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Bidding war advice please
JBerger
Posts: 7 Forumite
So, I've been looking to buy for about 4 months now. In July I found a lovely property that unfortunately fell through (vendors decided not to move after all) and have been back on the hunt for about a month.
I've not seen anything that grabbed me until yesterday when I looked round a 1 bed flat and fell in love with it. Called estate agent straight away and offered the asking price (which seemed suspiciously low, it's in an incredibly desirable area of Manchester where tiny 2 ups 2 downs with downstairs bathrooms go for £260k and it's on for £125k) if vendor would take off market. Was called back a couple of hours later to be told another offer had also been made that day around the asking price plus there were numerous viewings booked over the weekend, so, I'd be contacted on Monday and asked for a best and final offer.
Not wanting to get into a bidding war I went into the Estate Agents today, explained I was currently living in rented accommodation on a rolling 1 month contract and had a mortgage already in place for another property that the mortgage company would swap to another address, and was therefore an attractive buyer. I asked what the vendor would accept to take it off the market. They responded with £130k which after a couple of hours of thinking I accepted I'd pay.
So, I thought this was a business transaction, he's named his price, I said I'd pay it, deal done. They then phone me to say they'll have to tell the other interested buyers an offer has been given that would take the property off the market and would they want to make another offer too (this wasn't the deal I thought we'd agreed). They then phone to tell me other buyers have offered the same as me as their best and final offer (not sure I believe that) and what' my best and final offer. I asked to have the evening to to think.
Could do with some advice here - I thought the fact I'd asked what he wanted and then agreed with it would make it mine, obviously not the case. What do I do? I love the flat, don't want to loose it, but also don't want to get in a tit for tat bidding war. I can afford to pay more (flat is considerably less than the house I'd been buying, also considerably smaller) but don't want to play games and see the price creeping up and up. I don't feel the vendor/Estate agents are behaving particularly honestly, surely if I'd asked what price would take it off market and then we agreed it it shouldn't matter what other buyers say?? Any advice or winning tactics welcome please.
Confused,
Jen
I've not seen anything that grabbed me until yesterday when I looked round a 1 bed flat and fell in love with it. Called estate agent straight away and offered the asking price (which seemed suspiciously low, it's in an incredibly desirable area of Manchester where tiny 2 ups 2 downs with downstairs bathrooms go for £260k and it's on for £125k) if vendor would take off market. Was called back a couple of hours later to be told another offer had also been made that day around the asking price plus there were numerous viewings booked over the weekend, so, I'd be contacted on Monday and asked for a best and final offer.
Not wanting to get into a bidding war I went into the Estate Agents today, explained I was currently living in rented accommodation on a rolling 1 month contract and had a mortgage already in place for another property that the mortgage company would swap to another address, and was therefore an attractive buyer. I asked what the vendor would accept to take it off the market. They responded with £130k which after a couple of hours of thinking I accepted I'd pay.
So, I thought this was a business transaction, he's named his price, I said I'd pay it, deal done. They then phone me to say they'll have to tell the other interested buyers an offer has been given that would take the property off the market and would they want to make another offer too (this wasn't the deal I thought we'd agreed). They then phone to tell me other buyers have offered the same as me as their best and final offer (not sure I believe that) and what' my best and final offer. I asked to have the evening to to think.
Could do with some advice here - I thought the fact I'd asked what he wanted and then agreed with it would make it mine, obviously not the case. What do I do? I love the flat, don't want to loose it, but also don't want to get in a tit for tat bidding war. I can afford to pay more (flat is considerably less than the house I'd been buying, also considerably smaller) but don't want to play games and see the price creeping up and up. I don't feel the vendor/Estate agents are behaving particularly honestly, surely if I'd asked what price would take it off market and then we agreed it it shouldn't matter what other buyers say?? Any advice or winning tactics welcome please.
Confused,
Jen
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Comments
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Have you got a link to this property. If the price is wrong we may be able to suss it out and save you the bother
Having been involved in these deals professionally, the position often outweighs the cash offer0 -
If you can afford a house d say that'd be better than a 1 bed flat? (Sorry, spanner in the works!)
The only way to resolve ths is for them to set a date for a best and finals deadline. Usually this works, so go ahead and put your best bid in, but occasionally a greedy buyer then accepts a further increased offer from a losing bidder. Minefield.0 -
It seems fairly obvious to me.
Make your best and final offer.0 -
There is every chance you are bidding against yourself and the other offer is a fiction.
The winning tactic is to offer what you think it is worth (to you) and leave it at that.0 -
My best and final offer is prob about 5k more, but I don't want to go straight to that if I can get it for less...0
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If it were me?
I'd stick, and reiterate the fact i was no chain.
You've already upped your offer once. If you don't get the property move on.0 -
It's all down to the market. What is it like in Manchester?
When I started looking for a place in autumn 2013 it was just as the London bubble was taking off. My experiences were exactly like yours. There was no indication on land registry records that the market was going haywire, because of course those figures are 3 months out of date. I thought the EAs were inventing offers, but no, people really were getting into bidding wars. Open days were like queuing for the sales, some viewers were making bids before the viewings had even ended.
Has the ripple of price inflation reached Manchester? That's what you need to suss out.0 -
There is every chance you are bidding against yourself and the other offer is a fiction.
The winning tactic is to offer what you think it is worth (to you) and leave it at that.
I would suggest that is unlikely.
I realise that it's very popular to suggest this is the case every time a scenario like this comes up, but is it really that difficult to envisage a scenario where two buyers have both offered on the same property? A property described by the OP as being priced "suspiciously low."0 -
Suspiciously low usually means there's something wrong with it.
When did it come on the market? Has anyone else had a survey on it possibly?
This happened to us recently, except we were almost certain there was no other interested. We stuck to our guns and left our original offer on the table, we didn't even bother to phone them to reiterate it as a best and final.
And it was accepted this morning.....
We don't know if we want to proceed now but that's a different story.0
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