Estate Agent will not provide current offer on house I am interested in?

lifeofbrian2015

Is this a common thing? Should I have concerns?

I am a first time cash buyer so have no clue about procedures but usually the ads I see "under off" have a figure. But the estate agent of this particular property will not tell me the current offer, I asked "then how am I supposed to compete with an offer if I don't know what it is". She said it was a silly rule, but could help me no further.

elsien

Offer what you think it’s worth after doing your research on selling prices (not asking prices) of similar properties in the area. If it’s not enough they’ll let you know soon enough and you can up it if you think it’s worth it and can afford to do so. 

You need to be wary of estate agents telling you there are other offers when this may not be to case.

hazyjo

You'll very rarely be told that the other offer/s is/are so please don't have concerns about that.

It's tough, but you can ask things like are the others offering proceedable. Most sellers won't really take buyers seriously if they've not got a complete chain behind them. As a FTB, especially with cash, you're in a great position. It's not always about who offers the most. My nephew was 2nd highest bidder on a flat.

theoretica

Properties advertised with a stated offer figure are, I understand, often bank repossessions.  It is not usual when the owner is selling.

lr1277

As you are a first time cash buyer, you may not be aware, some sellers prefer buyers who need a mortgage. I am speculating that the seller thinks you are more committed if you need a mortgage or perhaps think that if the going gets rough you will move onto another property.

I have seen threads on here every few months with this scenario.

andy444

This is completely normal. It's meant to provide privacy for any other bidder who not want people to know how much they have bid but it's a stupid rule in my opinion.

Flugelhorn

if it is under offer then it means that the people selling are happy with the offer, the process is underway  and won't be interested in getting involved with more people wanting to offer etc (well they might but you might question the wisdom of dealing with them)

googler

As was said, Under Offer means an offer has already been accepted. 

Be honest, if you, as that buyer, already had that offer accepted, would you want the agent telling everyone else the amount so that someone else could offer £1000 more than you to snaffle it from under your nose ....?

eddddy

lifeofbrian2015 said:

Is this a common thing? Should I have concerns?

I am a first time cash buyer so have no clue about procedures but usually the ads I see "under off" have a figure. But the estate agent of this particular property will not tell me the current offer, I asked "then how am I supposed to compete with an offer if I don't know what it is". She said it was a silly rule, but could help me no further.

It's up to the seller to decide whether offers are disclosed.  But normally, offers are not disclosed. 

In simple terms, everyone makes their 'best offer' and the buyer (usually) picks the one that's highest.

So it's possible that the highest offer is, say, £250k, and the second highest offer is £230k.

So the seller accepts the £250k offer.

(That's why sellers and EAs often like this approach. If the person that offered £250k knew that the second highest offer was only £230k - they might reduce their offer to £231k.)



But if a seller does decide that offers should be disclosed - the Property Ombudsman says that offers have to be disclosed to every interested party. So you'd know what others had offered, and they'd know what you had offered.

lifeofbrian2015

As I said before, most the properties I look at have the figure. 

Some also say something like:
********* are now in receipt of an offer for the sum of ******* for *************. Anyone wishing to place an offer on this property should contact ********** before exchange of contracts.

JGB1955

lifeofbrian2015 said:

As I said before, most the properties I look at have the figure. 

Some also say something like:
********* are now in receipt of an offer for the sum of ******* for *************. Anyone wishing to place an offer on this property should contact ********** before exchange of contracts.

Well, in that case you are looking at properties that have (likely)  been repossessed.