Crossing my fingers for sealed bid,

[Pantone363]

We've been looking for somewhere for nearly a year now, made offers on 7 properties and not been successful. Mostly a combination of being up against developers/BTLers. Two houses the offers were successful and then the owners pulled out.

We've found the perfect house, sealed bids in by 12pm today. I really really want it but trying not to get my hopes up as its perfect development fodder.

Agent wouldn't tell us how many other people are bidding, please cross your fingers for us! I just want to be off this merry go round

this is it

Does anyone know how long its likely to be until we hear?

Aw it's a lovely house with so much potential. Can I ask what you offered?

I'm thinking the offers will be with the owners. No harm in ringing the agents now though

£220000

I thinking we might have panicked and offered too much? I don't know. In the end we went with what it was worth to us.

I think they must have had loads of offers as I dropped it off this morning and the receptionist said 'sealed bid for winnock road?' before I even said anything

That is quite a lot extra but if you want something you've gotta pay for it!

Fingers crossed. Please post back when you hear

Looks really lovely - fingers crossed for you

Just to say some close friends of our recently offered on a house that was pretty similar in style and age to yours (we are in the West Mids) it was on at 300k but there was 11 sealed bids, they knew it would sell for more and offered 330k which was accepted. I think pay what you are happy to and what you can afford knowing you have to spend a lot on it to get it to the way you want.

Oh I still remember the traumatic wait when we did this fifteen years ago. I think it was only a day before we were told. We were unsuccessful, however I'm sitting in the very house as the top bidder told a porkie and didn't have finances in place so two weeks after we thought we had lost it we were offered it. Hold on in there and fingers crossed for you.

I'd advise getting friendly with a couple of the smaller independent agents if your offer doesn't go through. That way, if you network with them, they might tip you off about fresh stock coming to the market.

Still no guarantee your offer will be accepted but you might be in with a fighting chance...?

We have offered on sealed bids and even though our offer was the highest, other people who offered have come back and bid higher. So sealed bid does not necessarily mean just that!

Haven't heard anything and doubt we will hear today now.

Argh, nail biting!

Didn't get it

Went to a BTL syndicate

I give up, so depressed now, we can't compete with these people.

Did you just give a figure or did you write a letter setting out your circumstances? There has been some debate on here as to the value of that, but in both cases when we've gone to sealed bids, we've made the offer in a letter setting out our circumstances (how quickly we can move, mortgage in place, wanting it for a family home etc etc) and we've got the house both times - albeit in one case I know for a fact we were not the highest bidders by some margin. We were also advised when making a bid to go with a slightly obscure figure - so instead of £220,000, maybe offer £220, 575.

Good luck for next time. Don't be too disheartended, there will be a better house!

I wrote a lovely letter . Said we wanted it as a family home, evidence of deposit/mortgage. Still no dice.

Do you have anything that sets you apart from other potential purchasers - so in our case, it was that my husband (solicitor) would oversee the purchase personally and ensure it was done in 4 weeks (whatever timescale the vendor wanted)?

Honestly, don't give up hope. Something will come along.

You must be gutted. Our house went to sealed bids when we were selling and we would definitely have chosen a family/couple over BTL (especially a syndicate!) no matter how much more they offered so it may sometimes go in your favour. I hope you get an even better place very soon.