How does house bidding work, since they can't tell you the other offer?

[PickledBiscuits]

I viewed a flat that ticks most my boxes. It's on for offers over £230,000. It's been recently reduced from £250,000 which was definitely overpriced in comparison to other similar houses. The owner let slip that she thought it was on for £225,000. So I've offered £220,000 to start things off. The estate agent said they've had another offer but obvs can't disclose how much it is.

So what will happen next? If they can't tell me how much the other has offered how will I know what to offer next?

My absolute highest I can buy for is £231,000 but I don't want to go straight to that next.

Whereabouts are you in the UK?

Wales

Ah, sorry, thought you might have been in Scotland since we have an offers over system here. Hopefully someone with Welsh knowledge will come along soon!

No worries. I hadn't even considered the different rules for the regions.

Wales has the same system as England so you don't need specifically welsh knowledge.

Is there anything about you that makes you particularly desirable as a buyer? Do yoi have cash waiting ready to buy? Or have you sold your house to a FTB with all legal work by your buyer's solictor done so that there's unlikely to be delays? The other offerer might be part of a long chain or may not have sold their house yet so don't assume you aren't in with a chance. Have the estate agent's actually said the other offer is higher than yours? Have they actually rejected your offer? If they haven't they may just be trying to bluff you into raising when you don't need to. So you could just message back saying "thank you for letting me know. Can you confirm if my offer is being rejected? (Lay out any specific advantages you have as a buyer here). If it's rejected just let me know"

Then don't chase. Leave the ball in their court. If you chase you will seem too keen.

If your initial offer is rejected make offer 2 at the half way point between the initial offer and your maximum.

Be prepared to walk away.

I'm a first time buyer which I did make clear to both estate agent and buyer. No they haven't rejected, they said they would put both offers to the buyer and let me know on Tuesday as they are away until midday Monday.

I'm definitely not contacting them until I hear back but just wondering how they would word it when they can't tell me the other offer. I guess it would just be: offer not accepted, do you want to offer more? That sort of thing? Is there a normal amount of times they would do that before final offer?

£200,000 to 205,000 feels like a big jump to me. But don't want to go up on one thousands as I think that makes me look a bit silly. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

@PickledBiscuits £200,000 to 205,000 feels like a big jump to me. But don't want to go up on one thousands as I think that makes me look a bit silly.

You are 100% correct. Any change of less than about £4k is silly. On the scale of a 25-30 year mortgage a rise of one or two thousand is negligible.

Yeah so next offer I think would be £204,000

Sorry my next offer would be £224,000. Gees they'll think I'm crackers if my next offer is lower!

If you really want the property and think it’s worth £231k (to you) just make a final offer and have done with it.

You might not get a chance for a next offer. Usually, if there are two offers the buyer accepts the higher one and that’s that.

It very much depends on how 'hot' the local market is.

When we bought our first flat in London, we made an offer, was the highest offer, and that was it. We got an email saying our offer was accepted and a list of things we had to do next.

When we bought our house, in an extremely popular area, It was a totally different ball game.

We offered, were outbid, offered again, got outbid again and then it went to best and final sealed bids.

When we came to sell our house, the process was the same - after 3 rounds of bidding we went with one of the highest bids, because they were most proceedable.

So, depending on your area it might be a simple - sorry, you didn't offer enough. Or, they might come back and negotiate. As a first time buying without a chain you're in a great position, so that should help in your favour.

Good luck!