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Original poster

Fell in love with house, other people are viewing but we must have it!

32 replies

NotJustACigar · 25/01/2014 15:46

We viewed a house today and have fallen in love with it - despite saying to ourselves we were going to be calm and rational about the house buying process. We rang the estate agent and put in an offer over asking price, said it was our best offer and said it was conditional on taking the house off the market immediately and cancelling all other viewings.

Estate agent rang me back and said the vendor is very pleased with our offer but that another person was coming in from across the country to view the house and they couldn't get in touch with her to cancel. I know there was another couple who viewed yesterday and said they liked the house and someone else viewed just after us.

How can we make sure we have the best chance of getting the house? We would be willing to increase our offer of someone else offers above ours. Do I call the estate agent back and tell her this? Please help, our property buying and selling has been a nightmare just now and there is nothing else in our area that compares to this house. The rightmove listing doesn't do it justice so I think anyone viewing would be stunned at how nice it is. I am desperate here!

OP posts:

jerryfudd · 25/01/2014 15:50

Do not ring the agent and say you'll increase if someone offers more! If someone does I'm sure they will be in touch to start a bidding war

tiddleypompom · 25/01/2014 15:57

What's your position? Do you have anything to sell/a chain buying/a mortgage offer/cash in a suitcase?

You have made a very fair offer but your buying 'strength' will also have value attached - making you more or less likely to exchange & complete within the vendor's ideal timeframe. Another asking price offer (or more) will force the vendor to take advice from their agent as to which buyer looks most promising.

I'd therefore get yourselves to the top of the pile by improving your position where you can, and then letting the agent know you are ready & raring to go.

Don't increase your offer at this point - would be my advice.

Original poster

NotJustACigar · 25/01/2014 16:00

Thanks, both. We are stc on our own house sale, due to complete Feb7. We are currently living in rented and have a mortgage agreed in principle.

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enriquetheringbearinglizard · 25/01/2014 16:09

Good Luck NotJust.

You've broken your own rule and fallen head over heels, but then again, who wants to buy a house they don't fall in love with?

I'm just fearful for you that by showing your hand so clearly you might be involved in a bidding war, nothing you can do about that, but hope that the other viewers aren't so keen on the place, or aren't willing to match or improve on your offer.
It's a waiting game. All you can think about is what the house is really worth and agree to stick to your guns.

Original poster

NotJustACigar · 25/01/2014 16:16

Thanks, enrique. Even worse than a bidding war is if the vendor says she has an offer for x, the other people offer a bit more, and she just accepts it without giving us a chance to increase. I think we made the mistake of seeming too keen and of saying it was our final offer! Oops.

OP posts:

LadyGardenersQuestionTime · 25/01/2014 16:20

The EA will know you are very very keen, so don't worry too much about what you've should or shouldn't have said. You can rest assured they won't accept someone else's offer without checking to see if you'll up yours.

Original poster

NotJustACigar · 25/01/2014 17:09

Thanks, LadyG, I will cling on to that and keep my fingers crossed til Monday or Tuesday when we should hear!

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London1975 · 25/01/2014 18:34

We also saw a house today and fell in love with it instantly. My heart racing just a minute through the door. 20 other people viewed it today with more next week. We absolutely want this house but played it very cool in front of the agent. Our strategy is not to be the first to make an offer - we'll wait until the first offer/s come in and go from there. We're prepared to completely max our budget and add another whack ontop of asking price to get it if needs be but we're just keeping that as an ace up our sleeves. This is not to say however that this is the right strategy and yours is wrong. Good luck, let us know how you get on. House buying is a nerve shredding business.

Original poster

NotJustACigar · 25/01/2014 18:42

London I think you're very wise and it must be very nerve wracking to have that much potential competition! Good luck (as I know it wasn't "my house" you saw!)

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London1975 · 25/01/2014 18:55

Sadly this level of competition is the norm in the area of west london we're looking in. Not unusual for a house to have a dozen sealed bids on it and end up going for £100k over the asking price. Definitely a sellers market not helped by a significant lack of stock

jonicomelately · 25/01/2014 18:57

Hi NotJustACigar. I remember your previous thread about house buying. How exciting! Is it in the area you were mentioned before near me

Original poster

NotJustACigar · 25/01/2014 19:00

Hi joni yes I remember you too and your rightmove help finding lovely houses. The one we have offered on is in Southport - we even stopped by the British lawnmower museum on the way home .

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jonicomelately · 25/01/2014 19:01

Fantastic! I'll keep my fingers crossed for you.

tiddleypompom · 25/01/2014 19:08

Fingers crossed here also. The agent will come back to you even if there's another offer - they're incentivised personally as well as obliged to their clients!

HelpfulChap · 25/01/2014 19:16

If you ABSOLUTELY have to have you can offer a non-refundable deposit. A mate of mine did this last week. There were four offers at the asking price (including one from a cash buyer) on the house he wated and he offered a £2k non refundable deposit and his offer was accepted as the vendor realised he wasn't a time waster.

London1975 · 25/01/2014 19:25

Great tip helpfulchap, will bear that in mind for my house buying negotiations.

Another strategy is to commit to completing within a set number of days but only really useful for cash buyers or nothing to sell I guess.

Any more tips from anyone are most welcome!

HelpfulChap · 25/01/2014 19:30

It is a win-win for anyone in London. Property prices are going up £2k a week (or seems like it) so of they have to pull out for whatever reason and lose the NRD they just re-market their own property for far more than the original selling price.

Lavenderhoney · 25/01/2014 21:49

I'm in the same boat and will make an offer Monday. I'm so stressed its ridiculous.

Its over priced but apparently the owner will accept offers. How low do I go? Its about 30k more than it should be on at, and I was hoping to go in lower- it needs work but its perfect for me( well, not completely!)

Any advice out there? I don't want to offend the owner, but i loves it..but trying to keep steady. Its not London, mind you. Blimey, look at me waffling

Original poster

NotJustACigar · 26/01/2014 08:29

Lavender I am far from an expert but I have read that if your first offer doesn't offend the vendor then you have offered too much! Not sure i agree with this as I think it's better to keep goodwill on both sides. So maybe offer the 30k less but no lower? Good luck!

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Merrow · 27/01/2014 09:55

NotJustACigar - we did the same. Fell completely in love, offered over the asking price immediate and said that was our final offer (although didn't have the sense to say that it was conditional!)

We completely failed at doing the whole game of bidding low and going higher. The estate agent did try and get us into a bidding war, calling us up and telling us that other people were putting in offers, but we held firm on the logic that no one but us would be insane to offer more than the asking price, considering everyone is told to offer under! We were right, and now have an awesome flat. So, I would definitely say hold firm.

Stokey · 27/01/2014 10:34

When we bought ours, Dh got the vendor's phone number and rang him directly the night of the open viewing. He just said we really love it, DD walked into one of the rooms and said "that's my room", and we're going to offer on Monday.

When we offered there was already one on the table, £5k higher than ours, but the vendor accepted us as said he wanted it to go to a family. Am sure building a relationship with him helped.

To be fair this was two years ago so not quite as over heated as the market is now.

enriquetheringbearinglizard · 27/01/2014 11:25

Two experiences when buying, neither recent but just a cautionary word really.

When we were first time buyers we really wanted this property. The Agent got us to raise our price by telling us another interested party had offered more. Some time later I met the other party purely by chance and found out that it hadn't been true, they hadn't offered more at all

When we offered on the house we're in now we were in rented, only a few weeks into the six month contract so we wanted to spin it all out a bit. The house was empty and being purchased from a builder with no chain.
The Agent kept telling us that people who'd seen it previously had come back to offer, even though it was all going through with solicitors etc.
Of course we were jittery, but we stood firm as to what we wanted to do. We were paying the full asking price after all as they refused to come down even a few pounds.
In the end we moved in about four months after we first viewed, which considering the house had been for sale a while, we thought was still fair.

The Agent also let us off the term remaining on our rental because they found a new tenant and they also said the house was in better condition when we vacated than when we took it on.

It's all such an emotional process isn't it, as well as knowing what to do for the best as a business transaction.

Lavenderhoney · 27/01/2014 13:37

We'll, we didn't get it but that's ok. I've convinced myself it wasn't meant to be.

I have another 2 I like, both with same agent who doesn't want me to have a 2nd viewing on one as she thought when I looked first time I wasn't that bothered!! She is stalling making an appointment as she is very busy. Is this normal? I would be annoyed if I were the owners, they are desperate to move ( a split) and its been on the market for ages , just dropped in price and have not had any second viewings!

The other we are waiting for a quote for building work so see if its worth it. It might not be, so I wanted to see the other house!

Why do they make it so hard? They asked why I wanted to even look at another house before I got the quote. I wanted to say " its not for you to decide as you have no idea of my personal circumstances and discussions with dh, so just let me look" I'm not time wasting, but they sure are wasting mine. And breathe!

enriquetheringbearinglizard · 27/01/2014 14:03

I'm a big believer in things turning out for the best Lavender. It's disappointing but not meant to be.

The Agent seems to have a bit of an attitude. Do you think it'd be worthwhile dropping a note at the one house, explaining that you're trying to view but the Agent's 'too busy' to make you an appointment.

HaveToWearHeels · 27/01/2014 16:08

Lavender It all happens for a reason.
We are currently purchasing a BTL but obviously still have to like the property we are buying.
We originally wanted a three bed semi with garage, a good family home, however the market was moving so fast they were going out of our reach. So we viewed a 2+1 cottage, which was lovely and just below our budget. It went to sealed bids, we offered 10k over asking price (30% deposit, finance in place) and a first time buyer who offered 15k. The owners went with the first time buyer apparently against the agents advise.
Fast forward two weeks and a lovely three bed semi with a garage came on, bit tatty but nothing a lick of paint wouldn't fix, we got it for the top of our budget, same price we offered on the cottage but much more potential on rental and to add value.
Last week the agent selling the cottage called to ask if we were still interested, as the buyer has pulled out a week before exchange and vendors are about to loose their new property !

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