Sealed bids - making a private offer anyway?

jimpix12

I have found a house I really like, but apparently others do as well, and the agent has decided to put it to sealed bids in a month's time. Since I am a cash buyer and can complete quickly, if I were to put an offer to the EA privately, i.e. to skip the sealed bids process, would they entertain this? And indeed would they be 'required' to forward my offer on to the vendor as normal?

I know the chances are slim but I just wondered if it was worth trying it.

kinger101

If you make an offer to the EA, they are obliged to pass it on to the buyer unless they've been instructed otherwise. NB, it's not the agent that has decided to go to sealed bids. It's the vendor.

You can put in your offer, but unless its a high offer with an expiry date, I can's see what the vendor has to gain by selling to you before bids close.

The end of the month does seem odd though. If there had been that much interest, I can't see why they wouldn't say end of the week.

davidmcn

Unless you genuinely can't wait until the closing date I doubt this is likely to be worthwhile - bear in mind also the risk that someone tells the other bidders how much you've bid.

jimpix12

Thanks - it only came on last week so I suppose they are allowing everyone time to look at it. And it needs work, so planning advice, architects etc etc.

I suppose the agent will tell everyone what I've bid and then others might bid over that, but I thought the agent wasn't permitted to tell others what price has been offered? Generally speaking.

kinger101

An honest agent won't tell you what someone else has bid (I've tried asking myself) but as the saying goes, loose lips sinks ships.

eddddy

There's nothing to stop you putting in an early offer.

Whether it gets accepted or not is entirely dependent on the circumstances/mindset of the vendor. (If you were the vendor, what would persuade you to accept an early offer?)

If timescales are an issue for the vendor - I guess one angle you could try is "I'm a cash buyer - if you accept my offer, I'll aim to exchange within 2/3 weeks".

But if the vendor is more concerned with getting the best possible price, rather than getting the fastest possible sale, that may not help.

slowpoke_rodriguez

A month is still a long time for sealed bids to be prepared if there's a feeding frenzy. I would have thought a week or two weeks max.
There's plenty of time for ardour to cool...

jimpix12

Interesting. I'll try to gauge how quickly the vendor wants to sell and if they'll take a good cash offer before offering any figures.

I don't know if a month is normal or not, but it says they won't accept conditional offers eg subject to planning (which it needs). So it does seem strange to allow this long really I suppose.