All the help you need to prepare, search, evaluate, bid, secure and get moved into your next home.
We are buying agents. We search for homes and seek to acquire them on behalf of our clients. As far as the law is concerned, we are estate agents – we just happen to act for buyers, not sellers. We buy properties between £500,000 and £50m. Some clients just want help looking for a new home, some want help to evaluate a property and to negotiate the best deal. Spending a six figure sum is something most people do on average every ten years.
We act for 30 – 40 clients a year. Despite rocketing prices & endless ‘best & final offers’ our clients typically paid 5% less than the quoted asking price for the homes they bought although some pay more – for a variety of reasons. Our biggest saving last year was 11% of the asking price.
According to Rightmove sellers typically accepted around 5% (£11,000) less than their final asking price. Zoopla says that it’s just 3.86% and figures published by Hometrack suggest that an average buyer pays 97% of the asking price.
Over the past decade, on average our clients paid 11% (or £100,000) less!
One third of what we buy is ‘off-market’, not on websites or in estate agents’ windows.
We are not the only buying agents and it’s more important that you have the right advisor than that it necessarily be us. For a brief period of time your buying agent will have a detailed and personal knowledge of your affairs so you must trust them and have confidence in what they are doing and they in you. We are confident that we are at least as good as most firms but are not arrogant enough to think that we can be everyone’s cup of tea. Our aim is that you have the right advisor for you even if that means you are represented by someone else. These are some of the best that we recommend you speak to.
A buying agent can;-
- Source off-market properties – those available but not advertised on websites or in agent’s windows.
- Advise on areas, compare and contrast different places.
- Research a street, village or town looking at crime, natural threats such as flooding and over-flights by planes.
- Assess relative value.
- Research the motivations of the sellers and look for pressure points like death, debt or divorce.
- Comment on yield and the potential for capital growth.
- Negotiate with the seller and their agent. (Not all selling agents are slippery but some certainly are!).
- Introduce the best mortgage brokers, accountants and wealth managers along with advisors, tradesmen & lawyers.
- Liaise with solicitors, valuers, surveyors, architects, builders and contractors.
- Help to make your next move the smoothest and most painless experience possible.
Sometimes the best advice we give is “don’t!”. Having seen hundreds of homes over the years we can often spot a problem that would be easy to overlook.
Buying agents are still estate agents in the eyes of the law and as such each must sign up to a redress scheme. Confusingly there are two, we were members of The Property Ombudsman for many years but this is the one that we are currently signed up to.
It’s important to stress that we are good but we’re not magicians. We can help shorten the process, help to ensure that you don’t buy the wrong thing and buy as aggressively as possible but we can’t dream up a property if one doesn’t exist. We can help to decide what might be worth compromising on and what isn’t.
From an estate agent’s prospective, Richard was very communitive and helpful throughout the whole selling process. Always available at the end of the phone. I would highly recommend their service; I look forward to working with them again.
From a selling agents point of view….
The buying process can often be complex and confusing for buyers to navigate, Henry offers a valuable link in the chain.
Not only giving the buyer peace of mind but the seller that their buyer is getting sound, knowledgeable, guidance throughout the sales process.
Clear and fuss free communication throughout made for a smooth and swift sale.
Thanks to Henry!
Richard was a pleasure to deal with.
From an agents point of view he was thorough, supportive and helpful.
We really appreciated Henry’s advice and support through our property search and purchase. The advice was direct and specific and invaluable. Henry was very active on our behalf throughout the negotiations and exchange process. Highly recommend Pryor services to anyone contemplating a house move.
Without Henry and Richard we would not have come near to completing on our property or getting such a competitive deal. They are always there on the end of the phone and never felt like we were troubling them. Highly recommended!
Would definitely recommend Henry and Richard to anyone looking to buy in a “hot” area like Hampshire. They were there for us every step of the way with good counsel, the occasional shoulder to cry on, saved us from panic-buying the wrong house and made sure that the house we bought is right for us. We have been in our new home for a few weeks now and could not be happier!
We have just finished a remarkably stress-free buying experience with Henry and Rosie’s expert help.
Our situation was enormously complicated by the fact that we were moving from California, were first time buyers in the UK, and on a rather tight schedule…
… none of which posed a problem for the Pryors. Henry was extremely responsive at all times – when you need to get hold of him right now, you can – and answered all of our many (many!) questions with candor and good humour.
The biggest benefit we got was from the moment we’d found a house and decided to make an offer: we had no experience of the UK process, and Henry guided us through the entire affair, making sure that everything was on track.
When we needed help securing buildings insurance, he gave a not-so-gentle hurry-up to the broker. When we were entertaining thoughts of bargaining down from the agreed-upon price, Henry set us straight without condescending. When we were just plain frustrated with the sellers, Henry let us rant and then got back to playing hardball on our behalf.
They are laser-focused on getting you the outcome you want, and very open to feedback. We would not have made this move without them, and would work with them again in a heartbeat.
Just moved into our lovely property in Islington thanks to Henry and Rosie, without whom none of this would have happened.
From spending a day establishing the best area of London for us, to offer negotiations, arranging a speedy survey and liaising with the estate agent throughout the whole process, Henry and Rosie have been brilliant and we cannot recommend them highly enough. A lot of their hard work was acting on our behalf when we weren’t in the UK.
Rosie first visited the property for us as we were unable to see it, and her advice, photos and videos were invaluable in helping us make the decision to fly back and view it in person.
Thank you Henry and Rosie for making our London dreams come true.
Richard and Amanda
We opted for Henry’s bespoke buying service in 2021 having failed to progress past the offer stage with several properties while searching for our forever family home in the “Prime” price range in Wandsworth’s extremely competitive property market.
Henry (and his daughter Kate) turned things around for us. They came through with several “off market” options which we would never have seen had it not been for Henry’s established relationships with the local selling agents. One of these proved to be the right one and Henry helped ensure our offer was accepted by intermediating the price negotiations, holding our hand when we got cold feet, and setting us up with a first-rate mortgage broker, surveyor and conveyancing solicitor, so we were able to proceed quickly.
In the end, the seller proved to be a very tricky customer and we backed out of the purchase. Henry provided wise counsel and shielded us from a lot of frustration and acrimony as the deal fell through. Ultimately, we found a better house in the adjacent street and are now its proud owners.
We could not be happier with the way things turned out and would not be here were it not for Henry and Kate. We cannot recommend the bespoke buying service highly enough, especially for those trying to buy in London’s crazy property market. We hope we never need to look for another home again, but if we do, we know who to call!
Henry did a great job of helping us navigate the search for a new home. He was very helpful in helping us to figure out what we really wanted, and even more helpful in getting us to stick to it when other options presented themselves.
His relationships with the selling agents, solicitors and surveyors were all invaluable in ensuring we actually got the home we wanted.
We would definitely recommend him to anyone looking for their next home.