"Best and final offer" ?

halfone

Hello all…:)

At the end of last week, I was engaged in house-buying negotiations. To cut a long story short, the EA advised me the vendor had said a certain amount would settle it. I thought the house was worth the price, so I offered that.

He contacted me again saying another buyer had offered the same as me, and he was putting both offers forward, which was okay by me. Then he said the vendor was asking for best and final offers to a deadline that day. As it was a couple of hours away and I was at work I didn’t reply immediately. Meanwhile, he got in contact again to tell me the other buyer had gone £1,000 more as a best and final offer. I stuck at my price, as I'm a cash buyer in an excellent position to proceed, and they had to sort out a mortgage. I didn’t hear anything back.

I phoned the EA this morning, and he's told me the vendor has accepted their offer which was £3,000 above what I offered, and asking do I want to better that. I won’t be going any higher; I don't think the house is worth more.

My questions are:

1) Are best and final offers not actually best or final (if the other party can increase theirs, and now, apparently, I can increase mine)? What’s the point of calling them ‘best and final’ if that's the case?

2) Is it normal practice for an EA to disclose what another party's best and final offer is? I know he told me, so I suspect he'd told the others what my best and final was, in order for them to increase theirs again.

I'm aware these may be naïve questions; I'm a FTB. I won’t be making any more offers on this particular house, but I'd really like to know how these things work in case I'm in the same situation again.

PS. If this has been asked before, please could someone point me in the right direction? I've scrolled through the first few pages of this section of the forum and don’t see anything immediately relevant…

Thanks in advance.

sonastin

If the EA thinks he can squeeze anything more out of you, he'll keep pushing regardless of how many times it is called a "final" offer. Some people will keep bidding to get their "dream" house and if the EA has a tactic he can work to increase the offers, he'll use it. When you reach your maximum, stick to your guns. Don't be tempted to add on a bit more because the requests to increase will keep coming. It is not unheard of for EAs to fabricate "other offers" to get a naive buyer bidding against himself so that is a tactic to watch out for as well. But its worth remembering that sometimes the other offers do really exist.

GAH

Where two parties (or more) are asked for best and final offers, that really should be it.

The agents then ahave to call back the parties that don't have their offers accepted, and some times people feel aggreived that their bid lost, so they sometimes put another offer in, which the agent is legally obliged to do, it really then falls down to the discretion of the vendor, whether he is greedy or will honour the best and final bid.

The agent should not tell the other parties which each other bids are.

Some times its a case of where does it end. It comes down to the discretion of the vendor.

halfone

Thanks sonastin That's what I was thinking...
It seems a bit counterproductive for the EA to keep on saying 'final' offer though. If they're saying 'that's the end of it' but it actually isn't, I don't know where I stand at all, so I'm much more likely to not bother offering any more. I can't stand that sort of uncertainty.

CloudCuckooLand

If the vendor has "accepted" the £3k higher offer, then what the hell is the EA doing touting around to get more..? If I, as the other buyer, heard about that, I'd seriously consider withdrawing my offer.

Definitely have doubts about the authenticity of the other buyer, for that reason. Imagine how pee'd off the vendor would be if they lost two real buyers through these games...

Keep an eye on the property, if not sold in a month ring them back up, at £5k lower...

halfone

GAH wrote: »

The agents then ahave to call back the parties that don't have their offers accepted, and some times people feel aggreived that their bid lost, so they sometimes put another offer in, which the agent is legally obliged to do, it really then falls down to the discretion of the vendor, whether he is greedy or will honour the best and final bid.

The agent should not tell the other parties which each other bids are.

I don't mind so much that I got outbid; that's fair enough. But I was quite surprised the EA was telling me the other person's best and final offer, without me even asking.

In all honesty, I'm also a bit annoyed I had to chase him up to find out my offer had been rejected.

Thanks for that, anyway - you've confirmed some of what I suspected

GAH

I know it really defeats the object.

Id move on, your cash buyer in good position, there is always a better property out there.

halfone

CloudCuckooLand wrote: »

If the vendor has "accepted" the £3k higher offer, then what the hell is the EA doing touting around to get more..?

I think he's just having a punt. He knows I'm a cash buyer but he doesn't know my budget. And I agree - I wouldn't be impressed if I was the other buyer.

Definitely have doubts about the authenticity of the other buyer, for that reason. Imagine how pee'd off the vendor would be if they lost two real buyers through these games...

Well, I'm not offering any more now, so we'll see. I'm quite good at drawing a line under things like that. I'm actively looking at other properties...

Keep an eye on the property, if not sold in a month ring them back up, at £5k lower...

Fair advice, I think - thankyou.

woodsey2002

It's not a three bed semi on at 195K in the north of England is it as I'm currently caught up in the exact same situation.
I'm not a cash buyer but require a mortgage, however we're in rented and can move pretty quickly but we were made aware fairly early on that a cash buyer was offering the same as us and with many other interested parties this house went to best and final offers.
Since the deadline I haven't heard anything though so I was wondering if further behind the scenes negotiations were going on and we were being left to sweat as the emergency back up buyers.

What's happened with you sounds unacceptable and completely defeats the purpose.

halfone

woodsey2002 wrote: »

It's not a three bed semi on at 195K in the north of England is it as I'm currently caught up in the exact same situation.

Nope, I'm at the other end of the country - if you were my 'other buyer' I'd be gritting my teeth while congratulating you right now

It does sound like we've been in similar situations though - it's not nice, feeling like you're hanging on as possible "emergency back up buyers" (as you put it).

Although, if there's lots of people with offers on the house you're interested in, it may genuinely be taking the vendor a while to sort out what's the best deal for them. Wouldn't hurt the EA to let you know that though...

I think in the future, I'll have to try and confirm what the EA actually means by "best and final offer"

woodsey2002

halfone wrote: »

Nope, I'm at the other end of the country - if you were my 'other buyer' I'd be gritting my teeth while congratulating you right now

It does sound like we've been in similar situations though - it's not nice, feeling like you're hanging on as possible "emergency back up buyers" (as you put it).

Although, if there's lots of people with offers on the house you're interested in, it may genuinely be taking the vendor a while to sort out what's the best deal for them. Wouldn't hurt the EA to let you know that though...

I think in the future, I'll have to try and confirm what the EA actually means by "best and final offer"

To be fair to the agent that we've been dealing with he has kept us pretty well informed up until the deadline and it was actually his suggestion that the vendor go to best and final and it was getting ridiculous, although I would have thought that the agent would have been happy to actually have some work to do for a change..:D

I've just actually had an email stating that the vendor is still currently considering all the offers but I'm not holding my breath.
I too had my price and I'm not prepared to go over it and to secure this one I think we'd have needed to go considerably over asking especially competing with a cash buyer.

Good luck anyway.