make a material difference to the outcome.
Read the full article to learn more here.