15 Questions to Ask an Estate Agent Before Making an Offer

Most buyers view a house for less than half an hour, say something polite about the kitchen, and leave without asking a single useful question. Then they offer tens of thousands of pounds based on a floorplan and a feeling. The estate agent, meanwhile, is sitting on almost everything you need to know — how long the place has been sticking, why the last sale collapsed, how desperate the seller is to move — and will usually tell you, if you ask.

This guide gives you the 15 questions worth asking before any offer leaves your mouth. Some are about the property. More of them are about the seller, because in a negotiation the seller's situation matters at least as much as the boiler's age. Ask them in a conversation, not an interrogation, and write the answers down before you forget them in the car.

Quick answer: Before making an offer, ask the estate agent how long the property has been on the market, why the seller is moving, how the asking price was set, whether any previous sale fell through and why, how much interest there has been, and whether the seller is in a chain. For flats, ask whether it is leasehold, the remaining lease length, and the ground rent and service charge. Then ask about alterations, known issues such as disputes or flooding, running costs, what is included in the sale, the seller's preferred timeline, whether there is flexibility on price, and whether the property will be taken off the market if your offer is accepted. Agents must pass all offers to the seller and, under UK consumer protection law, cannot mislead you or omit material information.

1. How long has the property been on the market?

This is the single most revealing question you can ask, and it takes five seconds. A property that has been listed for three weeks in a busy market is a different negotiation from one that has been sitting for five months. Long listings usually mean one of three things: the price is wrong, something put previous buyers off, or the seller is stubborn. All three are useful to know before you name a figure.

The agent may answer vaguely — 'a little while' — so check the listing history yourself on Rightmove or Zoopla, where relisting dates and price cuts are visible if you know where to look. A house that has waited five months for a buyer has, in a quiet way, already told you what the market thinks of its price.

2. Why is the seller moving?

Agents will answer this more often than you might expect, and the answer shapes your entire offer strategy. A seller relocating for a job that starts in eight weeks is motivated. A seller 'testing the market' with no onward plans is not. A divorce, a probate sale, a landlord exiting the market — each comes with its own timeline and its own tolerance for a lower number.

You are not prying. You are working out whether speed or price matters more to the person on the other side of the deal. Sometimes the most valuable thing you can offer a seller is not an extra five thousand pounds — it is certainty, and a completion date that matches their life.

3. How did you arrive at the asking price?

Asking prices are opinions, not valuations. Some agents win instructions by flattering sellers with a big number, then rely on reductions later. Ask the agent what comparable sales they based the price on. A confident agent will name two or three recent sold prices nearby. A vague answer — 'the market's strong round here' — suggests the price is aspiration rather than evidence.

Then do your own homework. Land Registry sold prices are free and public, and the portals show what similar homes actually sold for, not what they were listed at. The gap between asking and sold prices in a postcode is often the most honest number in the whole process.

4. Has a sale fallen through before — and why?

Roughly one in four property sales in England and Wales collapses before completion, and a relisted property carries its history with it. If a previous buyer pulled out, you want to know why. Sometimes it is innocent — their own sale fell apart, their mortgage offer lapsed. Sometimes it is a survey that turned up damp, movement or a roof with opinions of its own.

Ask explicitly: 'Has anyone offered on this before, and why did it not proceed?' The agent should answer honestly — misleading you here can breach consumer protection law. A previous buyer's expensive survey may have just done your risk assessment for free.

5. How much interest has there been, and have there been offers?

The level of interest tells you how much competition you are walking into. Fifteen viewings and two offers in the first week means you have little room to go low. Four viewings in two months and no offers means the opposite. Agents sometimes inflate interest to create urgency — but outright lying about offers can constitute fraud, and most agents will not risk their licence for one sale.

Ask how many viewings there have been, whether any offers are on the table, and at what level if they will say. Then treat the answer as one data point, not gospel. The property's time on the market rarely lies, even when the atmosphere in the hallway is doing its best to.

6. Is the seller in a chain?

A chain is every linked purchase that has to complete on the same day for yours to happen. The longer it is, the more places it can break. Ask whether the seller has found somewhere to buy, whether their offer has been accepted, and how far along their own purchase is. 'They're still looking' is a warning that your purchase could idle for months while they house-hunt.

If the seller is chain-free — a probate sale, a landlord, someone moving into rented — that is genuinely good news for speed. If you are chain-free yourself, you hold a card worth playing. Two chain-free parties can complete in eight to twelve weeks. A five-link chain answers to its slowest member, and you do not get to choose who that is.

7. Is it freehold or leasehold — and what are the lease details?

For flats, and some houses, this question changes everything about affordability. Ask whether the property is leasehold, how many years remain on the lease, and what the ground rent and service charge are. A lease below about 80 years gets expensive to extend and makes some lenders nervous. A service charge of £3,000 a year is a mortgage payment wearing a different hat.

Ask too about the freeholder or management company, any planned major works, and whether a sinking fund exists to pay for them. Listings should now disclose much of this up front under the material information rules — but 'should' and 'does' are not the same word. Your solicitor will verify everything later; asking now stops you falling in love with a flat you cannot afford to run.

8. How long have the current owners lived there?

Length of ownership is a quiet clue. Owners who have been there twenty years usually know the house's habits and have probably maintained it. Owners selling after eighteen months invite the question: what did they discover? Sometimes the answer is a new baby or a new job. Sometimes it is the neighbours, the traffic, or the extension next door that starts on-site in spring.

You can check ownership history yourself through Land Registry records for a few pounds, including what the sellers paid. Knowing they bought for £40,000 less two years ago, in a flat market, is the kind of context that makes an asking price look suddenly negotiable.

9. Have there been alterations or extensions — and is there paperwork?

That loft conversion adds a bedroom to the listing, but only if it was done properly. Ask whether any extensions, conversions or structural changes have been made, and whether planning permission and building regulations sign-off exist. Work done without the paperwork becomes your problem the moment you complete — your solicitor will chase certificates, your lender may hesitate, and retrospective approval is slow and not guaranteed.

The same applies to windows, boilers and electrics: FENSA certificates, Gas Safe records, electrical installation certificates. None of this is glamorous. All of it is the difference between a smooth conveyance and a six-week stall while everyone hunts for a certificate that may never have existed.

10. Are there any known issues you're required to tell me about?

This question has legal weight, so use those words. Since April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act governs what agents must disclose, and misleading buyers — including by leaving things out — can be an offence. That covers the unglamorous essentials: boundary or neighbour disputes, flooding history, subsidence, Japanese knotweed, restrictive covenants, nearby development plans.

Watch the phrasing of the answer. 'Not that I know of' is not the same as 'no'. An agent who has been told about a dispute and stays quiet is taking a legal risk; asking the question directly, and noting the answer, makes that silence harder to defend later. You are not being difficult. You are asking someone to do their job on the record.

11. What are the running costs?

The mortgage is only the headline. Ask for the council tax band, the EPC rating, and — for leaseholds — the charges you covered earlier. An EPC of E on a draughty Victorian terrace can mean winter energy bills that rival a car payment, plus the looming cost of insulation and glazing if you ever want to fix it. Council tax between bands can differ by hundreds of pounds a year in the same postcode.

Much of this now has to appear in the listing itself, but asking makes the agent walk you through it, and their fluency tells you how well they know the property. A home you can comfortably afford to run is worth more to you than a slightly cheaper one that cannot pay its own heating bill.

12. What's included in the sale?

The gap between what you saw at the viewing and what you get at completion can be surprisingly wide. Curtains, light fittings, the garden shed, the integrated dishwasher, the greenhouse — all negotiable, none guaranteed. Sellers complete a fixtures and fittings form (the TA10) during conveyancing, but by then your offer is already agreed and your leverage is spent.

Ask now, before you offer. If the seller wants to take the range cooker that made the kitchen, you want to know while the price is still moving. Some buyers even fold white goods into the deal deliberately — a seller who does not want to move a washing machine is often happy to leave it, and that is one less thing on your moving-day spreadsheet.

13. What timeline is the seller hoping for?

Money is not the only currency in an offer. A seller who needs to complete before a school term starts, or whose onward purchase has a deadline, may take a lower figure from a buyer who can hit the date. Equally, a seller who cannot move for four months might suit you perfectly if your rental contract runs to the same point. Ask what timeline they are hoping for, and be honest about yours.

Matching timelines is one of the cheapest negotiating tools available. It costs you nothing to be flexible if you genuinely can be — and 'we can work entirely around your dates' is a sentence sellers remember when two offers are within a thousand pounds of each other.

14. Is there flexibility on the price?

You will rarely get a straight answer, but the way an agent dodges this question is informative. 'The seller is firm at asking' means one thing. 'They'd want to see any sensible offer' means another, and 'make an offer and we'll see' practically comes with a wink. Agents are paid on completion, not on price — a small reduction that gets a deal done costs them almost nothing, and they know it.

Remember what the law gives you here: under the Estate Agents Act 1979, the agent must pass every offer to the seller, whether they approve of it or not. An agent cannot refuse to submit your offer because it is 'too low' or because you declined their in-house mortgage broker. The worst a fair offer can get is a no — and a no is just the opening line of a negotiation.

15. If my offer is accepted, will the property come off the market?

An accepted offer in England and Wales is not legally binding until exchange of contracts, which is typically two to three months away. In between, the seller can still entertain other buyers — and if the property stays actively listed, that is exactly the invitation. Ask whether, on acceptance, the listing will be marked sold subject to contract and viewings will stop. Most reasonable sellers agree; some agents need to be asked.

This will not make gazumping impossible — nothing does, this side of Scotland — but it removes the shop window. A seller who refuses to stop marketing after accepting your offer is telling you something about how solid that acceptance is. Better to hear it now, before you have spent £1,500 on surveys and legal fees, than in week seven.

16. What happens next — and who do I stay in contact with?

Once your offer is accepted, the agent stops being a salesperson and becomes the switchboard for your entire purchase. Ask who will handle your sale day to day, how often they will update you, and what they need from you immediately — usually your solicitor's details, proof of funds and your mortgage in principle. An agent who answers this crisply will probably chase your chain properly. One who shrugs will probably let your file gather dust between phone calls.

Buying a home is a relay, and the agent carries the baton more often than anyone admits. Solicitors go quiet. Surveys take weeks to book. The agent who calls the other side's solicitor every Friday is worth more to your completion date than almost anyone else in the process — so find out, before you commit, whether you are getting that agent or the other kind.

This guide is for general information only. It is not legal, financial, mortgage, insurance or removals advice. Always check important arrangements with the relevant professional or provider.