Final offers

[Deleted User]

mooncake89 said:

Deleted_User 

I personally am questioning whether it's a good time to buy. It's disheartening as a FTB to be up against such competition and people with presumably a lot more money. Feeling pretty deflated, as I imagine you are too.

I think the same. It’s very manic at the moment. We are prepared to go over the asking price but not by as much as some people are. So it’s seems we’re destined to lose out in this seller’s market. If we could start again we’d probably wait another 6-12 months but it is what it is. It might just take a lot longer than we’d anticipated but I’m hoping eventually we’ll get something.

I’m really sorry to hear you had bad news as well. 12% is already a big chunk over so perhaps it’s for the best, like you say, that it didn’t work out. Everyone always says ‘theres always another house’ but it’s definitely hard when you find a particularly nice one that you can’t help but feel is exactly what you’re looking for and it ends up going for insane amounts higher than the guide price. Good luck for the future!

Exactly. I'm not willing or able to throw money at a property to beat the competition so it's probably not the right time for me. Seems a lot may change in the next year with things slowly going back to normal so hopefully the market will settle down in 6-12 months, who knows. Yes, people are saying a better house will come along but I was kind of set on this one and could imagine myself living there. Back to the drawing board for both of us! I hope something good comes up for you soon!

lizabethgell

What did you do? Did you get the property? 

mooncake89

lizabethgell said:

What did you do? Did you get the property? 

Nah, we did increase our initial offer by a few thousand but ultimately we couldn’t afford to go up any more and it just wasn’t enough. We were hoping that our position (far more advanced than the other bidders and about to become chain free) would count for something but the sellers were more motivated by the larger amount of money our competitors offered! 

I was really looking forward to being able to stop scouring rightmove etc. every waking second and spending all our free time at viewings. But, back to the starting line it is 

Capri84

I’m part of this club too. 5% deposit so not a huge amount ‘spare’ to make ludicrous offers. Go to view a property only to find someone has just shat the bed and emptied their wallet to throw £30k over the home report to secure a house. It seems ‘any house’ is worth delivering a truckload of dosh for these folk... the one I viewed was sold for £225k in September, up for £235k now... and then someone’s bid £265k to make sure nobody else gets anywhere near. Good for them, but it’s insane. Someone’s made £40k for painting 2 rooms and letting the garden get overgrown, absolutely laughable. Very much hope things normalise once more property starts to return to market. 

mooncake89

Capri84 said:

I’m part of this club too. 5% deposit so not a huge amount ‘spare’ to make ludicrous offers. Go to view a property only to find someone has just shat the bed and emptied their wallet to throw £30k over the home report to secure a house. It seems ‘any house’ is worth delivering a truckload of dosh for these folk... the one I viewed was sold for £225k in September, up for £235k now... and then someone’s bid £265k to make sure nobody else gets anywhere near. Good for them, but it’s insane. Someone’s made £40k for painting 2 rooms and letting the garden get overgrown, absolutely laughable. Very much hope things normalise once more property starts to return to market. 

Oh I hope it does start to normalise! People don’t believe what we’ve been telling them, if they’re not house hunting themselves, but it’s happening all the time now. Just can’t get a look in. It’s hard enough finding something that ticks the boxes... let alone get an offer accepted on it. We came close to having an offer accepted on a house (for 5k under asking price) back in December, when we weren’t even proceedable. We’d be laughed at now!

You do have to wonder how many sales are actually falling through due to under valuations or bidder’s remorse. It’s hard to tell how much it’s occuring as I think there’s so much interest on each house around here that there’s no need for them to be re-marketed as there’s already a long list of people who missed out the first time. I must admit, it’s surprising just how many people are ok with going way over.

mooncake89

PerfectMess said:

We ended up in a similar situation when we were last looking to buy. The vendors carried on with viewings for a week even after receiving asking price offers. They didn’t get anymore offers and we were asked for our best offer. We didn’t increase as we were too annoyed with them and the estate agent by that point and the other bidders got it for £2k over asking. We’re now glad we didn’t get it as we couldn’t have afforded the mortgage plus the alterations we wanted to do. 

Just to say an extra £1-2k may get you the house, potentially even just £500. 

It’s a horrible situation to be in, isn’t it. On the one hand I can completely understand that sellers want to get the most money but it’s also awful to be left to wait pathetically on the sidelines while they try to drum up more offers to use against you. In hindsight I wish we’d just have said “no” to going to best and final offers. At least then the other couple we were bidding against wouldn’t have had to splash out so much more. But we felt we had to see what would happen if we pushed hard for our position to be taken into account. 

Can I ask what eventually happened, in terms of your house hunting? Did you easily find something else you liked as much? We’ve been looking for so long it’s almost as if the thought of struggling on to look for another house that’s suitable is worse than the sadness of losing out on the specific house... if that makes sense! 

NameUnavailable

Trust in fate. It wasn't meant to be right now.

Keep searching for the one.

Irishpearce26

mooncake89 said:

Irishpearce26 said:

mooncake89 said:

Little update: we lost out on the property as the other bidders offered more, despite having only just gone under offer and us almost being at the point of exchange. We did up our offer but just couldn't bring ourselves to go any higher as by the time stamp duty had been factored in, it was just getting silly.

We're not completely surprised and I still think we ultimately did the right thing. We absolutely loved the house but didn't want to throw money at it and then end up waiting in fear for the valuation to happen. The EA and sellers also came across as particularly ruthless and greedy, so in a way we're glad not to be dealing with them. However, it is really disheartening as it's been so difficult to find a) a house that we love and b) to actually get it. This will be the third house we've offered on and lost out on. I'm not sure whether we should lower our expectations and accept we'll have to go for something either not in our ideal location or lacking what we want, or continue to look but knowing we're unlikely to find anything in the same ballpark any time soon... everyone has been trying to reassure us that something will come along and we mustn't 'settle' and that was fine for the first few months, but this far along it's hard not to feel like throwing in the towel or as if we're being too unrealistic

It's also shocking how many people are going way above asking prices! I know there's something to be said for paying what it's worth to you, but even so, it is just pushing prices up and up as it seems to be the norm at the moment. It's really depressing.

I doubt you were at the point of exchange if you didn't even have an offer accepted. You bid below asking price and are surprised you didn't get the house? I think you're in for a rough ride...

We didn’t bid below asking price and we also are almost at the point of exchange on our own sale? It was the other bidders who hadn’t gone under offer when they first offered on the house in question. They then phoned up the EA 4 days after we put an offer in at asking price, matching our offer. Hence the ensuing final offers situation.

Maybe be a little more clearer regarding your sale and purchase. Exchange on sale yes? Exchange on purchase no! It went to final offer and the other buyer bid more than the asking taking into consideration the offer 4 days after your below offer bid?

mooncake89

Irishpearce26 said:

mooncake89 said:

Irishpearce26 said:

mooncake89 said:

Little update: we lost out on the property as the other bidders offered more, despite having only just gone under offer and us almost being at the point of exchange. We did up our offer but just couldn't bring ourselves to go any higher as by the time stamp duty had been factored in, it was just getting silly.

We're not completely surprised and I still think we ultimately did the right thing. We absolutely loved the house but didn't want to throw money at it and then end up waiting in fear for the valuation to happen. The EA and sellers also came across as particularly ruthless and greedy, so in a way we're glad not to be dealing with them. However, it is really disheartening as it's been so difficult to find a) a house that we love and b) to actually get it. This will be the third house we've offered on and lost out on. I'm not sure whether we should lower our expectations and accept we'll have to go for something either not in our ideal location or lacking what we want, or continue to look but knowing we're unlikely to find anything in the same ballpark any time soon... everyone has been trying to reassure us that something will come along and we mustn't 'settle' and that was fine for the first few months, but this far along it's hard not to feel like throwing in the towel or as if we're being too unrealistic

It's also shocking how many people are going way above asking prices! I know there's something to be said for paying what it's worth to you, but even so, it is just pushing prices up and up as it seems to be the norm at the moment. It's really depressing.

I doubt you were at the point of exchange if you didn't even have an offer accepted. You bid below asking price and are surprised you didn't get the house? I think you're in for a rough ride...

We didn’t bid below asking price and we also are almost at the point of exchange on our own sale? It was the other bidders who hadn’t gone under offer when they first offered on the house in question. They then phoned up the EA 4 days after we put an offer in at asking price, matching our offer. Hence the ensuing final offers situation.

Maybe be a little more clearer regarding your sale and purchase. Exchange on sale yes? Exchange on purchase no! It went to final offer and the other buyer bid more than the asking taking into consideration the offer 4 days after your below offer bid?

I was clear about the situation in my OP. Maybe read that before commenting?

AnotherJoe

Irishpearce26 said:

mooncake89 said:

Irishpearce26 said:

mooncake89 said:

Little update: we lost out on the property as the other bidders offered more, despite having only just gone under offer and us almost being at the point of exchange. We did up our offer but just couldn't bring ourselves to go any higher as by the time stamp duty had been factored in, it was just getting silly.

We're not completely surprised and I still think we ultimately did the right thing. We absolutely loved the house but didn't want to throw money at it and then end up waiting in fear for the valuation to happen. The EA and sellers also came across as particularly ruthless and greedy, so in a way we're glad not to be dealing with them. However, it is really disheartening as it's been so difficult to find a) a house that we love and b) to actually get it. This will be the third house we've offered on and lost out on. I'm not sure whether we should lower our expectations and accept we'll have to go for something either not in our ideal location or lacking what we want, or continue to look but knowing we're unlikely to find anything in the same ballpark any time soon... everyone has been trying to reassure us that something will come along and we mustn't 'settle' and that was fine for the first few months, but this far along it's hard not to feel like throwing in the towel or as if we're being too unrealistic

It's also shocking how many people are going way above asking prices! I know there's something to be said for paying what it's worth to you, but even so, it is just pushing prices up and up as it seems to be the norm at the moment. It's really depressing.

I doubt you were at the point of exchange if you didn't even have an offer accepted. You bid below asking price and are surprised you didn't get the house? I think you're in for a rough ride...

We didn’t bid below asking price and we also are almost at the point of exchange on our own sale? It was the other bidders who hadn’t gone under offer when they first offered on the house in question. They then phoned up the EA 4 days after we put an offer in at asking price, matching our offer. Hence the ensuing final offers situation.

Maybe be a little more clearer regarding your sale and purchase. Exchange on sale yes? Exchange on purchase no! It went to final offer and the other buyer bid more than the asking taking into consideration the offer 4 days after your below offer bid?

Or perhaps you need to be a bit clearer in your reading? OPs position was clear to everyone else it seemed. Was it not obvious to you that "close to exchange" must apply to their own house they were selling? And as for a "below offer bid" is "We then went straight in at the asking price ourselves " not clear enough? 

OP, it may be that your vendors were sceptical of "close to exchange" after all we all know how that can work out, you can be close one day and have it fall through the next. At least on your next purchase it will be clear cut, you will be chain free and your position may then make the difference, good luck.