Best and final

lookstraightahead

verytired11 said:

Thanks for everyone's input.  We have gone in at 3% over asking in the end, because we felt the asking price was on the high side anyway.  I had a very weird conversation with the agent when I put the bid in.  He said the vendor wanted to know more about us and who would be living in the property.  I do understand it - she has lived there 20 years and is having to leave due to divorce - but at the same time being put through the hoops of a bidding war and then being asked to reveal a load of personal information to a complete stranger left a bad taste in my mouth tbh.  We will see what happens.

Delusions of grandeur it sounds like. 
I'm thinking great if you get it, no probs if you don't. If you don't get it, you'll probably go off it anyway.

lookstraightahead

Skiddaw1 said:

She may be factoring in what the potential purchasers will be like as neighbours. A close friend of mine did the same when selling her house (it was a close-knit, community orientated street and she wanted to do the best she could to ensure that whoever moved in would be a good neighbour).

How on earth can you check that out? What type of questions did your friend ask? I'd be mortified! 

Daveinlincoln

I had my house up for offers in excess of £325000....within 48 hours I had two offers, first one was for £325 the other was for £330 to a really nice family. The EA agent tried to play them off against each other but both stuck to their offers which i kind of respect. I took the £330k offer.
I checked on the Zoopla "Value my house" tool and it said my house was worth £380k which seems crazy and I've also had a family from Hong Kong knock on my door to say they'd gladly offer £340 (apparently there's an influx of families from HK coming to the UK because of recent trouble there and they are monied up).....i won't do the dirty on my buyers so I said no and I'll keep my integrity instead.

If my sale falls through I'll just stay here and sell in a couple of years.

joe90mitch

I find the replies of people saying "I would just walk away if made to do that" quite funny. When we were buying (in Sheffield, 6 months ago) every single house that we viewed and liked went to best and final. There were often 5-10 different people putting offers in. We would never have got a house in the areas we liked if we just refused to do best and finals. I think that, frustratingly, it's quite common in some areas. In fairness to the estate agents, if they had to go round each person saying "someone has put a bid of £X amount in, would you like to match it or go over it?" 10 times, then repeat on loop every time the max offer went up, it would go on forever.

Good luck now you've put the bid in. If it doesn't work out, other nice things will come up and you'll more and more get a feel as to how buoyant the market is (or isn't!)

verytired11

Thanks all! We had our offer accepted!! Apparently the vendor liked the sound of us so it was worth it in the end 😊
Now we have to live there for a while to get our money back!!

SallyCinnamon

verytired11 said:

Thanks all! We had our offer accepted!! Apparently the vendor liked the sound of us so it was worth it in the end 😊
Now we have to live there for a while to get our money back!!

Congrats! That's brilliant news - well done 

trance_abbey

verytired11 said:

Yeah the process is mainly about clarifying what we want!  I am downsizing and moving out of London so will actually be going mortgage free.  That's the other factor to weigh up - how much might that be worth to the vendor.  It removes any possibility of down valuations getting in the way of the sale.  I would hope in the current market that this would be a strong factor in my favour.

My final offer was 5k over asking, but 10k under the other buyers bid.  I'm a cash buyer and that's what sealed the deal for me so you're right that it's definitely a point in your favour in normal circumstances.

Ramouth

lookstraightahead said:

Ramouth said:

We bid just over 10% over for the place we are currently purchasing.  The lower valuation doesn’t affect our mortgage because we have a low LTV.  We know it is too much for the property but see it as a long term home.  It is in a popular village we really want to be in and we were not willing to stay in our rental for several years in the hope that we would eventually get something for asking price.

Maybe “starter home” properties that are valued less than people have offered end up back on the market but nice houses in pretty villages have plenty of cash rich buyers competing for them so are much likely to be re-listed IMO.

Very random way of looking at it. "Nice houses in pretty villages" doesn't suit everyone's agenda.
if it's way over valuation even with cash buyers that's just chucking money away (except I accept if you're renting).
If you're staying very long term though I guess you will make your money back eventually.

I guess my point was that in desirable areas with low supply it is quite feasible that the value of a house based on the “a house is worth what someone will pay for it” definition is higher than a mortgage companies valuation.  You are right that we could make a horrible loss if we need to sell in a hurry but hopefully we will be there for a good long time.

trance_abbey

verytired11 said:

Thanks all! We had our offer accepted!! Apparently the vendor liked the sound of us so it was worth it in the end 😊
Now we have to live there for a while to get our money back!!

Hurrah!! You must be very happy

Ramouth

verytired11 said:

Thanks all! We had our offer accepted!! Apparently the vendor liked the sound of us so it was worth it in the end 😊
Now we have to live there for a while to get our money back!!

Great news!  Congratulations!