Best and Final Offers

nkkingston

So, my partner and I viewed a house just before we went on holiday. Really liked it, planned to schedule a second viewing when we got back and considered making an offer on it. While we were away, two other people (or couples etc) have put offers in. We rang to put one in as well this morning, and the agent has rung back asking for best and final offers by 4:30.

The house has only been on the market a week, whereas similar ones have been up for months. It's got a recent kitchen and bathroom, is a good size, great location for us (but between two BtLs, which we thought would put other buyers off - apparently not!). It's slightly more expensive than the average terrace in the area, but it's been very well looked after, and obviously the price hasn't put people off. I have a suspicion we're in the same position as the other buyers - it's a perfect FTB house for relatively recent graduates.
We have a large deposit and a Decision in Principle from L&C, but we haven't got any solicitors or anything yet. Do we need solicitors yet? L&C said to call them back when we were ready to make an offer on somewhere, but this has all moved a bit faster than we anticipated!

I've read that best and final offers aren't the same as sealed bids; that agents sometimes try and persuade you to put yours up. We're happy to pay up to £5k more than the asking price (and able to pay more than that, but we're not quite so lovestruck to go crazy over it), but do we want to tip our hand this early?

For the TL:DR read crowd:
- do we need a solicitor to make an offer?
- are best and final offers actually that?
- is there a good rule of thumb for where between asking and maximum it's worth putting a big in at?

Many thanks!

ognum

nkkingston wrote: »

So, my partner and I viewed a house just before we went on holiday. Really liked it, planned to schedule a second viewing when we got back and considered making an offer on it. While we were away, two other people (or couples etc) have put offers in. We rang to put one in as well this morning, and the agent has rung back asking for best and final offers by 4:30.

The house has only been on the market a week, whereas similar ones have been up for months. It's got a recent kitchen and bathroom, is a good size, great location for us (but between two BtLs, which we thought would put other buyers off - apparently not!). It's slightly more expensive than the average terrace in the area, but it's been very well looked after, and obviously the price hasn't put people off. I have a suspicion we're in the same position as the other buyers - it's a perfect FTB house for relatively recent graduates.
We have a large deposit and a Decision in Principle from L&C, but we haven't got any solicitors or anything yet. Do we need solicitors yet? L&C said to call them back when we were ready to make an offer on somewhere, but this has all moved a bit faster than we anticipated!

I've read that best and final offers aren't the same as sealed bids; that agents sometimes try and persuade you to put yours up. We're happy to pay up to £5k more than the asking price (and able to pay more than that, but we're not quite so lovestruck to go crazy over it), but do we want to tip our hand this early?

For the TL:DR read crowd:
- do we need a solicitor to make an offer?
- are best and final offers actually that?
- is there a good rule of thumb for where between asking and maximum it's worth putting a big in at?

Many thanks!

England, Scotland?

MrJB

Assuming you're in England/Wales - In this situation I'd make an offer at the level I was happy to pay ie putting my best foot forward. Make reference to your AIP and decent deposit. But I'd also add the condition that you want the property removed from the market and that your offer is only open for x number of days.

At the end of the day, it is a sellers market still, but by the sounds of things the price you're thinking of offering is already over the top which may cause issues for other purchasers who are dependent upon getting a good market valuation.

You do not need a solicitor to make your offer - if you know the firm that you will be using then it does no harm to mention that they will be handling your legals in your offer to make you sound more serious.

Good luck with the purchase.

Grenage

A sealed bid and final offers are similar, but the latter tends to infer that the estate agent might tell you where you are in the ballpark - assuming you believe them.

Treat it as any other offer, and offer what you'd be happy to pay, no more. Before our recent offer acceptance, we offered on an open day with "best and final". I wasn't willing to offer more than 5k over for a house I'd only seen once - and they weren't entertaining second viewings.

nkkingston

England, yes, thank you

They know about our AIP and deposit, and that we're renting so we're nice and flexible about moving (which we emphasised to the home owner when we were there). We'll probably go with the solicitors that L&C offer, but the agents are sending us a quote for theirs too. I know it's not ideal to use the in house one, but it'll give us a reference point for the other quote too.

Thanks for the tip about asking it to be removed from the market, it hasn't even made it on to RightMove yet, so it'd be good to keep it off there!

dc197

Final offers are tricky. You have to offer enough to beat the other feloow but not too much.
It's not quite the same as on eBay with its "maximum bid" concept. On eBay the system makes you pay the lowest quantised amount possible that will beat the other fellow's maximum bid.

With the final offer for this house, you will be expected to pay what you offer.

It's a b1tch because you may miss out by a tiny amount and you will not know how close you were until the sale price becomes public.... and by then it may have been adjusted for repairs etc.
"Oh man, their offer was only £500 more than ours, I KNEW we should have gone that tiny bit higher!"


We went this route with the house we're currently buying. An alternative approach is to keep allowing further bids from each side until one goes no higher, knowing the other fellow's last bid (exactly like the last 30 seconds of an eBay auction, only without a firm time limit).

In our situation we and the other couple both said that we did not want to play "offer ping pong" and that's probably why it went to final offers.

marksoton

nkkingston wrote: »

We'll probably go with the solicitors that L&C offer, but the agents are sending us a quote for theirs too. I know it's not ideal to use the in house one, but it'll give us a reference point for the other quote too.

:wall:

So you're going to get two quotes. One a conveyancing factory the other tied to your vendors EA. Good luck.

matchboxfull

nkkingston wrote: »

(but between two BtLs, which we thought would put other buyers off - apparently not!).

Oh the horror of living between renters!

Good luck on your purchase.

charliewocka

Best and final, or sealed bids - doesn't mean that will be it. We won a sealed best and final bid and were promptly gazumped later. Worked out eventually in the end as that sale fell through, but don't get hopes up too high.

always_sunny

charliewocka wrote: »

We won a sealed best and final bid and were promptly gazumped later. Worked out eventually in the end as that sale fell through, but don't get hopes up too high.

They should give the news about 'making the offer' with a scratchy!