Have just put an offer in on a house - does this seem standard to you?

[Beaverfeaver2]

When we have bought houses before, we put an offer in, the agent goes to the vendor with the offer and they either accept or counter offer.

However, this time we viewed the house on its open day, along with about 4 other couples.

I call the agent. I put offer in. Agent says that someone else has put an offer in but that ours is higher. (Doesn't say by how much)
Agent says that they are not going to call the vendor straight away and instead contact all viewers of the property on the open day to gather all potential offers and then go to the vendor with the offers for them to decide between them.

Is this standard in this type of situation with an open day?

The agent said that she would call me if anyone else offers higher than us, but surly that means that she has gone straight back to the other people who offered this morning to tell them about our offer.

Should I even believe that there is another offer on the table?

She said that she would aim to go back to the vendor with the offers around lunch time.

Im really anxious...

What you're describing is pretty much the Scottish system, we do sealed bids on a closing date, and they're put to the seller to choose from.
We didn't actually accept the highest bid when we sold our last house as it came with ridiculous conditions

Oh dear. I know it sounds bad but, as Shesparkles says, the highest offer is not absolutely always the best.

Did the EA tell you that the higher offer had been accepted? Or just that there was a higher offer on the table? If the Vendors are still considering their options, you may still have a chance.

They didn't say the other offer has been accepted , but I don't hold out too much hope for the vendors turning it down if its considerably higher. Onwards and upwards! The right house is out there.

I found a rental house that I loved before and posted the owners a letter asking for them to get in touch if they are thinking of selling .

We will see

Beaver, the agent doesn't share the name with an empire that ruled most of Europe 2000 odd years ago, does it?

Sounds suspiciously like the way we were treated a couple of years back. Kept being told "we can't get hold of the vendor, the vendor won't return our calls". It transpired (after an eager-to-please new employee joined the agency and talked too much that they had other viewings lined up and used our offer to bump up the bids during the week after we made our offer. We refused to play their games and up our bid.

I know the agent acts for the vendor and has to secure the best price, but the lack of transparency and deliberately misleading behaviour means I would never deal with that agency again.

We ended up with a much nicer house in a better area, for less money.

So what is the best way of dealing with this situation as a buyer? We are going to an open day tomorrow where no doubt the agent is angling for a bidding war. Do we hold off making an offer or do we wait to find out if others have placed their offer in?
Help!

In areas where there is high competition, there are also huge amounts of chains who collapse. Friends who have "sold" recently have been royally messed about by their high bidders, sometimes because the mortgage company's valuation is way under the over inflated bidding process or sometimes because the buyer wants to negotiate the price

Oops! down after the survey.

The cynical me wonders if these people put in a high offer to secure the property with no intention of actually paying the price, so they look for excuses to knock the vendor down at any available opportunity.

The house we are in we also lost out on during a bidding war. The buyer pulled out, but we had been badgering the agent to let us know if the sale fell through - when it did, we had first dibs on the house because the vendors didn't want the faff of viewings again.

If you really love a house and lose it, make sure the agents know that you would be interested if the property was to come back on the market.

I agree with Danny. If you don't get a bid in then you will loose out do not wait. Just decide how much you are prepared to pay and stick to it. Make a slightly lower bid if you think it with you to best and final. Make your offer, including details of your financial situation and leave them to it. As Danny says people get carried away and then retract bids/pull out or lower offer towards exchange and chains collapse. If you do loose out register your interest with the agent.