Look, I know I’m biased, but I think it should be a thing in the UK property market.

The Problem with Buying a House in the UK

Buying a house in the UK is a big-ticket item at the end of the day. How often are you making a six-figure purchase in your life?

And everyone complains about how it’s a stressful experience. There’s a lot of uncertainty and anxiety attached to each arm of the process. Is it a good price? Is it a good street? How do I offer? How much will the refurbishments cost? How do I even buy a house in the UK? What should I offer? What happens next? Why isn’t my solicitor responding to me????

They are the questions I had when buying my first property. I probably naively didn’t ask some of them, too.

My Personal Experience

I was very much on my own and up against professionals the entire time, some of them who were not on my side. I wasn’t scared, but I probably should have been, and it took me well over a year of trial and error until I secured a property.

This was because:
1: I had no connections
2: I had no experience
3: I didn’t know what was important
4: I didn’t know the areas
5: I didn’t know the house buying process

Now that is probably a fairly normal experience for first-time home buyers. But here’s the thing – I was about to pour ALL of my money into this property and take on risky short-term debt. Does that not sound like a bad idea? Well, it was a bad idea in the end. I made every mistake in the book and had every trick in the book played on me.

More of my story here

Would I Have Hired a Buyer’s Agent?

Would I have hired a buyer’s agent back then? I don’t know, I’d never heard of it, but if someone had told me I was about to go through all that—the 16 months of half-searching, viewing, stressing out, offering and losing out—then told me they were offering a way out of that where I could get a property quickly, keep me away from bad areas, use their connections to make me more of a priority client, hold my hand through the entire property purchase process, make sure I’m not overpaying, make sure I’m not buying a problem property… things probably would have been different. Sitting here now, if I could go back, I would 100% tell myself to have someone on my side.

Why Isn’t This a Big Thing?

So again, my question is – why isn’t a Buyer’s Agent a big thing?

After working over the past few years as an estate agent, in lettings, and as a property auctioneer, I saw so many people going through all these trials and tribunals to eventually settle on a property half because they were exhausted of the process and half because they liked it.

Still uncertain about their purchase.

The Cost Barrier

One of the main answers to my question has been that people can’t afford it. It’s an extra cost.

Fair, it is an extra cost that you are knowingly paying, and yes, money is usually stretched to the max when buying a house, but at what cost are you paying doing it yourself? Time is a cost. So is stress, and so are mistakes.

Comparing DIY to a Buyer’s Agent

Let’s compare DIY to what you get for a cost of only 1% from a buyer’s agent:

– Speed: a buyer’s agent works the market fast

– Access to industry contacts and connections

– Instant knowledge on areas and streets

– Hand-holding and guidance every step of the way

– Diligent research on all the things you haven’t thought about

– All the property listing searching done for you and presented to you on a plate

– Your own agent has worked on the inside and knows the tricks

– Knowing refurbishment costs

– Knowing the problems to look out for and how to spot them

– Strong negotiation skills

– Can view properties with you or on your behalf at any time

– Access to off-market listings

So yes, I know I’m biased, but I’d say that’s a fair deal, and one might even be losing out not to take that.

Let Me Tell You a Story

Setting the scene:

First-time buyer relocating, needed a quick turnaround. Came to me wanting help with how to buy a house for the first time in a new area.

Step 1: The foundation of the purchase. This comes in beneficially later on.

– Organise the mortgage. I phoned one of my trusted contacts, and they had a meeting a few days later. A mortgage broker who I knew was going to really look after my client. The mortgage broker moved quickly, and we secured a decision in principle for the buyer. This shows we are serious in the market to sellers.

– Organise a solicitor for the house purchase to represent the client. One that I have a good relationship with, have worked with before, and always reply to my messages very quickly.

A nice article on how to find the best mortgage for you.

Step 2: This saves MONTHS of time for a buyer.

– In two days, they knew exactly where they stood in the market and what was available to them, which was in line with their criteria.

– I took the criteria from the client. Put together a consultation on his specific property markets, educated and showed the client clear data so we are all on the same page and able to move with a market rather than against it.

– Shortlist all properties into a spreadsheet, again saving time.

– I also phoned around all the estate agents that I was friendly with and got their take on the current market conditions, so we knew exactly where we were at in real time, not from 4-month-old data. This helps us position well when negotiating depending on where the market is in terms of supply and demand.

Step 3: This is where we focus

– Home in on the client’s selected properties and booked viewings. There were 166 properties on the market across all websites that vaguely matched the criteria. I went through all individually and ran the criteria through them. This brought the list down to 24, and then once passed on to the client, the list went to 6.

– I then homed in on the 6 and after further research from myself, which was passed to the client, we eventually booked 3 viewings from the 6.

– 2 viewings on the Monday and one on Tuesday. We had a Zoom call on Tuesday night to discuss.

Step 4: Here comes the benefits from our foundation

– Negotiating & securing the property for the client. Selling our position to the agent/seller. Unless we are up against a cash buyer, we by far have the best position vs the competition (other buyers).

– After being instructed on a top-end price the buyer would go to, I phoned up the estate agent the following morning. Got a little bit more info on how other viewings were going before I played my hand and made an offer under the ask due to a few reasons that I had read between the lines. The agent came back 20 mins later (which is always a good sign) and countered. Given it was still under what my clients were prepared to pay and a little bit of pressure from other interested parties, we agreed on the price.

– I immediately called the client to let them know that we had secured the property. I then helped guide them with their next steps. I texted the solicitor & the mortgage broker letting them both know and making them aware we were moving forward.

Step 5: Legal & mortgage stage

– The pre-appointed solicitor got to work on their end. The mortgage broker and buyer got to work straight away on the mortgage offer.

– The seller wanted a quicker completion which was about just over 7 weeks. That is quite quick with a mortgage involved; however, we had a good team built around the buyer and were able to complete in that time without any hiccups.

– During this time, I would stay in close contact with everyone involved in the purchase, keeping the client fully updated and answering all questions they have.

– We also discussed any improvements to be booked in for the client and got to work on this.

Step 6: Getting the keys & refurbishment

– The property completed on the Friday after lunch (the day we got the keys). I picked up the keys for the buyer while they worked.

– Helped with my contact base to book in a carpet fitter first thing on the Saturday morning, which I oversaw, and we had completed the job before the buyer arrived with some of their belongings.

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Data:

• First consultation: 26th of July
• Second consultation: 30th of July
• Search commenced: 30th of July
• 1x viewing: 5th of August
• 2x viewings: 6th of August
• Desired property secured: 7th of August
• Keys picked up: 27th of Sept
• Renovation completed: 28th of Sept
• 5 days of prep work
• 9 days of house searching
• 51 days of legal work

Total: 65 days or 9 weeks from first consultation to keys in the hand.

Client Review

“Alasdair is a delight to work with, he is professional, supportive and gave stellar advice throughout the buying journey. Alasdair was able to recommend a mortgage broker and solicitor as well as having tradesmen contacts meaning although we (and our first time buyer son) who didn’t live in the area had access to the services we needed without having to start searching with no idea how reliable they may be. Alasdair is easy to deal with and ensured he knew what we were looking for. Customer satisfaction is clearly a priority. I would have no hesitation in recommending Professional Property Finders to anyone beginning their house search journey wishing some advice and help in what can be the most expensive purchase you may make. Thank you Alasdair for all your help and support and for always getting back to us promptly when we had questions! My son is delighted with his purchase!”