Help me buy a house! Need a tactical plan

[BewitchedBefuzzledBewildered]

We have been hunting in a very specific area of London and so far have been beaten to the chase twice by developers in buying a property to live in. We need to be in this particular area to be close to certain schools.

The two properties we lost out to developers were 'fixer-uppers', but we have now spotted a property which ticks all the boxes and needs practically nothing doing to it at all.

We are going to be the first viewers on Saturday at the Open Day. The asking price is a bit (by 5-10k) above the top of our budget. How do we secure the property? We are not experienced property buyers, and don't want to make rookie mistakes.

Do we offer our best and final bid straight off? What if there is competition? How do we manage the game?n we have sold our house, we're living in rented and have a mortgage agreed in principle.

Thx

[BewitchedBefuzzledBewildered]

Bump

[hanette]

I've just done this with a house I really wanted. Agree with selling yourself as best option.

I went to the open saturday then on the Monday went to the EA office in person with the offer in writing, with bullets outlining my position (eg have sold my house, mortgage arranged, solicitor appointed etc).

The house was an 'OIEO' price which I thought was low (it's in London) so I offered £25k over their headline price, and they accepted

I think the most important part is communicating you are serious and that the sale will go through.

Good luck

[BewitchedBefuzzledBewildered]

We loved it! But there were 27 (!) other viewings that day. We have no chance, do we?

[crochetcircle]

When we sold our flat (also in London) we had around 20 viewings on the open day. Not one offer! So don't necessarily think that it means they will have lots of offers.

[Piscivorus]

My DS went to view a flat in South London last week, they were the 26th viewers at the open morning. Rang on Mon to offer full asking price stressing he had mortgage offer, first time buyer, etc and was told quite a few offers so all "acceptable" buyers, of which he was one, should put in best offer by email by 9am Tues. He bid £5k + an odd bit in case of a tie over asking price and was later told he missed out by miles. The last one he tried for also went to sealed bids and went for £25k above asking!

I think going by what others have said on here it is very hit and miss so just keep trying.

Sad thing is that another relative has a beautiful 5 bed detached for sale for a lower price in a nice area here up north and cannot sell it for love nor money

[Flossiechops]

We are in the West Midlands and went up for sale last Friday. I had 15 viewings over the weekend, 4 cash buyers and the rest in rented with mortgages arranged. I am waiting to hear today if there are any offers but I'm stunned at the housing market at the moment. It's not just London where this is happening. Great if we sell but then we will be like you op with nothing to buy!

[London1975]

We're making our best and final offer on a house in west london today. There have been over 20 viewings and numerous offers all over the asking price. It's a nice house but nothing spectacular. Unfortunately there's nothing else on the market so the sellers are milking that for all it's worth. I won't be surprised if this house ends up going for 100k or more over the asking price. We're going to put in our bid (already well over asking price) but really I don't think we have a chance :-(

[BewitchedBefuzzledBewildered]

We'll we put in an offer at asking price and it was rejected. I refuse to get into a bidding war, so I pulled out :-( Gutted

[London1975]

Sorry to hear that. We put in our bid yesterday, £40k over the asking price and lost out too. I was initially gutted but now quite relieved we can draw a line under it and now get the house that is meant to be x

[Theironfistofarkus]

We just exchanged on my absolute dream property in London. Again there was an open house and 7 bids over asking price. We came 4th and were well short. Winner was a developer who went 10% over asking. Was devastated but kept in touch with agent emphasising how much we loved it and asking him to call if it ever fell through. Agent said he really doubted it would fall through but I called a couple more times anyway. Sale fell through (1 in 3 do apparently) and we were the first people who were called. We had to match the developers offer but we were ready to go so we got the property. Just goes to show that it is worth doing this in a market where beating developers on sealed bids is v difficult.

[MummyKanny]

Sorry to hear that Bewitched. I'm in a similar position. Saw a lovely place the other week - 45 viewings, 10 offers we offered 20k over asking price and it went for more. So I know how miserable it is.

The London market is ridiculous!

[London1975]

Yes, sealed bids are the norm now in london. You need to factor in at least 5-10% on top of the asking price to have any chance of being successful. Offering asking price gets you nowhere. Recently a house near us on at £900k went for £1.3m at sealed bids. There's a lot of foreigners also pushing prices up because they see london as a property investment hotspot.

I despair.

[London1975]

I am so tempted! :)

[MummyKanny]

When I see how much we can get for our money out of town it makes me weep

[London1975]

Me too but I don't know what's worse - continuing to fight the market in the hope that eventually will find something, or move out of london taking the risk that should we not like it and want to come back we probably couldn't afford it because the market would have moved so much further on. Oh decisions ..

[London1975]

Yes, so commuter belt vicinity eg Guildford/st. Albans/haywards Heath type commute