Dr Zoidberg wrote:
I'd counter that with a "don't take the piss" as you don't want a vendor that hates you and will take a later higher offer from someone else.
This is important.
If you make an offer and it's accepted,
the seller can pull out of the deal at any time up until the point that contracts are exchanged for any reason, and with no financial penalty.
It's shit, and hopefully it won't happen to you (it's never happened to me) but it's always best to be prepared for it, as if it does happen you'll effectively have lost any money you spent on surveys etc. for that house.
Also, and this is also important, when it comes time to set dates for exchanging contracts (which is when you officially pay the deposit) and completing (which is when you get the keys and the mortgage "begins"),
always leave at least two weeks between those dates (I think there's a maximum limit of a month, depending on the mortgage provider)
The reason this is important is that there is a lot of stuff that happens between exchanging and completing, and things can still go south at this point (although if they do, the fact you've exchanged contracts means that you have some legal recourse to get monies back).
If you're exchanging and completing on the same day, your stress levels will be through the roof and if you've already made arrangements to move house and something goes wrong, you'll lose any costs for van hire, removals etc. and you can't claim those back!
Reading this back, it sounds very doom and gloom - try not to worry too much, put your offer in, get it accepted, start the solicitors off on their course and you'll be in your new house in no time
(oh, just one more thing - stay in constant contact with your solicitors to get updates on how things are going, many conveyancers are notoriously slow at dealing with stuff and it can make things drag on, if you make yourself a bit of a pain in the arse you're more likely to get things moving faster.)