Putting an a house offer has become such a hassle

[AvacadoChic]

I've moved house several times over my life, the most recent about 7 years ago. I've been looking at a new place and expected the process to be the same as always but this time around it's dragged on and we haven't even got as far as putting an offer in yet.

We saw a house, and phoned the estate agent with a low offer. The estate agent got back to me by email the next day and said that I have to fill in a form with a lot of questions and documents to upload. I didn't have time to look at the form until the following day and then I saw that it would be quite time consuming, so emailed back asking if they could get an idea if the offer would be accepted, as it was a lot of work if the seller would say a flat out no. The eatate agent refused but said that we didn't have to fill out the form, just send him some documents. I sent the documents and the he replied asking for more documents. I've sent those and I'm waiting for his reply. This process has taken more than a week and I don't have any idea if the seller if willing to accept low offers. It would have taken them 30 seconds to ring up the seller to see if he would even entertain our offer. It just seems such a pointless waste of time.

In the past, I've always put in an offer overr the phone and only when it's accepted does all the paperwork begin. It's a lot of extra work for a house that I might not even get.

How about not being able to view a property as you once pulled out of a purchase due to condition? We've got a local agent that blocks potential buyers.

When my son bought his house 2 years ago
he went into the local estate agents
showed them his ID & proof of deposit
( inheritance ) and proof of mortgage amount he could borrow
they then put him on the books as a proceed serious buyer and had no problems with him wanting to view anything

Some vendors are actually very interested in who buys the property (we weren't with our previous home, first non chain decent offer got it).

The house we are in now - they didn't need a particular amount of money, they were moving to a property they already owned by the seaside to retire. They asked to meet us once we had placed an offer, asked us about our family, jobs, what we felt we could contribute to the village etc. We know from our neighbours we were not the highest offer, but they liked us the best. On moving in they had left brand new toys for our girls, treats, champagne etc, a hand painted picture of the house, and a card wishing us well.
We got a Christmas from them a few months after moving in. For some people their home is very personal

For all the outrage from prospective buyers on here, I would be interested in an EAs point of view. I know when I sold, the EA had a pool of pre-qualified buyers she would put listings to if they were suitable. A bit like @previouslyknownas son. Pre- qualifying buyers probably makes it a lot easier for EAs, and from my perspective, much better for the vendor. Buyers & sellers probably have no idea how many rogue/imaginary purchasers are floating about, probably more than we realise!

We moved in July. Agents where we were buying wouldnt entertain us unless our house was already on the market. One wanted it under offer and an MOS! They work for the seller, not the buyer, and dont want their clients messed around with silly offers. Im not sure why so many people think they can put lowball offers in. Almost as if they think EAs just pick a figure out of nowhere when valuing.

Surely this also results in unnecessary viewings? If the first ones through the door want to offer and I don't know about it because the EA is waiting for the forms back, I could be tidying the house for a load more viewers when I only needed to do it once.

How legal is some of this stuff?

Are these estate agents just making it up. Not a profession that is known for it's integrity and honesty or professional qualifications.

Surely some these practises would contravene Data Protection?

The estate agent shouldn’t be saying anything like that ”your low offer won’t be accepted”
They are obliged by law to put your offer to the seller.

If you have any doubts, put the offer in writing through the vendors door personally, also stating your ability to proceed.

And don’t trust an Estate Agent further than you can throw them.

Is this the AML stuff? I am a little surprised you cant do it after an iffee has been accepted.

“Lots of forms to fill. Pay an admin charge to place the offer. And put pressure on me to make best and final offer by the next day with no chance for a second viewing.”

That’s so bad! Who heard of paying a charge to register an offer WTAF!

I've sold several properties and never heard of such a thing. Had I done so I’d have sacked my estate agent pronto for harassing possible buyers.
If you really wanted the property, I’d have dropped the offer in personally.
Estate Agents really are a shower of shite by and large and any rogue can set up a business.

They are not required to hold professional qualifications or a license to operate.

Reading back over the EA correspondence they were actually asking me for £40 to do anti money laundering checks. Sorry for any confusion re that. But still. I felt so uncomfortable sending screen shots of my savings/investments to a random estate agent. With no data protection forms to sign. So I didn’t! And this is a bona fide estate agent with offices. I take on board everyone’s subsequent comments re changes in the law which I was not aware of but now am. Bought my last property some quarter of a century ago and things have definitely changed.

It likely will , because it’s the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 (MLR2017)

Funds must be traceable.

And in the Esate Agents case, trying to do due diligence …..
"Failure to Prevent Fraud" Offence:Introduced in September 2025, this makes organizations liable if they fail to prevent fraud, requiring, robust compliance procedures.

But I’d be asking first if the offer was accepted.
no need for any of this info if the vendor says no.

They aren’t obliged by law though. The seller can very easily say “I’m not interested in going under asking or /£X” and the EA does not need to pass on lowball offers he knows his client isn’t interested in.

In this market the sellers would be mad to do this and EA’s want commission / turnover.

“No”is a complete sentence and the sellers prerogative.
Any offer should be forwarded or I would consider the EA incompetent.
And to add,EA’s valuations aren’t written in stone.
We've always sold at / above valuation. Or if below then with added extras to keep the property below a stamp duty threshold

Sometimes EA’s will undervalue if they need quick turnover/ lots in their books and they have an inexperienced seller without a knowledge of the market.

Yes that’s fine. Happy to show it then!

You have to remember though that the estate agent is acting for the vendor. It's the vendor who pays them so they are carrying out background checks to ensure you are in a position to offer. They may have had several experiences in the past with time wasters and are protecting the vendor from this. I agree it's a bit of a faff from a buyer's point of view though but it does demonstrate you are a serious about making the offer and not just nonchalently putting a figure forward and then changing your mind

If “no is a complete sentence” the buyer from the post should accept that the EA has said it’s too low.

There’s no “in this market”, every area is different.

I told my EA 6 months ago that I wasn’t contemplating under asking offers, the asking was already high for the area but the property was of a much higher spec and similarly priced to others of a higher standard, but not the average house price. No under offers passed to me, I don’t care if they came in, accepted an offer of 7.5% over which was £45k over.
Your experience of your local market is the reality everywhere.

As long as that is the vendor's wishes. As a vendor I would want to know about all offers and all levels of interest. I might not accept them but I wouldn't consider the EA to be working for me effectively if they were withholding offers like OP's from me because of paperwork.

This scenario just says everything you need about the lack of productivity in this country.

Successive Governments and the EU have tied us up in soooo much procedural paperwork that it’s stifling the economy.
Nothing works!

The Civil Service is a shower of ineptitude that thinks it’s running the country when they were never voted in.

The Government lies to us, is corrupt and lacking in competence.

It’s like living in a third world country.

And this is the outcome of Tony Blair’s initiative sending 50% of all school leavers to Uni’s!
People who really were not the best.

Since when did Uni become a finishing school for mediocrity!
We have incompetents sitting in power, tying us in knots. Bloody Regs!

OP, if you want to persue the purchase and are minded to raise your offer, do it direct.
Approach the seller and ask, they can only say no.
I've always found that striking up conversation has been helpful .
You’ll know then if they’re likely to be the type to rip down all the light fittings. 🤕
Good luck

Regulation is like … living in a third world country?

This is the biggest pile of incoherent reform ramblings I’ve ever come across.

I hope @AvacadoChic will now take the time to email the EA and tell them what a silly system it is to waste all that time and effort on forms, and that certainly when she comes to sell she will NOT be using them as she doesn't feel they'd be facilitating a sale by this method!