Offers

Someone has made an offer - what information do I need from them?

The information that you need from someone who has made an offer on your house is whether they are in position to proceed. Someone who is in a strong position to proceed with the purchase of your house is someone who is already in rent accommodation. Next up the line is someone who has their house under offer. After that is someone who has a house for sale but not yet under offer. Somebody who's in a very weak position is someone who hasn't even yet put their house on the market. They are very unlikely to be able to proceed to buy your house, especially in a market where houses are selling quickly.

More than one person has made an offer for my home - what should I do?

If more than one person has made an offer on your home, it's important to check the status of the buyers. You need to know which buyer is in the strongest position to buy your house. And certainly, a buyer who already has their own house on the market or is in rented accommodation is in the best position. Even if the buyer who's offered slightly less is in a better position, you may decide that taking the slightly lower offer from the person who is in the best position to proceed may well be the best offer to take. But on the other hand, you may be able to play one buyer off against the other. But then they would both have to very keen for you to be able to do that. There are certain strategies that you can adopt like asking people to put their best and final offers in by a certain date.

Should I chase prospective buyers?

I don't see any reason why you should not chase prospective buyers, especially if, on the first viewing, they looked very keen or they've been around for a second viewing. There's no harm in picking up the phone and saying, "We thought you liked our house very much. We were looking for a bit of feedback." And even if they aren't interested, they may well give you useful feedback on things that you can make some quick improvements on your house that would improve your chance to sell the house.