Sealed Bids - OIRO

Starfire_2

As first-time buyers my boyfriend and I recently saw a house which was on the market as OIRO 155k. 155k was right at the top of our budget, but the area was so good that we went to look around. To cut a long, anxious story short, we offered the asking price and were informaed that ten offers had been made in it's first week on the market so they were taking final offers. We could only offer 157k (and were going to borrow some of that from parents!), but they told us that we hadn't made the best offer, so we lost the house.

Now, a few weeks later we find ourselves in the same predicament, but on a much cheaper property in need of 'updating' on at OIRO 125k - we already made an offer of the asking price and now it is a final bid situation. We have to have our bid in tomorrow at noon, and are really worried about offering too much over what the others are paying, but worse, not getting the house. We recently looked at a house over the road for £147k which, although it looked nicer - basically would need much of the same work (new windows etc) as the one we are going for.

Could anyone tell me how much over the guide we should go - we feel like we want to offer 135k, but with nothing to guide us it is difficult to judge - although we think that the hosue is worth this and after we have updated it using 20k it should be around 160k + - we even heard another bidder (a builder) saying so to his wife when we were taking a second viewing!

I am so anxious about this please help and give your opinion!