The most useful questions when buying a house are the ones with checkable answers: how long has it been on the market, has the price been cut, why is the seller moving, what offers have there been, and — for flats — what exactly does the lease say. Estate agents must answer honestly: consumer protection law bars them from giving false or misleading information, and material information must be disclosed.
The trick is knowing which questions carry weight, what a good answer sounds like, and which answers should change your offer. This guide is that list — for the agent, the seller, and the property itself — plus the handful of questions you should ask yourself before any of them.
Questions for the estate agent
The agent works for the seller, but they must not mislead you, and most will answer direct factual questions straight. Ask these on the first viewing and again — pointedly — before you offer:
- How long has it been on the market? (Weeks of history change your leverage; a relisting under a new agent counts as more time, not less.)
- Has the asking price changed? (Price cuts are public on the portals anyway — asking tests candour.)
- Why are the owners selling, and where are they going? (Onward-chain answers tell you the real timetable.)
- Have there been offers? At what level were they rejected? (They may not tell you amounts — but "two offers fell through after survey" is a sentence worth chasing.)
- How did you arrive at the asking price? (A good agent cites comparables; silence or "the vendor wanted it" is information too.)
- What’s included — appliances, curtains, garden structures? (Get it on the fixtures list later, but flush disagreements early.)
- Are there any known issues — disputes, works, insurance claims, flooding? (Material information rules mean known issues should be disclosed, not extracted.)
Questions for the seller (if you meet them)
Sellers on a second viewing are often more candid than their agent, and the TA6 property information form will later put their answers in writing — so honest sellers have no reason to dodge. Keep it conversational:
- What will you miss about living here? (The warm-up — and often surprisingly revealing.)
- What are the neighbours like? (Formal disputes must be declared on the TA6; the tone of the answer tells you more.)
- How old are the boiler and the roof, and when were they last serviced or repaired?
- What do you actually pay to run it — energy, council tax, water? (Real bills beat estimates.)
- Has there ever been damp, flooding, subsidence or an insurance claim on the house?
- What building work has been done, and did it have permission and building-regs sign-off?
Leasehold? A separate question set, before you offer
For flats (and leasehold houses), the lease economics can outweigh everything else on this page. Ask these before offering — the answers are cheap for the agent to obtain and expensive for you to discover late:
- How many years remain on the lease? (Below ~90 years, extension costs enter the price negotiation; below 80, marriage value makes it materially worse.)
- What is the service charge now, what was it the last three years, and is major work planned? (Ask for the last accounts and any Section 20 notices.)
- What is the ground rent, and does it escalate? On what schedule?
- Who is the freeholder and who manages the building? Are there disputes?
- Is the building affected by cladding or building-safety remediation? What’s the status?
The key threshold is 80 years: below it, the landlord is entitled to a share of the value an extension adds (“marriage value” under current rules), so the same extension costs substantially more at 79 years than at 81.
Purely indicative — no premium estimates here, because leasehold reform (including marriage-value rules) is still in flux. Always get a specialist valuation before extending or offering.
Questions to ask yourself (the ones nobody else will)
The agent answers for the seller and the seller answers for the house — but the questions that sink purchases are usually the ones only you can answer. Before you offer, be able to answer these honestly:
- Can I afford this at today’s mortgage rates — and at a stress-tested rate two points higher?
- Would I still want it if I’d seen it in the rain, at rush hour, on a school-run morning?
- What does the data say that the viewing can’t — flood risk, crime, noise, planning next door, what similar homes actually sold for?
- If the survey finds £10,000 of work, do I have the reserves — and the stomach — to renegotiate?
- Am I paying for the area’s average, or for this specific house? (Two homes on one street can deserve very different prices.)
A rough ceiling, not an offer — lenders stress-test your outgoings, debts and credit history, so real criteria vary widely. Not financial advice.
Answers that are red flags
Most answers are neutral. A few should make you slow down, dig, or price the risk in:
- "It’s back on the market — the last buyer pulled out" with no clear reason: ask directly whether a survey or searches triggered it. Twice is a pattern.
- Vague or deflected answers on lease length, service charges or cladding status: the facts exist; reluctance to produce them is itself the answer.
- "All offers must go through the in-house mortgage adviser": you’re never obliged to use the agent’s broker, and pressure here is a compliance smell.
- "The price reflects the potential": potential is priced against planning reality — check the register before paying for permission that doesn’t exist.
- A rushed exchange deadline from a seller who took months to list: urgency asymmetry deserves a question, not obedience.