What we run through with a first-home buyer before any offer goes to the agent, and when a due diligence condition belongs in it.
Every adviser has had this conversation. A client finds a place they love and asks how they actually make an offer. Most go and do it themselves: they check the CV and the online estimate, land on a round number, then load the offer with fifteen working days for everything and a settlement three months out. That offer is anchored to nothing, and the wall of dates tells the vendor the buyer is slow and unsure.
A guessed offer plays out one of two ways, and both land back on your desk. They overpay, because a round number with no comparable sales behind it is just a feeling. Or they lose it, because off-putting conditions and a slow settlement push the vendor toward a cleaner offer. Either way the settlement you planned doesn’t happen as planned, the client blames the market, and you absorb the rework weeks later.
Before any offer goes in, we work through five steps on the free initial call:
The one condition clients get wrong is due diligence. On a first offer it almost always stays in. You only leave it out when the title is simple and the agreement is standard — and knowing both needs a lawyer over the file first. Send us a client the moment they find a place; the pre-offer call costs them nothing.
