Can I avoid the dreaded best and final offer scenario?

Deedoodee

I offered 8% above asking and have 60% deposit and still lost in best and final. It’s horrible

propertyhunter

Deedoodee said:

I offered 8% above asking and have 60% deposit and still lost in best and final 

Wow, that's madness. How much was the asking price? If you don't mind divulging? 

Thrugelmir

What's dreaded about best and final? Saves a lot of unneccessary hassle and cuts to the chase for all concerned. 

p00hsticks

propertyhunter said:

The house has been granted probate (phew) - so is it destined to go to best and final regardless?

As it's a probate property then I'd say a lot is going to depend on whether the executor is also the main beneficiary - if they are, then they'll have a bit more discretion on what offer to accept than if they aren't  - if the latter then they'll want to demonstrate that they've got the best price for the beneficiaries, which will probably mean best and final offers.

phoebe1989seb

Ramouth said:

I think on location location location they had a couple buying a probate property that was full of stuff and they included in their offer that this could be left if the sellers wanted.  Saved the sellers having to clear it.

We tried this on an empty property back in 2017. The - partially renovated - house was full to bursting with stuff as was a huge barn in the garden.

It made no difference in our case - we offered way above the asking price to secure it (sealed bids), but weren't accepted, despite our house already being SSTC on an auction contract and we'd be cash buyers once that had gone through. The EA informed us a better offer had been accepted.

We withdrew our offer (the EA had a history of mucking us about) and we later discovered the sale had gone through at the same price as our offer....to someone who needed a mortgage 🙄

Deedoodee

propertyhunter said:

Deedoodee said:

I offered 8% above asking and have 60% deposit and still lost in best and final 

Wow, that's madness. How much was the asking price? If you don't mind divulging? 

270k. The estate agent said the accepted offer was over 300. 

propertyhunter

Thrugelmir said:

What's dreaded about best and final? Saves a lot of unneccessary hassle and cuts to the chase for all concerned. 

Agree, it cuts to the chase. I think what I don't like is that there's no scope for discussion, feedback or negotiation with the vendor. The EAs are also really reluctant to answer any questions. 

I have come to accept that best and final is the most likely scenario. As other posters have said, money talks. 

Murphybear

csgohan4 said:

knightstyle said:

there is no final offer scenario!  some years ago friends went for a house, several others wanted it so the agent told them to send bestand final offer to them by a date. They were the highest  so things started progressing, 10 days later they were told an underbidder had increase their offer and the vendors were now going with them!
friends bought elsewhere and a couple of months later the agent contacted them to see if they were still interested as the buyers had dropped out!

The sellers got what they deserved accepting gazumpers

This happened to us some years ago.  We offered on a house that was the top of our budget.  A week later the EA told us they’d accepted a higher offer.  We carried on looking and the EA contacted us and said the buyer had dropped out and were we still interested?  We said no because we couldn’t trust the seller not to do it again.  The EA was gobsmacked, he genuinely couldn’t understand why  
We bought the bungalow of our dreams after that 

borkid

We bought a property going through probate last year. I spent the weekend before viewing checking the area out and viewing other properties in the area online. We knew what we wanted re space and location. Viewed and agreed the asking price, the agents checked out our proceedability, our chain was about to complete and we were going into rented, we were cash buyers. The following day the beneficiaries, brother and sister accepted our offer. I believe others were interested but we were in a good position.

Amazingly probate was completed and all the conveyancing in 10 weeks, 2 weeks before the end of the stamp duty holiday. We were in a rented place then but it gave us time to get work done on the property and we didn' have a problem of finding a removal firm which was available.

GDB2222

Will they accept an offer of "£2k more than the highest other offer"?