Help, how much should I offer at BAFO

snkerrig

Hi

We're 1st time buyers, we’ve been looking for a house since Feb and have found a place which needs some modernisation, within budget, which goes to best & final offers next week. The house is on the market at £170’000, & has 3 bids of the asking price already. We like the house but don’t want to pay too much for it. Any advice on how much you think we should offer would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Sim

kibs88

It depends on your budget and how much you are willing/wanting to spend.

I have been in this position twice. The first time, offers had already gone over the asking price before BAFO we ended up bidding 9K over and still lost out.

Recently we only went £500 over the asking price and got the house.

In some cases when EA's say BAFO this isn't always the case, for example we put a BAFO in for £72500, found out we lost out and so upped it to £75k.

You can never be sure when an EA says BAFO.

Good Luck and keep us updated!

mlz1413

when you make your offer be sure to put in that you are FTB as that should outweigh higher offers from people in chains.

only offer what you are happy to and don't get carried away bidding and then not have the money to modernise.

good luck

snkerrig

Thanks for the great advice, we could just about afford 175’000, at a push, but going over the stamp duty threshold would cost us another 1750, which we couldn’t afford. Especially as the place needs work.
Sim

snkerrig

Just to let you know, we didn't get the house. We put in a BAFO of £174'000 but the vendors chose a higher bid.

Think we might take a bit of a break from house hunting after the recent land registry stats showing house prices are still falling, we still have plenty of time to find the right house & possibly save some money.

Thanks for the advice.

Sim