House/shop for sale by disclosed bids

tbumps

Hi

There's a house/shop that I'm interested in buying which has just come on the market at 'offers over £xx' and paperwork that says that the vendor will accept bids, disclose all bids to other bidders & then take the highest bid (no timescales given except that contracts need to be signed within 3 weeks of the sale being agreed).

I think it makes sense to offer just a little over the asking price as I'll be given information on other bids anyway. There's no-one at the estate agents today so I can't ask my questions about whether the vendor is likely to reacha decision at any particular point in time and/or whether he or she has a fixed price in mind at which they'd sell anyway.

Does anyone have any experience of this kind of sales approach? Is it common for commercial properties? Of course the property will sell for whatever the highest bidder things it's worth but should I expect in general to be paying 10% over the asking price, 20%, more?

Any advice gratefully received.

Victoria

DVardysShadow

You just work out how much you are prepared to offer and start low, increase as required abut don't go over your budget.It isn't sensible to talk about % over asking price, because it is not clear what the asking price is in relation to the offer,

Dom3663

I know its probably not very professional but could you offer a ridiculously high price; (win the auction so to speak) find out what everyone else offer is, then pull out and re-negotiate?

Or you could offer a low price; hope to be the lowest (ie/ not a threat) then when you find out everyone else's bid; put your best price in as no-one will think your prepared to go that high; so will adjust their bids thinking that theres 1 less competition

DVardysShadow

Dom3663 wrote: »

I know its probably not very professional but could you offer a ridiculously high price; (win the auction so to speak) find out what everyone else offer is, then pull out and re-negotiate?

Or you could offer a low price; hope to be the lowest (ie/ not a threat) then when you find out everyone else's bid; put your best price in as no-one will think your prepared to go that high; so will adjust their bids thinking that theres 1 less competition

With the high price suggestion, you would risk the perception that you were all mouth and trousers and you might easily find yourself dropped

With the low price suggestion, you might be perceived as a time waster and not be invited to rebid.

Your strategies are perhaps feasible for just 2 rounds of bidding, but if the seller does the sensible thing and goes to as many rounds as it takes for everyone to stick, you are going to be found out by the other bidders anyway.

This scenario does not lend itself to anything other than putting in a lowish but sensible bid and bidding up towards your own ceiling.

tbumps

I think that's what we'll do - be low but sensible & see what happens. Just phone up to view the property & the estate agent has suggested that it's unmortgageable because of its condition so it's cash buyers only. Will be asking around on the mortgages board to see if anyone has any suggestions about this but this will restrict the potential buyers. She suggested that the vendors will be witing for 3 - 4 weeks and then talking to all of the bidders to see who offers the most so I don't think a low bid would disqualify us from bidding up.