The house-buying secrets that estate agents use themselves

Buying a home is a time-draining process often riddled with stress and insecurity. But what is it like for those inside the industry? “There are pros and cons: being an agent helps in the sense that you know the market, but sometimes sellers assume that you know something they don’t, and that you must be offering less than it’s worth,” says Grant Bates, head of private office at Hamptons. Having clocked up nine personal moves in 12 years, he is well placed to hand-hold his network of high-net-worth clients through the idiosyncrasies of both buying and selling.

The current feeling is that the market is swinging in favour of buyers, but as Madelaine Cooper of Unique Property Company points out, “Sellers are buyers too, and we all need to be respectful of each other and our financial needs, wherever we are in the property chain.” Cooper believes that we should move away from the mindset that homes are just an investment: “If it’s the place where you’re going to spend your life, bring up your children, or embark on an adventure with your life partner or alone, then you need to think of your home as being just that – your home, and not a place that’s going to make you wealthy further down the line.” 

According to Hamptons, 22 per cent of properties across England and Wales sold for over the asking price in 2023, down 15 per cent from 2022. The £1 million-plus market has cooled the most, with 15 per cent achieving a final sale over asking price (compared with 27 per cent in 2022).

Of course, demand and supply dictates what will command higher offers. Andrew Russell of the Country House Dept, which specialises in rural homes both old and new across southern-central England, identifies period properties renovated to a high specification and rich in original features as being eternally popular. “There’s a finite number of square, Georgian country houses, so they always sell really well,” he says. “Despite the narrative that the market is tough, there are more buyers for this style of home than there are properties.” 

To secure one, you might thus need to think creatively. Here, three agents reveal how they closed in their homes, and what you can do when fighting off competition for yours. 

Andrew Russell: Wooing the seller worked for me

Russell, co-founder of the Country House Dept, moved to Sutton Courtenay in Oxfordshire from London in 2017. “I wanted a house down a drive in the middle of nowhere, and I ended up buying a terraced house in the middle of the village,” he laughs. The ex-Strutt & Parker agent was charmed by the property’s timber frame, dating back to the 16th-century, and the River Thames at the bottom of the garden, which has its own mooring. 

Unsurprisingly, interest in the property, which was on the market for the first time in 40 years, was high. But Russell believes that meeting the owner on his second viewing – a woman who had raised her family in it – worked in his favour. “It was really beneficial because she could see that we were a young family. My boys were aged two and three at the time, and we were making a similar move out of London to the one she had probably once made.” On the third viewing, they took flowers: “It sounds smarmy but wasn’t intended to be,” he says. “We got on very well, and ultimately, you’re taking up someone’s time.” 

Russell accompanied his offer with a letter, explaining why they loved the house. “A lot of people actually don’t care who buys the house, as long as they’ve got the money,” he says, “but equally, if someone’s lived somewhere for a long time, there is a strong emotional attachment.” Despite others putting in higher offers, Russell cinched it. Putting pen to paper is a move he recommends to prospective buyers; some include information about the local schools they hope to send their children to. 

Once he got the keys to the cottage, Russell rented for six months while it was gutted, rewired, replumbed, and reconfigured downstairs: “We wanted the character features, but with a modern kitchen and bathrooms that actually work.” 

As ever, cash buyers remain at the top of the chain, but those willing to rent in order to be unburdened when their dream property becomes available can prove a savvy move. Of course, that comes with caveats: “It doesn’t suit everybody – there’s hassle and cost involved, and you’ve got to move twice,” says Russell.

Becky Fatemi: Ask questions, and then more questions

Fatemi acted as her own property advisor when she bought her apartment in Marylebone in central London back in 2007. The executive partner for Sotheby’s International Realty did an attended exchange, whereby the vendor, the buyer and their solicitors convene in person to come to an agreement on a property’s sale. The swiftness of the process ensured she didn’t miss out on a good deal on a good street when the market was flying, but it does have drawbacks: “Due to the speed, you can’t be as thorough as you should be. Now you have to err with caution because of things like cladding and listed consent planning issues.”

She advocates for buyers carrying out their own due diligence and likens house-buying to dating: “Be very clear on what you’re looking for, because it’s just as big a decision. For sellers, transparency is key: “Make sure your house is shown in the best possible light, and with the correct information. You wouldn’t upload a picture of yourself from a decade ago onto a dating app,” she laughs.

Fatemi advises her clients to have surveys done before making an offer: “It puts you in a much better position if you can say, ‘This issue has been brought up and it’s going to cost me £10,000 to rectify it.’” But she appreciates that if there are other interested parties, or you can’t risk losing the fee, then bombarding the selling agent with questions is the next best thing. 

“Whether they find you annoying or not doesn’t matter; do what you can to build up a picture of any potential problems,” she asserts, “and I’d recommend saying: ‘I want to offer and this is my price, but I am going to get a survey and I want the results acknowledged.’”

When Fatemi isn’t jetting between Ibiza and Italy to instruct sales, she is keeping her eyes peeled for another apartment to buy in her block. Since 2018 she has rented the flat above hers, which she shrewdly locked in on a long-term lease to satisfy her need for more space without having to stump up stamp duty. 

Grant Bates: Consider a buying agent

You don’t have to become best friends with an estate agent, but replying to emails and giving honest feedback are Bates’ easy wins for being best served by those front-of-house in the industry. “It also saves you time long-term, because once the agent knows exactly what you want, they’re not pestering you all the time,” he says.

In his role at Hamptons, Bates – the most followed corporate UK agent on Instagram (@grantjbates) – works as both a selling agent and a buying agent, a lesser-known service most popular with US and European clients, “because they’re more familiar with the service and they see its value. A lot of UK buyers think they can just do it themselves, but there’s definitely a lot of advantages to having a buying agent on your side.” 

The main one is his confidence in negotiating at least 2 per cent off a ticket price, which covers the cost of the service itself. A buying agent will do the donkey work of whittling down prospective properties, carrying out due diligence, and supplying area information such as schools. The service isn’t reserved for oligarchs: with Hamptons, it typically involves a retainer of between £2,000 and £5,000, recurring every six months, which is offset against the final fee (usually 2 per cent). It’s a savvy service for those with their sights set on a very specific area, and opens up access to off-market properties.

Bates’ own home in north London, however, was listed very much in plain sight and languished on the market for almost a year. His wife Eloise, an interior designer, initially expressed interest, but the £3.75 million price was well above their budget. It crept down to £3 million, “but it was never, ever going to get that,” says Bates. A call from the agent eventually seeking offers led to the couple sealing the deal at a more palatable £2.215 million. 

“There’s a herd mentality with buying – people take reassurance when someone else wants a house too, because it validates their own interest,” he says of the psychology. In this scenario, due to its inflated price, the house wasn’t snapped up in the halo period of eight weeks, after which many prospective buyers discount a property on the assumption that there must be something seriously wrong with it.  

Patience paid off for Bates, but what can others do to get their hands on a property out of financial reach? 

Like Russell, he suggests a personal touch, such as trying to build a direct rapport with the seller or writing a letter explaining why you love the house. “I am not suggesting that a client will sell substantially under market as a result,” he says, “but it certainly helps, especially for families that have made their equity already, and know it is going to someone who will cherish it as much as they did. Ultimately, it could help to sway them.”