Best Offers - How high to go?

lookstraightahead

kazwookie said:

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.

I agree. There's something really not very attractive about bidding wars and I personally wouldn't be part of it.

What's that story - the emperors new clothes. Reminds me of that.

Greymug

lookstraightahead said:

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.

Lol, of course you did!!!!

You're so good that sellers want to sell you their home for peanuts! EA ask you "how low can you go?"

Sure, mate, we totally believe you.

If you paid 10% under asking, believe me, you didn't buy in a desirable area. Maybe desirable for you.

Also, bidding wars have been around for a long time, and surely have been around forever in desirable areas for desirable properties. Bought my first property 5-6 years ago via best and final offer and since them it's been exactly the same.

Again, I don't think your property/area is as desirable as you think it is.

10% under asking price? haha lol, get the hell out of here lol

sarahevie1

I was in this situation a few times in 2018 - for one  I went 36,000 above asking price and then my dad upped it so it was £41,000 over - it sold for £45000 over and i still feel sad about it. I went round to a friends on the same street last week and still felt sad (she purchased in 2019 same style house) for 96,000 more so I think it was just  hugely rising market which I've also benefitted from as I live a few streets away. 

Although I'm gutted I know I just couldn't afford it and that's fair enough at least I tried. 

lookstraightahead

Greymug said:

lookstraightahead said:

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.

Lol, of course you did!!!!

You're so good that sellers want to sell you their home for peanuts! EA ask you "how low can you go?"

Sure, mate, we totally believe you.

If you paid 10% under asking, believe me, you didn't buy in a desirable area. Maybe desirable for you.

Also, bidding wars have been around for a long time, and surely have been around forever in desirable areas for desirable properties. Bought my first property 5-6 years ago via best and final offer and since them it's been exactly the same.

Again, I don't think your property/area is as desirable as you think it is.

10% under asking price? haha lol, get the hell out of here lol

I wish I knew me as well as you do

I live in an AONB and conservation area with direct main line train station and listed buildings. I think it's desirable, but you're right, everyone has their own definitions.

mooncake89

It's a horrible situation to be in. Like many people are saying, you want to come up with a figure that is high enough you won't kick yourself if you miss out and which will hopefully secure the house for you, but not so high that you regret it if you do win. You can of course stick to your original offer and hope that no one else is going to hugely up theirs, but you just don't know. Where we live, at least, people a few months back when we were looking were going wild and houses were going for 20, 30, 40k more than asking price.

Definitely emphasise the positives of the position you're in. Some people are more motivated by the potential ease of a transaction but some will be more motivated by £££. And don't go for round numbers.

We had a best and final offers situation, with just us and another couple, a while back. It was very stressful. Apparently the other couple had been interested in the house first and put in an offer close to the asking price but weren't proceedable as they hadn't sold their current property. We on the other hand, were chain-free, with a low LTV and came along and offered full asking price. We were left to wait around for over a week while the vendors waited to see if a third, dithering, couple were going to put in an offer too. Then, the original couple went under offer and re-instated their interest. We were told the vendor didn't know who to choose so that's when we had to put our final offer in. We upped by a few thousand but couldn't really go higher and hoped that our more favourable position would help us, but it didn't and the other couple were chosen. Who only knows how much more they offered?

We also had people telling us it was probably all BS and just designed to get us to offer more, that these were just games played by the EA, but in our case clearly it wasn't! Looking back, I wish we'd have declined to take part as the whole thing left a bad taste with us. But that's with the benefit of hindsight. If you really think this is the house for you, it's worth considering very carefully how you are going to feel if you miss out and weigh up how much you think you could realistically pay over any lender valuation.

Anyway, best of luck with whatever you decide to do!

steve866

Offer £582,500

Gavin83

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.

You might not but other people clearly do. It’s hardly the only area where people are willing to
overpay when supply is short.

I also think you got quite lucky with your under asking accepted offer, the vendor was stupid/desperate or the house you were buying wasn’t getting much interest. Almost every house round here has gone for over asking and while I respect that isn’t the sold price not a single one has appeared back on the market.

We’ve recently bought a house for asking price but that’s only because we have reasonable vendors.

nicknameless

lookstraightahead said:

Greymug said:

lookstraightahead said:

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.

Lol, of course you did!!!!

You're so good that sellers want to sell you their home for peanuts! EA ask you "how low can you go?"

Sure, mate, we totally believe you.

If you paid 10% under asking, believe me, you didn't buy in a desirable area. Maybe desirable for you.

Also, bidding wars have been around for a long time, and surely have been around forever in desirable areas for desirable properties. Bought my first property 5-6 years ago via best and final offer and since them it's been exactly the same.

Again, I don't think your property/area is as desirable as you think it is.

10% under asking price? haha lol, get the hell out of here lol

I wish I knew me as well as you do

I live in an AONB and conservation area with direct main line train station and listed buildings. I think it's desirable, but you're right, everyone has their own definitions.

The problem is (rather ironically) you are applying your personal situation, decision and outcome to everyone else's and implying not achieving an equivalent outcome to your own is either incompetence or a fools errand.  Other people are relating vastly different experiences and outcomes, yet tenaciously you cling to a single view of how to proceed in their situations.

The last 4 houses we have viewed and had a serious interest in (within a defined geographical area - desirable - you decide) all went SSTC within a week and the one we offered on (above asking) we didn't get.

We want to move.  We don't want to wait for a prophesied market correction or cooling.  Will your advocated approach get us a property that we want do you think given the above?

lookstraightahead

Gavin83 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.

You might not but other people clearly do. It’s hardly the only area where people are willing to
overpay when supply is short.

I also think you got quite lucky with your under asking accepted offer, the vendor was stupid/desperate or the house you were buying wasn’t getting much interest. Almost every house round here has gone for over asking and while I respect that isn’t the sold price not a single one has appeared back on the market.

We’ve recently bought a house for asking price but that’s only because we have reasonable vendors.

The situation was that a chain had been set up before we came on the scene, and it all fell through, as the buyers originally for the house we bought couldn't get the mortgage as the lenders valued it below what they'd offered. Consequently our vendors lost their onwards house. The house they were buying was 'sold' to someone else. 

Then our vendors remarketed and at the same time the house they had 'lost' came back onto the market, as their new buyers couldn't get the funds together.

so when we came along, in a position to move having gone into rented, our vendors were able to buy their house if they sold to us. They got a reduction too on their onward purchase. We offered about 12% under which was rejected, but they came back with about 9.5% under. Both the other offers were over but they weren't in a position to move.

sounds complicated but it wasn't, basically everyone got a reduced price second time around, after all the offers over for both properties fell through.

lookstraightahead

nicknameless said:

lookstraightahead said:

Greymug said:

lookstraightahead said:

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.

Lol, of course you did!!!!

You're so good that sellers want to sell you their home for peanuts! EA ask you "how low can you go?"

Sure, mate, we totally believe you.

If you paid 10% under asking, believe me, you didn't buy in a desirable area. Maybe desirable for you.

Also, bidding wars have been around for a long time, and surely have been around forever in desirable areas for desirable properties. Bought my first property 5-6 years ago via best and final offer and since them it's been exactly the same.

Again, I don't think your property/area is as desirable as you think it is.

10% under asking price? haha lol, get the hell out of here lol

I wish I knew me as well as you do

I live in an AONB and conservation area with direct main line train station and listed buildings. I think it's desirable, but you're right, everyone has their own definitions.

The problem is (rather ironically) you are applying your personal situation, decision and outcome to everyone else's and implying not achieving an equivalent outcome to your own is either incompetence or a fools errand.  Other people are relating vastly different experiences and outcomes, yet tenaciously you cling to a single view of how to proceed in their situations.

The last 4 houses we have viewed and had a serious interest in (within a defined geographical area - desirable - you decide) all went SSTC within a week and the one we offered on (above asking) we didn't get.

We want to move.  We don't want to wait for a prophesied market correction or cooling.  Will your advocated approach get us a property that we want do you think given the above?

I don't disagree actually with what you're saying. I'm just saying I wouldn't get into a bidding war, and in my experience didn't need to. I've seen loads of properties come back onto the market because people can't get the mortgages/ banks 'under' value, which is awful for everyone.

We're all different of course, I just don't want to play and didn't need to.