Puting offers in on multiple properties at the same time

James-may

I'm a first time buyer, I've lost out to others who have offered on properties for above the asking price, houses are selling in our area within a day, or sometimes are selling without viewing.

I viewed three places yesterday, all have many views and many offers.
Am I too soft in only offering on 1 property?
People I know who have been helping me find houses locally are saying offer on everything, even if it's an.offer under the asking price, them pull out if accepted.

That doesnt sit right with me,I don't want to mess folk about, at the same time I'm getting phonecalls saying so and so has been offered more, do you want to offer more, so I'm getting annoyed with that.

But of course I've seen 3 houses I like, all different prices at different level of work required.
should I really really be offering on all 3 then just change my mind if another one accepts?

Sounds immoral to me, but I'm asking as its what is being suggested.

Not to mention if I mess folk about If it falls through, the estate agent will be well annoyed.

Just to add I've offered on one of the three that's low price, but has the basic stuff in place, just needs upgraded.

Any words of advice?

lucypilates

The trouble with offering on multiple properties is that you will obviously have to withdraw some of your offers if one of them gets accepted. 

What you’ve then done, is falsely increased the value of these properties and the actual purchasers could have had to unnecessarily pay more than they out to for the property …

i understand that it’s a difficult market out there for buyers but inflating prices by making multiple offers certainly doesn’t  help!!

i’m not even sure you’re allowed to make multiple offers … 

hazyjo

Would you honestly buy any of them?

Nothing wrong with being honest and saying to the EA if you don't get this, you'll buy the other you have an offer on. Depends if you're trying to use it as a negotiating tool. In this market, that's not likely to get you very far.

paulj2021

I’d imagine individual EAs would only let you place an offer on one property on their books at a time? Also, One disadvantage of this approach might be that the EAs may start regarding you as a time waster, this won’t be an issue if your first attempt at a purchase goes through but if you have to come back to the market they may be less keen to put your offers forward for future properties, or might advise sellers that you’re less of a good prospect than other buyers offering the same price. I’m only speculating as I don’t know!

RoseGold2021

To be honest, I don’t blame you for doing this. 

Someone offered on my property, & I accepted. Sneakingly, they viewed another property, offered on it, & it was accepted. I lost my sale, & had to start from scratch!!! 

How I see it, it’s dog eat dog at the moment with trying to secure a property. And whilst it seems frustrating & morally wrong to offer on multiple properties, at least you’ll hopefully secure one of them. I wouldn’t offer on more than 2 though. 

James-may

Thanks all, just getting frustrated really.

jazzyja

So the only thing really you have in your favour is the fact you've no chain (I assume as you're FTB). same with me. 
I made 2 offers in total, 1 sold to a cash buyer so they completely didn't accept my offer at all, 2nd someone outbid me, and 3rd someone viewed the property the same time as me and before I even got into my car they offered above asking so I didn't bother even put an offer in as it wasn't worth the price! At this point I was naffed off. I'd viewed quite a few I wasn't happy with and even they had multiple views already. The last one I viewed I spoke to the vendor and said I have no chain, I have a mortgage offer in principle are youre willing to take the property completely off the market if my offer is good enough....they agreed, I still went 5k under asking price but they were OK with that because they needed a quick sale and I have no chain. You will find something and someone will go for your above others simply for this reason. Its very frustrating and stressful! 

Redwino222

I am finally moving house tomorrow after a very frustrating process with three false starts, all with first time buyers.

one guy was bidding on multiple properties.  I accepted his offer, he then messed around trying to decide between two properties he was bidding on.  Eventually picked the other house.  I lost weeks because of his selfish behaviour.

Had I known he was playing these sort of games I would never have accepted his offer.  By the time he sorted himself out the other bidders had moved on.

Please play it straight and be honest.  It’s a dreadful, stressful process.  Don’t make it harder for people.

deannagone

Personally I'd not offer on anything until the market becomes less insane.  

NameUnavailable

I don't see a problem - if you make an offer and the response isn't immediate acceptance then, whilst your offer may be on the table, the vendors haven't accepted it and there's no reason not to offer on other places.

It's different from having multiple offers accepted and stringing people along whilst you make up your mind which one you're actually buying.

ele_91

We did this, house hunting in a very competitive market with all houses going over asking. We viewed 6 properties in a weekend and offered on 4. Despite us being no chain with a large deposit and going over asking, only 2 were accepted. In the competitive market you also don’t get long to dwell on houses and by this point we had a firm favourite so straight away confirmed which property we would proceed with.

In all cases the vendors were keeping properties on the market after receiving multiple offers over asking price, just to drive the price up. For this reason alone I don’t think it is any more immoral to offer on multiple houses. It is the risk the vendor has to take when they won’t take the property off the market after you have offered over the asking price. As long as you are not stringing people along whilst you decide I think it is fine.