Buying a home is a major purchase. But while some of us enjoy the hunt for a new property, few of us welcome the stressful negotiations that follow.

You've found that dream property, but the price is too high. You want the property so much you know it will be difficult to disguise your keenness and realise it would be almost impossible to negotiate on something upon which you have set your heart. So what can you do? The answer is to use a buying agent, who will be able to do the job far better than you, not least because he or she is acting as a third – and unbiased – party. And in the current softening market, the chance of obtaining a discount on the asking price is more of a probability than an impossibility.

"We remove emotions and provide a distance between the principals," says Tim Lawson of Property Pathfinder (01285 653190), who works mainly in the Cotswolds. "A purchaser might go in and have a cosy chat with the vendor and agree a price, then on the way home start thinking he has paid too much or wondering whether there was something he'd missed - like a footpath running through the garden, which would upset his privacy, or a planning restriction which means he will not be able to add the extension he needs. He cannot go back and say he underestimated the value of such and such problem. Much better for him to pick up the phone to someone like us. We have the local knowledge, we'll do the research on the property and make the right offer."

The County Homesearch group (01872 1234567), which has 25 offices in the UK, is seeing an increase in the number of people asking for their expertise in negotiation. "This market is enabling us to look at a property, then organise a survey before putting in an offer," says director Jonathan Haward. "The heat is off and fewer buyers are actively purchasing so we have the luxury of having more time to negotiate. We can always do better than the purchaser as we know the area and are involved with houses seven days a week. We can go in with sound, reasoned argument based on knowledge and fact, rather than 'I'm a purchaser and I've got cash'. We can also sit down with the vendor and his agent and reason with them in a way a purchaser could not do. We can demonstrate comparables and often persuade the vendor to take an offer because he knows he has a definite sale."

County Homesearch recently bought for a client a large farmhouse in poor condition with spectacular views over the Cornish coast. It was on the market for £350,000, and, because the company could get a surveyor round before making an offer and then persuade the owner of the merit of having a cash buyer who would not pull out because so much work needed doing, they managed to get £20,000 knocked off the price.

For deals like this, purchasers need to be cash buyers or able to borrow money for a bridging loan, as it is crucial for the vendor or his agent to know the buyer is serious and is not in a chain. Fees are either based on a percentage (around 10 per cent) of the discount achieved or a small percentage (around 1.5 per cent) of the purchase price.

For many purchasers, especially if they are particularly busy people, these charges are well worth the money, says Lawson. "We had a client last year, who was looking for a good quality village home and was prepared to spend around £1.5 million. Then he found something in a different area and phoned us, saying he didn't want to deal with the vendor himself as he was far too tied up. He was prepared to pay £1.4 million, but we negotiated it down to £1.23 million. We happened to know that the circumstances of the vendor would make him susceptible to an offer. The vendor, of course, had no idea of this. Not surprisingly, our client was delighted."

It is because buying agents have their ear to the ground that they can achieve a better deal than the purchaser, especially if he or she does not know the area. "Buying agents will know or can find out the vendor's situation – how badly they need to sell, how long they have been trying to sell," says James Greenwood of Stacks Property Search and Acquisition (01594 1234567). "Depending on the circumstances, the acceptable price is likely to vary. We also have market knowledge because we monitor asking and sales prices in the area on a constant basis. Negotiating the correct price for a property is a fine art and, given the current softening market, there is often room for negotiation. But it's important to judge the level at which the property won't be lost. We have bought numerous properties on behalf of clients this year at well below the asking price."

Another reason purchasers may use buying agents to negotiate a deal is because they simply don't like doing it themselves. "Purchasers might not understand the intricacies of the property market and at the moment, confidence is a vital component," says James Wilson, who is a buying agent with Lane Fox (020-7499 4785).

"We build up a relationship with the selling agent, who also wants to get a deal rather than take a fancy price, which falls through at a later date. A while ago, I had a client, who was a successful entrepreneur in the software business. He had found a house in West Sussex and because he was very dynamic, he fell out big time with the selling agent. He tried to apply his entrepreneurial skills to a completely different market and the agent didn't like it."

In the end, the purchaser gave Lane Fox a ring and explained he wanted to buy the house, but didn't want to deal with the vendor's agent any more. "We already knew the agent and were able to bring a degree of objectivity to the deal," says Wilson. "We saved our client about £100,000 on a house worth £1.5 million which he is now going to use to do it up."