If you're thinking of selling I thought I'd share this recent conversation I had dealing with an offer I received on one of our properties.

The buyer had offered almost 10% off what, in my opinion, was an already realistic asking price. When I informed him that the chances of his offer being accepted were practically nil and that I could provide him with plenty of evidence of agreed sales to re-inforce the asking price, he asked me why was I being so 'unhelpful'.

I asked him to clarify what he meant and he then informed me that another local estate agent had been extremely 'helpful' by telling him a property he had shown an interest in was overpriced by £15,000 and that although it was clearly not in his price range, he should view it and they would do their best to get the owner to accept it!

The moral of the story?  Choose an agent that remembers who is paying them!