Call my agent: 10 questions to ask when buying a property

It’s a compulsion that many of us feel: when viewing a property, we should be asking the agent questions about it.

Breffni O’Kelly, a buyers’ agent with breffniokelly.ie, says people can feel a certain pressure to rush in with questions when viewing a property.

“It’s like you have to show you’re a smart buyer by asking questions,” she says. But asking about how old the boiler is, or when the home was last painted, are unlikely to help your buying process go any more smoothly.

“You’d be amazed at how many viewers come in and fire questions at the agent before they’ve even looked at the house. The agent will form a view of this kind of behaviour, and it won’t be positive,” she says.

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Rather, she suggests you keep all questions until after the first viewing, when you have made a decision that you are serious about the property.

So what should you ask?

1: What am I looking for?

Before you even cross the threshold of your first property, never mind chat with the agent selling the property, Shane O’Connor founder of eldron.ie, which represents buyers in property transactions, says you need to ask yourself some questions.

What exactly, for example, are you looking for? And where? How much can you afford to spend? And how high would you be willing to go?

“Work out what are your non-negotiables,” says O’Connor. “Don’t waste your time. It can be a waste of time for everyone, going to look at the property when you’re genuinely not interested in it.”

Indeed when O’Connor previously worked as an estate agent in the Terenure area, he would see the same people week after week. And this tendency to view everything can lead agents to believe you’re not a serious buyer.

“And they’re the point of contact: they’re the one you have to impress, especially in a market like this,” he says.

O’Kelly agrees.

With multiple buyers often bidding on certain properties, and more pressure on agents to ensure that the sale is completed, putative buyers need to take all their interaction with the agent seriously “because ultimately it will be the agent who advises the seller on the most desirable buyer”.

2: Why is the house being sold?

Is it an estate sale? Has probate gone through? Is it a move abroad? Trading down or trading up? Understanding why a house is being sold can give an insight into how quickly – or otherwise – the transaction might proceed.

Some will want a quick sale, while others will hold on for as long as needed to maximise the price.

“That’s why we want to find out why they’re selling,” says O’Kelly.

Indeed, if a vendor is ready to move on as they have had a bid accepted on another property, they are likely to want a very quick sale of their own property, and will know the minimum price they will accept.

“The buyer can make good use of this information by offering the vendor that minimum price straight away without waiting to be bid up to that figure via a bidding war,” she says.

This question will also shed some light on the vendor’s exit strategy; if the vendor is still looking to buy a place themselves, there is a risk that even if the property goes sale agreed, they may ultimately pull out of the transaction.

Just last week O’Kelly came across a house in Ranelagh which was pulled from the market because the owner couldn’t find a place to buy themselves, and had to back out of the sale.

3: When did it come to the market?

Understanding how long the house has been on the market can also help when assessing the appropriateness of the asking price.

It’s not always clear on property portals when a house came to market, but O’Kelly has a tip here. Look at the views.

“If it has 10,000 views, it was likely listed ages ago,” she says.

And if a house has been on the market for some time, it may mean that the asking price is unrealistic, with some vendors going for stellar prices. Asking prices are just that; houses won’t always sell for over this.

Nonetheless, you have to factor a potential uplift in asking price into your search criteria. As O’Connor notes, agents may set asking prices significantly below what might be expected.

“Then they can say: ‘We have achieved in excess of asking price on this property,’” he says.

4: Was it sale agreed before?

Even in today’s heady market, deals still fall through. As a potential buyer of a property, you need to know what happened; maybe the buyers just pulled out for personal financial reasons, or maybe there were other issues at play.

“If the property has been on the market for a couple of months in this hot market, it’s reasonable to assume it may have been ‘sale agreed’ at some point and that the sale fell through. If this is the case it’s worth asking why the sale fell through in case it was [due to] structural- or title- or planning-related issues,” says O’Kelly.

5: Is there a bid on the property?

Once you’re interested, you’re going to want to know more about the property’s appeal to other potential buyers. You can ask the agent this; or in some cases the bidding may take place on an online portal, such as offr.io. You can track live bidding on this website.

6: And when was it placed?

This is a crucial follow-up question. After all, the bid may have been placed some time ago.

Consider a property that is asking €550,000. When you ask the question, the agent might say that, yes, there was a bid on the property of €535,000 but that this had been refused. It might turn out, however, that this bid had been made months previously, and the situation may have since changed.

“Given that months may have elapsed since the refused bid was placed, it’s reasonable to think that the vendor’s expectations might have changed in this period. It’s possible that any new bidder offering €535,000 might actually have their bid accepted,” says O’Kelly.

7: Are the other bidders cash buyers, loan approved or subject to sale?

It’s “quite a bald” question to ask, notes O’Kelly, but nonetheless potentially a valuable one if you can get an answer, “Which is why I suggest more of a chatty/conversational approach with the agent,” she adds.

This is because if you’re a bidder who can complete only subject to the sale of your own house, you will find it very hard to compete in the bidding process if you’re up against a cash buyer. And even if you’re mortgage approved and ready to go, again the vendors may plump for the cash buyer – even if it means agreeing a lower price.

On the other hand, don’t get too distracted by this information.

“Don’t get too caught up in who you’re bidding against,” says O’Connor, adding that people can sometimes try to overcomplicate things.

8: Have the other bidders shown proof of funds?

You may also want to ask a further question of other bidders – do they have the means to complete the deal?

“Don’t be afraid to ask the agent if they requested proof of funds from others,” says O’Connor. After all, if they haven’t asked you, they may not have asked others either. “And then you could be bidding against someone that isn’t in a position to buy,” he adds.

9: What’s it like living here?

If you meet someone on the street near your property of interest, don’t rush past. O’Kelly suggests you take some time to ask them what they like – and don’t like – about the area.

“There’s a great flavour of the neighbourhood to be found during these conversations,” she says.

She’s also evangelical about “drive-by viewings” where an interested buyer drives by the house before they even view it. This, she says, gives potential buyers a feel for the level of traffic on the road, availability of parking, the types of extensions that seem to be possible by looking at neighbouring houses, whether there’s any nuisance attached to the property such as a street lamp on the house, the feel of the property itself, the roof, the chimney, etc.

10: Will they take the house off the market if I offer the asking price?

This can be a tricky one. It may be tempting, if the house you really want comes up at a price you can meet, to offer asking there and then.

“But it can be a really dangerous thing,” says O’Kelly, because if you offer asking at the first viewing, the vendor is likely to think: ‘Well, how much more can I get?’ And this may push up the price even further.

A better approach then, suggests O’Kelly, may be to casually ask the agent what the vendor’s expectations are, and to ask – without making a formal offer – what would be enough for them to take it off the market.