Making an offer on a house has a fair bit in common with going for a job. Everybody who turns up to the interview says they want it and everybody says they can do it, and what usually gets somebody hired is being able to show they can actually start on the Monday. Offers on property work in much the same way, and this autumn that matters more than usual.
Why are offers being turned down in a buyer’s market?
Well, the short answer is that the amount of money is only one part of what a seller is weighing up. The longer answer is that, as always, this is a general article and we can only give you an overview of the situation. You need to take advice so we can look properly at your own circumstances. The parts below about offers and exchange apply in England and Wales, as Scotland handles things rather differently.
The picture at the moment is a slightly odd one. According to Rightmove’s September figures, there are more homes for sale than at any point in twelve years for this time of year, and the number of people enquiring is around 9% down on the same period last year, which ought to leave buyers in a comfortable position.
The complication is what happens to those homes once they are listed. The same figures show that, across Great Britain, only around 6 in 10 of them find a buyer at all, and that this varies enormously by region, from roughly 91% in Scotland and 71% in the North West down to 42% in London. Rightmove also notes that the equivalent figure back in 2021 was nearer three quarters. So a good number of sellers are not selling at all, which is worth bearing in mind when you are wondering why yours was not the offer that got taken.
Which takes us back to the job interview. What the seller is really asking is not how much you are offering, but whether you are the one who can start on the Monday.
So what makes an offer look serious?
Most of it comes down to the finance, and nearly all of it can be arranged before you have even found the property.
- An agreement in principle.
This is a fairly quick look by a lender at your basic details, and it gives a seller something solid to consider rather than having to take your word for it. It is worth being clear that it is not a mortgage offer, because the full application involves much more detailed checks and a valuation of the property, and a lender can still decline at that stage. Even so, an offer with one behind it lands in a very different pile.
- Knowing what you can actually borrow.
How much a lender will lend you depends on your income, your deposit, your credit history and the commitments you already have, and things like loans, car finance and childcare all come into that calculation, which is why two people earning precisely the same are quite often offered noticeably different amounts. Working all this out after an offer has been accepted, rather than before, is how buyers end up having to withdraw.
- Your paperwork, dug out in advance.
Payslips, bank statements, proof of your deposit and photographic identification, and accounts or tax documents if you happen to work for yourself. Nobody particularly enjoys hunting all this down and most people leave it until somebody asks, which is entirely understandable but does tend to cost a couple of weeks just when you can least spare them.
- Knowing where the deposit came from.
If a family member is helping you, they will usually need to provide a letter confirming that the money is a gift, along with evidence of where it came from, because solicitors are required by law to check the source of funds on every purchase. Easy enough to arrange early, and surprisingly awkward once everything else is moving.
- A solicitor already appointed.
You can choose a conveyancer and get the identity checks out of the way before you even make an offer, although very few buyers think to. Being able to tell an agent that your solicitor is already instructed is one of the cheapest ways to look like somebody who can start on the Monday.
Is it worth simply going in high?
That rather depends, and there is a detail here that catches people out. Your lender will carry out its own valuation of the property and will lend against that figure rather than against the price you have agreed with the seller.
If the valuation comes back lower than your offer, you will either need to find the difference in cash or go back and renegotiate. It is usually possible to ask the lender to look again if you can point to evidence of similar sales nearby, though there is no guarantee they will take a different view.
That is not a reason never to stretch. It is a reason to know in advance what you could cover if it happened, and it is a conversation worth having before you offer rather than afterwards.
And once the offer has been accepted?
Then the clock starts, and it tends to run rather longer than people expect. Rightmove puts the current average at 64 days to find a buyer and then a further 150 days to complete, which is somewhere around seven months for the whole process.
Most mortgage offers last somewhere between three and six months, and that clock starts from the offer itself rather than from the day you applied, so in a long chain it is worth keeping an eye on the dates. If the offer does expire you are generally looking at applying again under whatever the lender’s criteria happen to be at that point.
It is also sensible to keep your finances steady until you have completed, because taking on new credit, changing jobs or missing a payment can all cause difficulties, and lenders may run their checks again before releasing the money. Going back to that job interview, nobody hands in their notice and then takes out a car loan the week before they are due to start.
Get the unglamorous part done first
Almost everything that makes an offer look strong is put in place before you find the house, not after. Knowing your borrowing figure, having an agreement in principle, having your paperwork in order and a solicitor ready to go are what separate the offer a seller takes seriously from the one they politely decline.
Call us and let’s get that side of things sorted out. It costs nothing to be ready, and it puts you in a much better position when the right house does come along.
Source
All market figures quoted in this article are taken from the Rightmove House Price Index, September 2026, published 21 September 2026, pages 1 and 2. Available at https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/content/uploads/2026/09/Rightmove-HPI-21st-September.pdf
This article relates to England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland follow different processes.
Your home or property may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on your mortgage.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, mortgage or legal advice. It reflects our understanding at the time of writing. Market conditions and lender criteria can change, so please speak to us about your own circumstances before acting on anything you have read here.