What to consider when receiving offers?

[Movingsooner]

Although I have a decentish EA, I want to be clear about what to do in relation to offers as it's looking likely two recent viewers are about to offer. What do I need to consider?

I'm sure there's people with more recent experience will comment. But ask your EA for their advice on viability and reliability of any offers that you get.
What you need to consider is what is important to you, ie speed of completion? Amount of the offer? Etc.

Price, if the purchaser has to sell their own house first (chains can break down), if a cash buyer it's usually quicker, the amount of deposit purchaser has because their lender may downgrade the value of your house and only lend X amount. I also think, do I like the person? I know that's not rational, but I do it anyway. If you're in a hurry to sell a FTB would usually be quicker.

caringcarer One of those who may potentially offer is porting their mortgage. So presumably adding more to the mortgage as my property higher value than there's. Does this mean that even if their mortgage company undervalued mine they will likely still be able to proceed because they're bringing funds from their previous house? Hope that makes sense.

FTB aren't always the best buyer. They often fanny around and are more demanding and want discounts for basic things brought up on survey. The best buyers are generally chain free buyers who have at least owned before.

Yes if porting a mortgage then they are bringing their equity over too usually. Check they have a cash deposit though or can fund the difference between their buyers' deposit and the deposit they need to pay you or decide whether you will accept a lower deposit.

Are they in a chain, how big a deposit do they have and how much are they borrowing, offer price, how quickly they want to move - and I liked to get a sense of how serious they were and how much they wanted to buy it. Basically who was most likely to actually complete without issues!

Check that they aren't BS about being cash buyers etc (I've seen even posters on this board not understand that a cash buyer shouldn't need to sell another property to buy a house, they should have ALL the cash in ready / liquid form).
Loads of people lie or misunderstand their financials, not realising they can't always port a mortgage or may have to pay exit fees etc. sometimes the amounts are minimal, but people still will pull out over this (I've seen it).

FTB are a pain in the arse (we've all been there ) and can get skittish over everything and can take up more time I think, also might be over stretching themselves so aren't always a safe bet.

The more information you can get via your EA about the buyers true position the better, this is one area where your EA can prove their skill, are they able to suss out the decent buyers and build rapport enough to get the buyers honest realistic position?