(England, Wales & Northern Ireland)
Once you have chosen the property you would like to buy, you need to make an offer. This simply means that you are interested in buying the property and the price you are prepared to pay. A verbal offer is not binding, on your part, or on the part of the seller. The commitment only comes when you "exchange contracts". Your Estate Agent will need to know that you have finance in place prior to passing the offer on to the seller, so please do contact SPF at this stage, so that we can make sure you do not lose out on the property you want to buy.
Having made your offer, the agent will help to negotiate between you and the seller to agree a price. There are two important points to note here, first, the agent is acting for the seller and not you as the buyer, and as such will try to get the highest price available. Secondly, you will have already decided the maximum amount you can borrow, so don't be tempted to go beyond this without considering the later financial implications first.

(Scotland)
The process of submitting an offer in Scotland is more formal than for the rest of the U.K. Once you have chosen the property you would like to buy, you need to get in touch with your solicitor as soon as possible. He can then communicate with the seller's solicitor and "note interest" in the property. Once this has been done, the property cannot be sold to anyone else without you first having the chance to offer for it.

Once the selling solicitor has gathered all the notes of interest, he will discuss them with all the potential purchasers and set a closing date for offers. In order to place a formal offer you will need to have a survey carried out on the property first.