First time buyer bidding war advice

Angela_D_3

We had a bidding war,  I accepted £4,000 less from a couple who’s chain was further along rather waiting for an additional amount that could potentially fall apart.  

Literally you don’t know what’s important to a vendor,  I really want the couple who bought it to have it and looked for an excuse to accept their offer.  

Angela_D_3

o_johnston said:

Our max offer would've been 210k but now a third bidder also first time buyer has offered 208k.
Nearby similar properties going for 230k don't look as nice. This is a 4 bedroom terraced in South Belfast and there's 3 bed on the same street going for 265. This house has also been completely refurbished in 2008 and requires very little work so that's what really makes us want it.

Just that as a first time buyer, it's hard to know when to stop or what happens with valuations being lower than the sale price.

£210,000 sounds like an absolute bargain then 

Squeaky9

If it does get downvalued by the lender you have options, a look on here can show you that. Either renegotiate the price, make up the difference or try a different lender with a different surveyor and a different type (eg. physical instead of desktop). My friend had her house she’s buying downvalued by a desktop valuation by £45k. Changed to a different lender who did a physical valuation and they valued it at her offer price. 

The house we’re buying went to best and final offers. We went about 2.5% above the guide price to a value we felt was reasonable. If we’d offered less and lost it we would have felt we hadn’t tried hard enough and always kicked ourselves as it’s the nicest house we’ve seen. If we’d offered more we would have felt we were overpaying. As it was our offer was accepted and according to the EA we weren’t the highest but as FTB we were proceed able and that swung it in our favour. 

I did always have a slight worry that the valuation would come back lower as we’d broken the ceiling price for that street (but the house is the biggest and the nicest of all those recently sold), however the desktop valuation came back at our offer price. 

Rather than get into a bidding war can you not just offer your max (£210k) with the clear proviso you absolutely cannot go any higher but you are very keen on the house and are FTB (with an AIP?) so ready to go? If you lose it you’ll feel relieved that you’d tried your hardest then but also hadn’t offered more than you could afford or felt it was worth. 

[Deleted User]

At worse case senario, you can renegotiate or pull out if the numbers don't work for you when valued.

AdrianC

o_johnston said:

How to know if bids are real?

It doesn't matter if they are or not.

Ignore the other parties, the other bids.
If the vendor wants more than you are willing or able to offer, then this house is not for you.
If that means that the house stays on the market, that's the vendor's problem.
If that means that somebody else's offer is accepted instead of yours, then they were willing or able to pay more than you.

There are always other houses.

eidand

In your place I would not enter a bid war, fake or real. You must have a number in mind which is the highest you're prepared to go for this property. Offer that, say it's the best offer, highlight your buying position / speed and then see what happens. If someone else offers more ... well, you win some, you lose some.

o_johnston

Thanks for your comments and advice everyone. The other bidders went to 213,000 after we bid 210,000 and we haven't gone higher. 
We sent a letter to the vendor to try and establish a more personal connection, but also explained we have conveyance, surveyor and mortgage in principle all lined up and ready with only a month's notice to give on our rent. Left a contact number on the letter, but not heard anything so far.

We were hoping for a similar result to the post above on this page where the highest bidder isn't necessarily successful. We went for a second viewing on friday and whilst we still want it, the increase of 13,000 on the initial bid is just a bit too much. 
On one hand, the house needs nothing doing other than a coat of paint on 1 or 2 door frames and a ceiling. Which is probably what's driving the price up.

AdrianC

o_johnston said:

Thanks for your comments and advice everyone. The other bidders went to 213,000 after we bid 210,000 and we haven't gone higher.

Without any hint or rumour of another buyer, would you have paid £215k for it?

We sent a letter to the vendor to try and establish a more personal connection, but also explained we have conveyance, surveyor and mortgage in principle all lined up and ready with only a month's notice to give on our rent. Left a contact number on the letter, but not heard anything so far.

If you were in the seller's position, how many thousands of pounds would you say that letter would be worth?

They seem to have valued it at somewhere below £3k.

Competsoph

From a positive note, I offered on my house £500 above what the vendor had stated he would accept. One guy has previously offered to which theyd said we'll accept if you offer x amount. Apparently this other guy has disappeared. As soon as we put our offer in, all of a sudden he's back with a higher offer. 
I loved the house and had been looking a while, but stood my ground. Stated firmly we wouldn't have offered that high anyway and it was accepted! Don't believe a word the EA tell you, irrespective of whether they are nice to you or not! Good luck. 

o_johnston

I wouldn't have offered any higher if no one else bid obviously, but having looked at other houses in the area this is quite unique (extension built on, refurbished recently etc), so the higher value is to be expected. 
To get a similar property closer to 200k means moving out of the city, means commuting to work instead of walking, so much more long term costs to think of. The letter was more of a hope that we could match the higher bid so the owner wouldn't have to necessarily accept less, but just go with the one that they can see a person behind the offer.
I think at the end of the day, the cliche of location location location applies here. It's a quiet, tree lined street, 4 bed end terrace 2 mins walk from one of the main routes into the city centre, lined with independent cafes and restaurants. 
Just hoping that some of the other comments here are right and the EA will come back to us even though our offer is lower. At this point there are 3 bidders and we have the lowest bid.