Did you negotiate direct with vendor, or go through estate agent?

[PetiteMum]

Please share you experiences- we're doing this for the 1st time and unsure which route to take!

If you viewed via an agent then definitely through the agent.

Through estate agent, always.

Not strictly true I don't think. If we did that, we wouldn't be buying the house we are buying now! We saw the house the first week it went on the market. Made offer through agent a few day after, got turned down but no feedback as to what price they were hoping to achieve. Saw other houses etc but keep coming back to this house, made two more offers that also got rejected (we were very close to our top budget at this point!) but agent kept calling us back to tell us how many viewings they were getting and that we were this 'close' to getting the house. Eventually, after a few days of intense negotiation and getting nowhere, DH and I decided to make one last ditch attempt to negotiate with the vendor before we closed the chapter on that one. So we stuck a note through their door, very neutral (was careful not to badmouth agent though he definitely wasn't helping iykwim), basically reiterating our position, and contact details if they were interested in talking. The vendor called the next day, we had a good chat (found out agent telling all sorts to them and vice versa to us, not lying but more playing us to try and get a sale). Her DH called me the following day, had another chat. And that weekend, they accepted our offer. And after that, we have been dealing with agent for the purchase but have agreed we will meet up further down the process to sort out other details. So I would say you would need to negotiate with agent first, but if you are getting no joy, it's no harm putting a note through the door to vendor to see if you can both talk face-to-face to trash out a deal! :) Good luck!

I remember you posting about that Angel, good to hear the sale is progressing!

We put a note thro' the door after we lost a house to a 'cash buyer'. Said if anything went wrong with that sale, pls contact us. Sure enough it did, and they got in touch. Took several months for us to sell ours, and we kept in touch with occ'al emails thro'out that time. Then when we had a buyer (with a lower asking price) we got in touch to check they were still on market and selling, and told them we'd had to lower our price. We then negotiated the price between ourselves. All done in a very civilised way. (I even said that our estate agent had told us to offer £xxx, because 'we had to play the game', but we didn't want to do that... but then explained why we were offering a lower price). They were so relieved to be dealing with humans that the whole thing was much much less stressful for all of us.
We move in 3 weeks!
Good luck,
madcows

We've always done it through the agent, but we are "up north" I think our estate agents are a bit more straight.

I've just bought straight from vendor and it worked out really well. Less hassle than estate agents and no agents' fees.

Ciske Thanks! I'm not celebrating yet but fingers crossed yet? :)

Fingers and toes crossed for you, Angel! We're right in the middle of a house sale, it's so stressful. I think that bottle of champagne will be downed in one big gulp when we finally get the keys!

Ciske Are you just buying? Not selling? We are buying and selling and that's a pain in the butt! Good luck! I'm not stressed YET... When do you expect to exchange/complete?

Buyers beware. Estate agents are salesmen, they work for themselves first, and vendor second. Never never the buyer.
Buying a house is a financial transaction - a massive one. Look after your own interests - the agent certainly won't be.
If you want to deal directly with the vendor, it is your perogative. If they wish to only deal through the agent, that is theirs.

Agents have all sorts of ruses and games to get you to part with more cash than you are happy with. Not all agents are the same, but in the current market they are all desperate to hold on to the bubble, and even the 'professional' types are reverting to type.
The only professionals involved in buying a house are the suveyors and solicitors/conveyancers (excuse rubbish spelling).