Best Offers - How high to go?

Bemahan

A house we wanted went to sealed bids and a wise work colleague advised me not to offer the round sum of £131,000 (it was 1996!) that we had in mind, but to tack another £100 on, as if the other parties also put in £131,000, our extra £100 (not a lot in the scheme of things) would tip it in our favour. Not sure if it was the extra £100 that swung it, but we got it Still got it (now renting it out) and now worth around £500,000
Good luck!

jenni_fer

nicknameless said:

Going through the same process.  Offering on a house we viewed at the weekend tomorrow advertised OIEO.  We lost out on a house a few weeks back priced the same.  This house is better and so we are going to offer the max we feel happy paying which is just over 5% over the OIEO amount.

Fingers crossed for you (and us!).

Good Luck!

jenni_fer

lookstraightahead said:

I would offer nothing over asking price. I wouldn't do it in a shop, or buying a car, or paying fir a holiday, and I won't do it on a house. 

it's all a game.

Sadly, in the current climate round here, not playing the game = never moving.

Ramouth

lookstraightahead said:

I would offer nothing over asking price. I wouldn't do it in a shop, or buying a car, or paying fir a holiday, and I won't do it on a house. 

it's all a game.

The thing with shops, car showrooms etc is that there is plenty of supply.  That is why I specified “if you really love it”.

comeandgo

I think if this is the house you want you have to go in at your highest amount.  If you hold back and loose it by £100 and you could have offered higher you will be so disappointed.  If you loose the house and you offered your all then you did your best and lost.  

kazwookie

Personally I would walk away, I don't like these sort of games, and that is what it is, a sort of bidding war imo. I would stick to my offer price.

Good luck with what ever you do.

lookstraightahead

jenni_fer said:

lookstraightahead said:

I would offer nothing over asking price. I wouldn't do it in a shop, or buying a car, or paying fir a holiday, and I won't do it on a house. 

it's all a game.

Sadly, in the current climate round here, not playing the game = never moving.

Well that's not my recent experience. It's not an exact science. More hearsay.

Greymug

jenni_fer said:

lookstraightahead said:

I would offer nothing over asking price. I wouldn't do it in a shop, or buying a car, or paying fir a holiday, and I won't do it on a house. 

it's all a game.

Sadly, in the current climate round here, not playing the game = never moving.

Exactly. All these people who are just suggesting to walk away/not play the game/stick to the original offer they don't know what they're talking about. They are people who I suspect either bought a house ages ago or bough a house in a less desirable area where bidding wars don't normally happen.

The area I live in and also the surrounding areas are desirable and ALL the people I know, both sellers and buyers, had to go through the last and final offers system.

Don't worry about overpaying, if it's your forever home it won't matter and if you sell it you'll get it back. Happened to me: I paid 7% over home report valuation when I bought, but when I sold I got 13% over the new home report valuation.

zappahey

t2havock said:

. Don’t forget to write a letter to the vendors telling them why you love the house and how you could see it being your home too. Most likely, they’ve loved their home and want to know it’s going to someone who’ll love it just as much.

If someone wrote such a letter to me, their offer would be going right in the bin as I'd think I was dealing with some nutter who's going to be nothing but trouble. The offer would need to be spectacular before I would even consider it.

lookstraightahead

Greymug said:

jenni_fer said:

lookstraightahead said:

I would offer nothing over asking price. I wouldn't do it in a shop, or buying a car, or paying fir a holiday, and I won't do it on a house. 

it's all a game.

Sadly, in the current climate round here, not playing the game = never moving.

Exactly. All these people who are just suggesting to walk away/not play the game/stick to the original offer they don't know what they're talking about. They are people who I suspect either bought a house ages ago or bough a house in a less desirable area where bidding wars don't normally happen.

The area I live in and also the surrounding areas are desirable and ALL the people I know, both sellers and buyers, had to go through the last and final offers system.

Don't worry about overpaying, if it's your forever home it won't matter and if you sell it you'll get it back. Happened to me: I paid 7% over home report valuation when I bought, but when I sold I got 13% over the new home report valuation.

Really honestly not my experience, despite the fact that you think you know what's happening everywhere.

I bought a house, in an extremely desirable area, for 10% under asking, with three offers on the table. Ours was the lowest. But we were in a moving situation and the vendors had been bitten a few months previously by accepting a higher offer and then it falling through as, unsurprisingly, the bank 'undervalued' the house.

Bidding wars are a very recent phenomenon and everyone has a choice as to whether they really want to be part of something that will either stay, or more likely disappear.