Estate agent telling me an offer is made on house I've viewed

MrRee_2

I hate bidding wars, but they are a reality in the South .... it is happening folks, get used to it.

GAH

MrRee wrote: »

I hate bidding wars, but they are a reality in the South .... it is happening folks, get used to it.

Where exactly in the South?

TrickyDicky101

MrRee wrote: »

I hate bidding wars, but they are a reality in the South .... it is happening folks, get used to it.

Pointless throw away comment.

[Deleted User]

Has the Vendor accepted the offer? If they have, you may want to walk away. If not, make your best offer and see what happens.

krlyr

You can either offer or walk away, up to you. We viewed the place we're buying, and had given an unofficial offer (seller is a friend of the family). Someone who'd made a low offer and been turned down decided to go back and view the day after us and we had to wait a few days to see if they'd make another offer. We just said to the seller that we could go up to £x and didn't want a bidding war because, being honest, we couldn't afford any more than our offer. Got a call a few days later to say he was happy to proceeed with our offer if we wanted to go place it with the EA.
Not quite the same situation but my point is that you may well find someone else interested in any property you view. You could be too nice for your own good and leave any property that someone has offered on, or you can make your own offer and see which one the seller chooses. We don't know what the other potential buyer offered but we had the benefit of being chain-free, able to work to the seller's timescale and him knowing we were genuinely in a position to buy because of the family/friend connection. Maybe the other guy had a place to sell, maybe he seemed like he would be difficult further down the line trying to negotiate a lower purchase price if the survey was to flag anything up (we may have tried dropping slightly for massive issues that may cost thousands to fix, but everything was cosmetic and we're happy to absorb the cost as we got a bargain anyway), maybe the seller just didn't like him and as he had another offer to choose from he decided to turn the guy down. You could turn out to be the more appealing buyer to the seller even if you offer the same amount as the other potential buyer. Up to you whether you find it acceptable morally to throw your offer in the mix.

Mallotum_X

Its an old estate agent trick. A house may be on the market for a while, no offers, then when you go see it and like it suddenly an offer pops up. Houses in most areas are taking longer than ever to sell, so there is unlikely to be any rush at the moment.

Tell the agent you dont want to get into a bidding war, and if the current offer falls though to contact you.

googler

Goldust wrote: »

The Estate Agent told them (and has told me now I'm back) that the people who viewed it after my folks have offered asking price for it.

Have you asked the EA;

Has that offer been accepted or declined?
If not (accepted or declined), why haven't the vendors done so?

A firm answer to these questions should guide you forward.

Opinion

GAH wrote: »

Where exactly in the South?

Personally, I've offered on two places; a flat in Buckhurst Hill; was on the market for £305,000, next door(identical) had sold for £275,000 six months prior, and it had two offers at asking price which I wasn't prepared to go for. Second was a house in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, on for £285,000, that had two asking price offers that had been accepted but couldn't proceed(one had been accepted three months ago) and two more people made offers over the two weekends that I viewed it. I made a cheeky offer of £270,000 as a cash buyer which was refused. That one is also off the market now.

So, unfortunately, it does happen.

GAH

Opinion wrote: »

Personally, I've offered on two places; a flat in Buckhurst Hill; was on the market for £305,000, next door(identical) had sold for £275,000 six months prior, and it had two offers at asking price which I wasn't prepared to go for. Second was a house in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, on for £285,000, that had two asking price offers that had been accepted but couldn't proceed(one had been accepted three months ago) and two more people made offers over the two weekends that I viewed it. I made a cheeky offer of £270,000 as a cash buyer which was refused. That one is also off the market now.

So, unfortunately, it does happen.

im not doubting it happens, popular houses or roads, correctly priced properties will have a lot of interest, and in instances like you have mentioned, two people bidding for the same property.

From Mr Ree's comments, he is suggesting there are bidding wars happening all over the South of England, Just wanted to know exactly where?

Just because a friend or someone you may have talked to got into a bidding war against someone, it certainly doesn't mean its happening everywhere.

I live in a reasonablely nice area of West London, depist what others may say, no fighting for properties round here.

evansmummy

GAH wrote: »

im not doubting it happens, popular houses or roads, correctly priced properties will have a lot of interest, and in instances like you have mentioned, two people bidding for the same property.

From Mr Ree's comments, he is suggesting there are bidding wars happening all over the South of England, Just wanted to know exactly where?

Just because a friend or someone you may have talked to got into a bidding war against someone, it certainly doesn't mean its happening everywhere.

I live in a reasonablely nice area of West London, depist what others may say, no fighting for properties round here.

It's not just happening in the South. Some areas 'up north' are experiencing it too. The area we are selling in is slow but the area we're buying in is extremely buoyant due to excellent schools. We had a bidding war on a house last year before our chain collapsed. And now this time around we've had to pay full asking price for our new property, although we thought it was priced accordingly compared to a few which are overpriced that are still lingering around even in that fast moving area.