What's the best way to 'play' an open day

8 replies

Foxongiraffe · 31/01/2015 19:10

We are going to view a house at an open day soon. I am not keen on open days for many reasons. Having said that, what is the best way to proceed with an offer? If we like it should we offer on the same day or wait until they phone for feedback? We are not in London and in our area some houses are on for months and months and a few sell within days. We are chain free and need to get moving asap. Any advice would be much appreciated

OP posts:

cheapandcheerful · 31/01/2015 20:46

If you need to get moving ASAP and like the house then I would probably consider making an offer on the day. You are in a good position so could put in a low offer and then raise it if it transpires at a later point that there are other offers on the table too.

Original poster

Foxongiraffe · 01/02/2015 08:09

Thank you cheap, I am a bit worried that may take the highest offer on the day rather than allow us to give a counter offer. Does that depend on the vendor or is it best practice to allow all parties to make another offer? My parents think we should give our highest offer on the day.

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Bowlersarm · 01/02/2015 08:17

They won't accept a higher offer without checking with you that you aren't prepared to go up. I'd start off at a lower offer to give leeway to be able to increase it when negotiations start.

christinarossetti · 01/02/2015 08:23

Call/email the EA or whoever is managing the open day and ask them how they usually take offers.

We bought and sold last year in London and even then it seemed to go viewing in Saturday, offers in by a deadline either Mon or Tues then go from there.

You can also ask EA what sort of offers they're expecting and look on. zoopla to see what similar houses have sold for recently.

Make sure EA knows that you're chainfree and want to move quickly this will make you a more desireable buyer.

Good luck.

christinarossetti · 01/02/2015 08:49

Call/email the EA or whoever is managing the open day and ask them how they usually take offers.

We bought and sold last year in London and even then it seemed to go viewing in Saturday, offers in by a deadline either Mon or Tues then go from there.

You can also ask EA what sort of offers they're expecting and look on. zoopla to see what similar houses have sold for recently.

Make sure EA knows that you're chainfree and want to move quickly this will make you a more desireable buyer.

Good luck.

Cacofonix · 01/02/2015 09:20

Well it all depends how many people are coming to view and how buoyant the market is for that type of house in your area. We sold in London last spring when the market was very hot. Enormous amount of people in open day (25+) and 9 sets of offers. Once the first lot of offers came in on the Monday, the EA went back and asked everyone for their best and final offers which we had on Tuesday. That said, the house we bought had an open day and we only offered two days later when the EA called us up - so obviously they had no offers (still in London) so we were able to negotiate. My advice - if you like it decide how much you would pay as a maximum and put a lower offer in first. Don't get carried away if there are loads of people there. Open days are designed to create a demand and it can be easy to get carried away. Good luck.

Original poster

Foxongiraffe · 01/02/2015 11:42

Thank you all very much - I hadn't thought of calling the agent christina thank you for suggesting that. I was just worried about being outbid and not having a chance to bid higher. caco yes I agree - I feel open days actually create a bit of a frenzy and I don't want to pay over the odds just because I was worried about how many other people were there! Thanks again - the open day is next Saturday, I will let you know how we got on.

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christinarossetti · 01/02/2015 14:12

Yes, definitely call EA. Even in the very heated London market last spring, they wouldn't take offers on the day, partly because people may offer amounts that they can't get mortgages for and mess everyone around although mainly that they can whip up a bit of a frenzy the next week amongst those who are offering.

It's difficult for vendors to make quick decisions about which offer to take too.

We really, really wanted the house that we went on to buy and it was an open day on the Saturday with offers in by midday on Tuesday situation. I called the EA on Monday to see how many people might be interested, and how much the vendor was expecting people to offer at just to gauge things, then put in an offer of what we thought the house was worth. When I e-mailed the EA with the offer, I included info like our current situation ie we had an offer accepted on our house and even sent through a copy of our recent mortgage statement to show the deposit we had and how (not) much we had left on our current mortgage even though this wasn't asked for.

The EA could then present us as very serious buyers to the vendors, which helped sway their opinion as to which offer to accept.

Good luck.

Flip