Help! I have to get this house!

[Rhubarbgarden]

I am tying myself in knots and looking for advice on a strategy to get an offer accepted. House came on the market last week, we knew pretty much straight away it was The One just from looking at the details. Viewed it on Saturday, during the open house. Fell in love. DH wants it as much as I do. Put in an offer this morning of asking price. I'm not messing around - this is the house I want my kids to grow up in and DH and I to grow old in. The agent has just rung back now - offer rejected. They are having two more open houses this week and if there is a lot of serious interest it will go to sealed bids after that, unless someone makes a really good offer in the meantime.

What is our best approach? Up our offer slightly? Offer our maximum now, and give them a short window to accept in the hope of nipping a bidding war in the bud now? Or will that just give other interested parties chance to outbid us? Do we play it cool and wait till after the weekend in the hope no-one else comes along with 'a really good offer'? If it goes to sealed bids, how much do we offer?

Aargh, I have to have this house! It blows all the others out of the water. There were a lot of people at the open house. I know there will be a lot of interest. It's a doer-upper in a terrible state with a Heligan garden, bags of history and character, and is in a peach of a location where not much comes up.

We're in the process of buying a house we first saw a year ago, before we were on the market.

We didn't offer or second view it though, as untill we'd sold ours we had no idea what we would be able to afford.

I suppose it depends on where you live and how fast things move.

Good luck Rhubarb :)

Thanks all. Finally got hold of DH, confirmed we would accept the offer, managed to coordinate all parties to bring forward second viewing of moneypit with renovation guy to tomorrow instead of Monday. All good. EXCEPT: big scary spanner in the works - the moneypit is now going to sealed bids on 26th July! Aaargh!!! We can go into rented no problem so selling ours isn't an issue - we'd be renting anyway because the moneypit is not liveable; but what if we don't get it? What if someone outbids us? Shit! Just when it all seemed to be falling into place!

You must think I'm making this up. It's all turning into such a drama!

My word! I love a good drama when its not my stomach in knots .

that's an interesting tactic of your buyer (offering subject to you being proceedable on your next house/ going into rented), might use that myself.

Very good luck with the sealed bids. I did sell one of my houses through sealed bids, and it was all legit and done above board, but I'm always a bit suspicious, how do you know that you are not the only bidder in that scenario, and they are not just using it as a way to extract the most money out of you, knowing how keen you are to buy. Did they tell you about the sealed bids before or after you told them you were now proceedable....?

Good luck, Rhubarb. No clue what this house is, as the link is removed.

You have done very well indeed, and played it nicely so far. Keep cool and you will get the house you are meant to get

Really enjoy reading your posts. Wish you the best.

Thanks!

Manic I hadn't mentioned that we are proceedable - just that we wanted to bring forward the viewing to tomorrow. She said 'oh by the way we now have a date for sealed bids and are about to email all interested parties'. Sounded genuine enough to me but then I always believe people but DH is sceptical and thinks they are bluffing. Just no way of knowing. It's annoying that we'll have to go straight to our max but I suppose it avoids faff and haggling.

Ooh! Nice one! I don't really understand what they mean by subject to you having an offer accepted on somewhere. You don't have an offer accepted on anywhere at the moment, so does that mean their offer cannot be accepted? Or have they placed a time limit on how long you can take to find somewhere before their offer expires?

Have you done sealed bids before? You want to put in your financial details, proceedable details (ie under offer), and a bit about why you love the house and want to live there for ever and ever ... No harm in being openly enthusiastic since it's best and final anyway (they can't use your enthusiasm try to twist more out of you) and I have heard of cases where the seller didn't take the highest bid as they preferred the sound of a lower bidder...

Also, ask the agent if they will accept referential bids. usually they say no. but if they say yes you have a great sneaky way to win... you basically say "our offer is £1000 above the next highest offer". If that turns out to be too much for you, then you can immediately withdraw, and it goes to the next highest bidder (this is why most agents say no to this tactic!)

My advice would be to go into rented, the news for vendors gets grimmer and grimmer and I don't think much can trump someone who is in rented when it does come to finding the house (assuming the worst that you don't get the moneypit).

At least if you sell yours and are in rented it's one less thing to stress about (selling is so bloody stressful). Good luck with the roller coaster ride!

good luck with the sealed bids.

How did the second viewing go Rhubarb? Did the builder flag anything unsurmountable?

I am so excited for you! The whole of this sub-forum is going to be on tenterhooks on your bidding day!

Hah! Thanks ladies. Second viewing with builder went well. The renovation costs sound in line with what we were expecting, and opening up the two rear receptions to make one big kitchen diner may be allowed, so that was all positive. And despite the fact it was chucking it down, the view was still to die for and we still really really wanted to buy the house. So much so, I felt sick all the way home at the thought that we might not get it!

I have regained my sense of perspective though now we have worked out what we can afford to bid, and I will pretend to take it on the chin if we don't get it. Meanwhile, our buyers want a completion date of beginning of sept so I am busy trying to find us a rental house that will take two small children and two cats - not proving easy!

Domesday is next Wednesday - grateful for all the crossed fingers on here!

Thanks for he update ..... Hope Wednesday goes well.

I'm crossing my fingers for you Rhubarb I saw the house when the link was up but was on my phone so couldn't really see pics, if someone wanted to pm me the link I would be suitably grateful...

Good luck

I moved into rented so we could sell
Two years later...

And now can't afford to buy couldn't even afford to buy our old house
It's not gone well for us so I need to live vicariously

Good luck!

Thanks everyone. We went down to the village again on Saturday. A house that we offered on nearly a year ago, but couldn't get high enough to get it accepted, has finally been reduced in price. DH loved this house and has always compared everything else we've looked at to it, which has at times been enormously frustrating. It's always been the house that got away. So we went for another viewing, to see how we felt about it now compared with the moneypit.

We liked it even more than we remembered. It has a couple of really great fireplaces. The ceilings are a little higher than the ones in the moneypit (uh-oh). And it doesn't need any work.

So we came away feeling a bit . After sleeping on it, I still prefer the moneypit - that view! That overgrown orchard! But DH is now leaning towards the house that got away. He likes the fact we could just move in and that there wouldn't be any surprises.

Of course there's no guarantee we'll get either! And I do still keep having moments where I wonder if we should just go for the Brighton house - just because it's Brighton, and I love Brighton, and a part of me fears that village life will be a culture shock after south London.

Hopefully by the end of the week it will all come out in the wash and we'll have a house to move to!

And I should add - frankly I'll be bloody delighted with any of them!

At last , you get some bargaining power!

Oh, the plot thickens! annoyingly I have forgotten how to find these places on rightmove. will see if I can figure it out...

Think I have found it - big wine cellar, chequerboard bathroom?

That's the one! The owner was showing DH the wine cellar and his impressive wine collection, and DH was struggling to hold up his end of the conversation, bearing in mind our pathetic couple of bottles of rose lurking in our fridge...

So have you offered on either house?

^^^

If anyone would like to pm me the link I would be a happy Puffin

I love property porn!

Not yet - trying to decide. The moneypit is sealed bids on wednesday so can't do anything till then on that one.