Any experience on making sealed bids?

[louby78]

Got to make an offer tomorrow on a gorgeous house that's gone to sealed bids. Agent indicated two offers on the table already and likely to go over the asking price of 350K. I hate the "offer how much it's worth to you" crap! It's worth more than we can offer but any idea if it goes 10% over or if 6K extra could seal it? Basically can't offer anymore than we are doing and price not necessarily deciding factor but just after some reassurance.

[rocksox]

Hi - yes, I have experience but it's probably not what you want to hear. We made a bid a bit above the asking price, can't remember exactly but maybe 5% or so, anyway winning bid was way way over the asking price....

Obviously we lost out - but this was the heady peak of the property boom and probably a good outcome for us with hindsight.

If you can't offer any more than you are doing then there's probably not much more you can do. Make sure the agent knows any other "positives" in your favour like being able to move quickly or finance secured. Also, we were advised to go for an "odd" number eg. 364,990 as others may go for a round number eg.364,000 and a few pounds higher could win you the bid.

Good luck!

[chandellina]

just remember you can't control what others do, so it really does come down to how bad you want it and what you can afford. we were in this situation this year, the agent suggested asking price would get it (other offers including our initial one had been well below). We put in for a tad over and ended up losing it by £25k. we would never have put that much in so we couldn't fret about it.

[titchy]

Put in your circumstances too. The vendor might decide that an offer of £360 from someone chain free is better than one of £395 from someone in a chain. If you don't get it ask to be kept in mind if the winning bids' purchase falls through (40% of offes never make it to exchange).

[louby78]

Have offered £15k over asking price as it's the limit of what we can afford so we just have to wait and see now! 5 other people in it. This is meant to be a bit of a sluggish market?!

[Mandy21]

We did - if its not too late, put it all the details that make you a good proposition - if you're in rented / have already sold, whether you have the mortgage in place, how you'd handle the conveyancing (in our case we were able to say my husband's firm would handle it so he could make sure there were no delays), and depending on whether you think it might help, that you want it for a family house (i.e. you're not a developper just trying to make a profit on it). If your bid and another are close, they might prefer (for instance if its a probate job) for it to go to a family. We bid about 6% over the asking price and listed all those qualities and we got it.