To competitively bid on a property before we have an offer for our place

[ifunsurejustask]

Our house went on the market a few days ago. We had several viewings on Saturday (I'm still waiting for the feedback on those) and more booked in this week. It's a good house, well presented, popular area, great schools, justifiably priced. There's no reason why it shouldn't sell quickly. (Brexit and the election are making the local market a bit slower than usual, but good properties are still selling).

In the meantime we've found a house we love, with an "offers over" price, well within our budget. We know what other similar houses in the area have gone for, and the "offers over" starting price is just below the top of that range, but justifiably so, as it has a high spec.

We told the agent we would like to put in an offer as soon as we had an offer on our own property. He called this morning to say it had received an offer from a third party, and while he didn't tell me the figure he strongly hinted that it's a starting bid at the "offers over" price. The third party has an offer on their own place already, but is in a chain and is still looking at other properties.

He is advising us to put in a counter-offer now to show we're serious. My only experience of bidding wars is via Ebay where I know putting in a bid too early can push the price higher in the long run. The seller knows we're interested because the house is being sold via an online agency and we've been able to correspond with them directly. If they're sensible surely they won't rush to accept the offer on the table. It's possible the seller's agent just wants to use us to push up the price, and that the seller will then choose the party who are most proceedable anyway.

So I could put an offer in today .... or I could wait .... I should at least know a little more later today once our own agent has spoken to the people who viewed our place ..... WWYD?

Also, should I tell my own agent about all this and get their advice? (They're a good independent agent and have given us some good advice to date, but I don't want them to hint to buyers that we might be open to low offers in the circumstances).

First speak to your agent about the feedback from Saturday. By all means tell him about the house you want to make an offer on and ask his opinion.

Be aware that until you have an offer on your own home the vendor may not accept your (higher) bid than from someone who has actually sold theirs.

Good luck

We did what you are suggesting and our house sold about three days later. But, in hindsight if we had played it a little cooler we could have shaved about £10k off the price I think and we were a little starry eyed about how much work the house needed doing to it.

We were eager for her to accept our offer but our hand would have been stronger if we had waited.

Depends on the seller, do they want to go high or fast? Are they in a chain?

Buying our first house was easy as we didn't need to sell so we were in a strong position, now we need to sell we've been gazumped by cash buyers a few times.

Depends on the seller, do they want to go high or fast?

They're empty-nesters moving abroad, so want to move quickly but at a good price (the owner works in sales - so they're going to be using their heads). They do want to buy a down-sized property locally, to retain as a family base, but aren't in a rush. In the absence of a cash buyer I think their ideal situation would be a "house swap", rather than a chain, but ours is on significantly higher than their budget - not sure about the third party.

Of course the agent wants you to put in a counter offer, so they can use it to bump the price up again and again and start a bidding war.

As a vendor I would refuse your offer, as you're in no way ready to proceed until you've at least got an offer on your own house. The agent won't tell the other possible buyers that though, just use your offer to try and bump theirs up.

I'd hang fire until there's some movement on your own home.