Advice on best & final offer?!

mandgreen

Hi

We have made an asking price offer of £269,950 on a house that has been up just over a week. From what I can gather 2 other parties have also put in asking price offers.

My estate agent rang who the house is up with and found out the other parties involved are in a similar position to us, sold to first time buyers.

He suspects it will now go to best and final offers. Does anyone have any advice on what a winning offer could be??

I dont want to go in too high as I honestly think its priced correctly (a house a few doors down sold last Sept for £280,000 but it has an extra bedroom in the loft and has been completed to a much higher spec) but at the same time the area is very competitive and there is nothing else around similar to it at the moment so I dont want to risk losing it...

Kittenonthekeys

Assuming the very first offer at asking price was proceedable, I would want to be asking why the vendors didn't simply accept it and take the property off the market?
Unless it was "offers in excess of?"

juniordoc

Offer what you think it's worth and no more, and remember there's nothing to say the "2 other offers" aren't a work of fiction.
If anyone does offer over the odds a mortgage lender may bring them back down to earth once when the valuation comes in at less than the agreed price.
What doesn't go in your favour is that it has only been up a week and you have offered early so they know how keen you are.
In a similarly competitive market (5 offers initially, then went to best and final where 3 offers were submitted) we secured our flat for £6K over asking (Total price £292K) to give you an idea. Our mortgage lender then did agree a value of 292 so no problems there, but if they hadnt have, we'd have then had to lower our offer.

AnotherJoe

All i can say is, make your B&F offer an odd number in case the sellers are going for maximum price. Don't offer (say) £274,995, offer £275,250 or something like that.

Also emphasis other points in your favour - mortgage agreed, flexibility on moving date as your buyers are relaxed about moving dates, you'd like to buy some of their furniture if its up for sale, whatever fits your circumstances.

If this is a long term buy and prices are rising where you are dont be too concerned about paying a little extra as in the long term it doesn't matter. My daughter paid £6k over asking in a "B&F" situation, within 18 months it was worth roughly £75k-£100k more. Losing out by offering less could easily have cost £10k-£20k by the time she found somewhere else, and also this house was far better than any others she'd seen.

NaughtiusMaximus

Kittenonthekeys wrote: »

Assuming the very first offer at asking price was proceedable, I would want to be asking why the vendors didn't simply accept it and take the property off the market?
Unless it was "offers in excess of?"

Depends on the circumstances, if the first offer came in after the vendor had already agreed to viewings with 2 other potential buyers it's perfectly reasonable to wait until those viewings went ahead before accepting the offer IMO.

Difficult to say how much to bid without knowing the house and the local market but my gut feeling would be 5-10k above asking price. By way of comparison a property we were interested in over the summer which was listed for 200k (not offers over), is showing on zoopla as having sold for 207k.

Surrey_EA

Kittenonthekeys wrote: »

Assuming the very first offer at asking price was proceedable, I would want to be asking why the vendors didn't simply accept it and take the property off the market?
Unless it was "offers in excess of?"

Because the sellers have now discovered an opportunity to sell their house for more £££ and make their financial position better. Can hardly blame them.

hazyjo

Surrey_EA wrote: »

Because the sellers have now discovered an opportunity to sell their house for more £££ and make their financial position better. Can hardly blame them.

Exactly. Plus there's no exact science to valuing a property. Sometimes EAs don't realise how popular it might be. A property is worth what someone will pay, not what price tag an EA (or vendor) slaps on their property.

mandgreen

Thanks everyone for your replies...After all that I have received a call and my offer has been accepted at the asking price! EA said they had offers over the asking but something clicked with me...obviously take that with a pinch of salt but the important thing is we got the house and I'm happy!

ReadingTim

Surrey_EA wrote: »

Because the sellers have now discovered an opportunity to sell their house for more £££ and make their financial position better. Can hardly blame them.

Vendor "wants to make as much money as possible" shocker....

Kittenonthekeys

Surrey_EA wrote: »

Because the sellers have now discovered an opportunity to sell their house for more £££ and make their financial position better. Can hardly blame them.

No, they can't be blamed and it's fine for them as sellers, but maybe not quite so great from a buyer's POV.
As a buyer, I'm afraid I'd be concerned about the possibility of being gazumped further down the line if a seller umms and ahhs over what is after all, full asking price that they themselves have set. If they wanted more, they should have set their asking price higher in the first place, but of course that wouldn't catch buyers searching in a lower price bracket, would it?
Yes, a house is only worth what someone will pay for it - or what a mortgage valuer thinks it's worth.

hazyjo

Kittenonthekeys wrote: »

As a buyer, I'm afraid I'd be concerned about the possibility of being gazumped further down the line if a seller umms and ahhs over what is after all, full asking price that they themselves have set.

Wouldn't worry me. If I'd agreed a price and someone came back with more and they tried to get more out of me, yep I'm with you. But not when it's trying to find its level before anyone's even had an offer accepted. As I said, there's no science to valuing a property - especially if it's unusual or not much has sold nearby that's similar. In a rising market or popular area, bidding wars are common.