"Trust me I'm an Estate Agent!"

The strangest thing about buying a property is the amount of time it actually takes to decide to buy your home.

You can spend weeks, months even years looking. Trawling around estate agents, viewing as many as possible and then suddenly you will walk up to the front door of a property and very nearly before you have crossed the threshold you have fallen in love and want it. You want it passionately.

The biggest purchase of your life has usually been decided within 30-40 seconds of being inside.

Having fallen in love, you can't stop thinking your dream house, but you have to come back to near reality and talk yourself into being able to afford it, and yes, it will be alright once those awful carpets in the bedroom have been changed.

Now you have got this far, what are you going to do next. Most people will contact the agent, if he was not with you at the viewing, and 'make an offer'. Only you know what you want to offer, but there will be a myriad of people telling you what to offer.

At this point we need to go back to the beginning of your property hunt. Before you even start to look please read on