Property Sourcing

Item	Amount
Our fee	From 1.2% of the purchase price
Minimum	£1,500
How it is charged	Staged: a commitment fee on appointment, the balance on completion

The fee, and how it is staged

The commitment fee buys the search itself, and it is what makes the service honest: we work for you, not for whichever seller pays a fee, and we can walk you away from a bad property without walking away from our income. The exact rate within the range depends on the brief and is fixed in the signed terms.

What a search involves

A written brief

budget, areas, yield or home requirements, condition appetite and timescale.

The search across the portals, our register, and stock that is not publicly marketed, including our property bank.

An appraisal of each candidate from evidence

sold prices, achieved rents, condition, and for rentals the licensing position under the council that actually governs the address.

Negotiation on your behalf, which is the part that usually pays the fee by itself: we negotiate for a living, and the seller's agent does too.

Progression through to completion alongside your conveyancer and lender, with the group's own firms available if you want the whole route under one roof.

Properties, never investments

One sentence we ask every client to read: we source properties, we do not sell investments, and we promise no return. Nobody can honestly promise you a yield, and the sourcing trade has a fringe that does. What we give you instead is evidence, achieved rents and sold prices rather than projections, our anti-money laundering registration with HMRC, redress scheme membership, and terms of business drafted by a firm of solicitors. If a property does not stack up, we tell you, and the search continues.

For relocating families the same discipline applies with a different brief: schools, commute and street rather than yield. You get a shortlist you can trust from a person who has stood in every property on it.

After completion, if you are letting

Sourcing clients who let their purchase usually move straight into management, and if you live outside the UK that means Overseas Landlord Management, with HMRC's Non-Resident Landlord Scheme and licence holding included. The handover is seamless because it is the same office: the file that bought the property becomes the file that runs it.

Questions we are asked

What does property sourcing cost? +

From 1.2% of the purchase price, with a minimum of £1,500, including any VAT. It is staged: a commitment fee when you appoint us and the balance on completion, on terms agreed and signed in writing before any search begins.

Do you guarantee a yield or a return? +

No, and you should be wary of anyone who does. We source properties, not investments: you get evidence, achieved rents and sold prices, an honest appraisal of each candidate, and our advice, but the decision and the return are yours. We will never promise what nobody controls.

Why would I pay you when buying agents' stock is free to see online? +

The portals show you what every other buyer sees. We add the stock that is not publicly marketed, the evidence to price what you find, and a negotiator on your side of the table, opposite the seller's agent who negotiates every day. On most purchases the negotiation alone recovers the fee.

Can you handle the whole purchase, not just the search? +

Yes. Trent Law Solicitors can do the conveyancing, 10% less for our clients, and Trent Finance can arrange the mortgage at its reduced fee for our clients. Each firm is separate and using them is your choice, never a condition of the search.

The fee, and how it is staged

What a search involves

Properties, never investments

After completion, if you are letting

Questions we are asked

Related services

Start with a figure in writing, and a straight answer.