I've just fallen in love. Help me bag this house please.

[marthabear]

I'm so excited and nervous. We have just viewed the most fantastic house and have fallen in love with it. After a year of house hunting nothing has come close. It has only been up for sale for a couple of days but the owner is keen to move very quickly and has an open house tomorrow which we have been told is generating a lot of interest. We sold our house last week so we are in a good position. The house has a guide price which is almost at the top of our budget but it is a more than fair price for the lovely family home that it is. We are in the East Midlands so things aren't moving at the pace of London, but someone will snap this house up within a couple of days i'm sure. I need it to be us. What is the best way to play it? Go back to see the owner personally in the morning and offer the asking price? Or wait until after the open day ( which it would be too late for her to cancel anyway) and put in an offer on Monday, asking the EA to keep us in the loop if any other offers are made? I have no idea about how to play it but I do know that I love this house.

No help without pics

It's such a lottery, but if it were me I'd try writing a note to the home owner and putting it through the door.

Keep it simple but spell out that you've a sale on your house and that you'd like theirs to be your family home; that you're genuine people, just be careful that you don't give the impression you'll be held to ransom or offer silly money, just that you're regular ,honest and prepared to play it straight down the line.

Best of Luck, will be rooting for you.

I think i've just broken every rule in the house buying book. I went back and knocked on the owners door a couple of hours after the viewing , said we loved the house and offered the asking price. There is still an open house tomorrow so i guess no news until Monday. I'm a bit rubbish at the house buying game playing aren't I?

You've declared your hand and thats part of the game.

To show your conviction follow up with an email of offer to the estate agents. Include your full names, financial position i.e. Mortgage offer in place status, your estate agents details and contact number and if you know size of your chain, Solicitors details etc.

Make sure you don't make your offer open ended. Decide when its valid until i.e. 7 calendar days. You can then extend this if you wish but what you don't want is them just stringing you along for a while whilst they use your offer to try and get a bigger one.

Print off the email and add a little note to the vendors and pop it through their door.

Good luck.

I think you've done the right thing.
Don;t trust the EAs to keep you in the loop - just recently I've asked EAs for the same when I viewed in Friday and the other people were to view on Sat, and specifically asked then to please let me know when there are any offers on Monday - I phoned on Monday after lunch, albeit to confirm second viewing, not to offer - and guess what? They've told me the vendors accepted an offer in the morning on monday. Nobody phoned me - so once the vendors heard of a decent offer, they just agreed. Thankfully I wasn't 'in love' with the house and I had an alternative, but I did like it a lot and wanted to see it in the daytime to check how much daylight it got. I was quite furious at the EAs, who didn't keep their word, and when the vendors asked them about me (knowing I was quite keen) they told them that I haven't been in touch - well, I was in touch after lunch, thinking there were no offers yet! couldn't get through earlier.

So, well done for being proactive! Also I wouldn't be too stubborn if you needed to go slightly over asking price in order to compete- just don't go beyond your budget! It's not often that people are so sure about a house, if yo ulove it, go for it!

Offer What it takes. Is there am estate agent? I just made am offer on a house I loved - straight in at asking price and they took it off the market straight away and cancelled all other viewings.

I keep thinking i've done the wrong thing now by just giving the owner a higher benchmark to push other potential buyers to go higher. Bit of a gamble I guess. Congratulations Jumping jack :-)

Just checking back in. To see how your nerves and thoughts are holding out? Did the agents get back to you and let you know they'd put the offer forward?

Thanks martha we spoke to the owners on the second viewing and as they said, they didn't know if they were going to get any other offers so didn't want us to lose interest.

If you offered the asking price I think they should accept your offer and take the house off the market.

What are they holding out for - offers over the asking price.

I'd tell them I wanted an answer within 24 hours or my offer;s off the table.

I viewed on Saturday evening. Offered asking price to the owner a couple of hours later. There was a 3 hour open day already booked for the next day. I have called the EA this morning to make my position clear. Apparently there are numerous interested parties, some with offers over the asking price. So they want final offers by the end of today. Not sure what to do now as obviously the asking price is not enough :-(

If they want to move quickly, play to this also. It makes a massive difference. Someone might offer 10k over the asking price but if they are in a chain of 8, they are not a good bet for these sellers. If you are in a chain, offer to move into rented or with friends if necessary if that would be an option.

state your strong position and your price.

ime people put in an offer that they don't have a mortgage for and will be out of the running quite quickly. still worth making yourself known.

Of course the offer price is important but it's not the only thing the vendors will consider. For us it was about how stable the buyers were and how quick they could move things their end. The last thing a seller wants is the buyer to pull out a month or so down the road because they've not been able to get finances sorted or because they found another property they liked more!

Good luck!!!!

what Gemma says. Lots of chains are collapsing at the moment as people get carried away, over offer then pull out because they realise what they have done or can't get the finance. Just put it all in writing. Also remember if you don't get it, it is not always the end of the road, we have had agents call us 2 months later and beg us to save their chains from collapsing. As investors we have usually found something else by then.

I put in a sealed bid of £8000 above the asking price this afternoon. Just had a call from the EA to tell me there were numerous offers but the seller was really pleased that ours was one of the top as we had made a personal connection. Our offer has been accepted! Feeling very happy.

Congratulations
Hope it all goes smoothly for you

Well done!!!

Congratulations! Nothing ventured nothing gained!

Brilliant news well done.

Sometimes property programmes on TV make you feel that you should be able to negotiate under the asking price. To me a home is worth what you're prepared to pay and to be honest, over the length of time you live there, you need to be happy so a few thousand isn't really here or there if you can finance it.

Am pleased for you Martha and hope the whole transaction goes smoothly.

woohoo!!

Congratulations! Sometimes we can all get so caught up in trying to make sure we don't pay a penny more than we have to for our property but sometimes when it's going to be your HOME it's worth what your many happy future years are worth!

Enjoy!

ooh great news, OP!

Congratulations.