Selling
Accepting the offer

Once you have had a few buyers around eventually you might receive an offer on your property.

If your home is marketed through an estate agent the offer will come through them, you can either tell them you would like to accept or if you are holding out for a higher price let them know - they buyer may just increase their offer!

Basically this is how much the buyer is prepared to pay - a word of warning though, under English law, this offer is not legally binding - they can drop out or change their mind at any time. Similarly, although not what we would call best practice, if you received a higher offer you are legally entitled to drop the lower one in favour of the higher offer.

It would depend on how far through the transaction you are whether it would be worthwhile accepting a higher offer, once you have started to incur costs and found a house to buy dropping out and starting again for a higher offer is a high risk move.

The most common reasons for a buyer to pull out include, they may not get a mortgage, or the survey may show up some structural problem or other serious issues. Its wise not to commit yourself financially until your buyer has at least passed these two marks.

If you are selling yourself it may be a good idea to keep the names and addresses of all potential buyers who make offers, in case the one you accept falls through.