How I help you buy
The judgement of an architect, with the reach of a buying agent
I am Maya Carni, an ARB-registered, RIBA chartered architect. Since 2016 I have found, assessed and negotiated homes in North, East and South East London for first-time buyers, people moving home and international buyers, from under £475,000 to over £1.3 million.
An investment you will live in
Buying a house is a design decision. Every house comes with space and qualities already given: light, aspect, ceiling height, proportion. Some of that can be changed, and some of it is fixed by the fabric of the building.
Whether you plan to renovate or move straight in, and whether you buy a period house or a new-build flat, you are buying a piece of architecture. You are also buying a property: an asset, valued by its price, its lease, its condition and the market around it.
I help you judge each property in three parts: Fact, Feel and Fit. In each one I wear two hats, the buying agent’s and the architect’s.
Fact
What the property is, and what it is worth.
As your buying agent: price per square foot, comparable sales, the lease, the service charge, your paperwork and the survey. As your architect: damp, electrics, movement, whether breaking through that wall needs a structural engineer’s sign-off, and what the planning history says about the chances of an extension. I have run many renovations and extensions, so I know first-hand what work costs, and I can help you get a builder to price it before you offer.
Feel
What it will be like to live in.
For most people a home is the biggest financial commitment of their life, and the decision is often made on one or two viewings of around fifteen minutes each. People spend longer in a changing room deciding on a £20 shirt.
I trained, and have spent over 20 years in practice, reading spaces and picturing buyers’ lives within them. Where you will have your morning coffee. Where your guests will find the WC. Where everything gets stored. Whether the sun will glare on your screen when you work from home. Whether the neighbours’ view into your garden will feel too intrusive. Light, aspect, ceiling height, proportion, the sequence of rooms: what makes a place good to be in, and what will draw the next buyer to it when you sell. If you want to move straight in and change nothing, this is the part that gives you reassurance.
Fit
Whether it matches your brief.
As your buying agent: I help you write the brief, run the search and build a focused shortlist. As your architect: I tell you which of your deal breakers can be changed easily and which cannot. One WC is a deal breaker, only if a second one cannot be added. If you want to do work, I can tell you straight away whether what you have in mind is realistic: against your overall budget, in practical terms such as moving the plumbing, and against planning restrictions. I say no often, and I say it with a number. I would rather lose you a viewing than watch you buy a project you cannot afford to finish.
Where I work
I cover North, East and South East London, keeping to this half of London because I know its streets, its prices and its selling agents, and they know me.
From East Finchley, Camden and Tottenham in the north, to Dalston, Stoke Newington, London Fields, Victoria Park, Bow, Mile End, Poplar, Leyton and Walthamstow in the east, and Bermondsey, Forest Hill and Bromley in the south east: these are some of the places where I have found homes for buyers.
How a search runs
A discovery call, then a written summary.
I put your brief back to you in writing, so we both know what we are looking for.
A first longlist.
Close to an elimination round, in one shared file that compares every property against your brief: commute, neighbourhood, price per square foot, lease, room sizes, with my assessment next to your comments. Tell me why not as well as why. Your reasons sharpen the brief and focus the search.
The search.
New properties go into the file as they come up. When you can, I like you with me, even at a first viewing. When you can’t, I view on my own, send you a video and a bottom line, and line up the ones you like back to back. I work with the local agents so you are first through the door, sometimes before a home reaches the market. Selling agents deal with me and you are copied, so the marketing emails about homes that don’t suit you stop with me, and you see the ones that do.
The offer.
We set the offer level together. I bring the comparable sales and what I know about the seller, and you decide the number you are comfortable with. The negotiation strategy depends on the house, the seller and the competition, so it changes from one purchase to the next. When several buyers compete, agents know a DOMY buyer has been checked, has chosen this home, and has me pushing the sale to exchange. There is no pressure to offer. Make one when you are sure you want to live there. A few more weeks of searching makes no difference against the years you will spend in the home. The search clock stops once you are under offer. If the sale falls through for reasons outside your control, the clock restarts where it stopped.
Introductions.
Mortgage broker, solicitors, surveyors.
Through to completion.
I handle the agent, arrange and read the survey, and chase everyone. If you cannot be there on the day, I collect the keys and walk the flat with you on video.
DOMY buying agent fees
£2,000 retainer
Paid when you instruct me, before the search starts. It covers twelve weeks of searching and comes off the success fee.
2% or £10,000 success fee
Whichever is higher. Paid on completion.
The twelve weeks are search time, not calendar time. If you go on holiday, or the market goes quiet in August or over Christmas, we stop the clock. If the search runs past twelve weeks, I extend it by agreement with a second retainer.
Is it worth it?
A buying agent and an architect on one search, before you offer, while the answers can still change which home you buy and what you pay for it.
Part of the fee can come back at the negotiating table: £20,000 off in Forest Hill after the roof and asbestos were priced, £8,000 off in Bow on a roof quote the week of exchange. My buyers have written about what it was worth to them.
“Her negotiating skills probably saved us double her fee.”Paula Munro,Google review
Let’s have a chat
A free, no-obligation call. Tell me what you are looking for and I will tell you honestly whether I am the right person to find it.
Get in touch
