Offered more than the asking price - now going to best and final offers!?

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House is a 3 bed 30's semi in a desirable area. It's on for £260K (guide price). Out budget is around £280K, so comfortably under budget we thought. Offered £244K on it as a cheaky offer a couple of hours after the viewing (1hr time slot open house), but apparently somebody had already offered asking price straight after the viewing. This was on Saturday.
They said they will submit bids on Sunday to the vendor and if we wanted to review our bid overnight that's fine.
As this is a house me and DH and I both like, which is quite something, and houses hardly come up in this area which still retains some period features, we thought as we can afford it we will bid £265K.
We are also chain free, with mortgage in principle, with a large deposit. So we thought we are in with a good chance. Estate agents also requested proof of funds and mortgage in principle, which we e-mailed to them.
They are still dithering, and didn't call us back yesterday, so DH called them at the end of the working day, and now they are saying they want best and final offers by thursday noon! Arghh!! So frustrating.
We don't know what the other bids are...we could very well be front runners, but they won't say and it could be a case of us biding against ourselves! On our mortgage in principle, it says that it is based on a property being worth £280K, so it has also occured to us that now the estate agents know that they might be holding on for more money from us seeing that we can afford it.

I can understand it if there is a lot of competition for this house as it's a largish 30's semi and unlike a lot of the 30's semis in this area it has a decent sized third bedroom unlike the box room you get normally. Plus it's got an attached garage, a decent sized garden, but it does need a new kitchen.
The neighbouring area is extremely desirable, prices rising even through the crash, and now becoming to expensive, hence prices rising in this particular area we are looking at.

What shall we do? Offer 280K?? If the valuation comes back less, will a vendor renegotiate?

We have been house hunting for about 8 months now and apart from a beautiful 3 bed victorian terrace that we decided was too far away from town for us, this is the only house that I walked into and wanted to offer on.
I discount houses with north and east facing back gardens (this one is west facing, my favourite), DH discounts houses that don't look nice from the outside, and there is a tram line running thorugh the area so quite a few houses backs on to a tram line, which is a deal breaker for both of us, so we are really only left with a couple of streets. If we don't get this, we could be waiting a long time for another one.

I wouldn't offer a straight number ending in a £0 or £5 - go for something a bit random such as £265,961 or something - everyone bids to round numbers....if you really want it, if you can afford it and you know that you will have to wait a long time for something else, then it's worth paying for.

We had to do this for our current house and although at the time I resented being forced to pay (as I saw it) over the odds, 8 years later it really doesn't matter!

I used to be an agent and I think to be honest you shot yourself in the foot with offering 244k initially. That may have made the agents think you are not serious buyers or messing around. That's what would have happened in our office.

If a property is popular enough to have an open day with a one hour window and is on at a guide price-, vendors are not going to be looking for 'cheeky offers' -you need be offering seriously and strongly if you want it.

Anyway what's done is done- it's really up to you how you play it. It's essentially a sealed bid situation now- so you will get one chance to make your best bid before Thursday. It depends how much you want the house and if u want to risk losing it.

Agents will not be able to give you any inkling as to what other bids have come in, however in my experience with our guide prices, the final offer acceptance was usually a fair way over the guide.

Depends what you can afford to go up to and still do the work- also depends on if the mortgage lenders would value it being worth what you're paying for it- my friend offered on a house and when the mortgage people came out there was a difference of about 25k so she couldn't have it in the end.
I would stick to a sensible price and like poster above said pick a random number at the end.

I get what you mean Meandyou150. We totally misjudged the popularity, we turned up 3/4 way through the 1hr timeslot and only saw 2 couples walking around, but apparently there were 20 according to the agent when we later went into the office to make the offer. TBH I thought a chain free initial £244K offer on a property that is on for £260K that needs a bit of remodernsing and a new kitchen, was actually a fair offer, and apparently there was an offer lower than ours too.
Anyway I hope we have since come across as serious as we have offered over the asking price and sent in proof of funds etc.

Panicmode1 that's reassuring to know that you don't regret paying over the odds for it. I think I'm verging towards paying close to £280K, but I know DH is reluctant to spend that much.

I would go towards your top end. Me and my sibling have both bought 'guide price' properties in the past 6 months and they both went for 10-12% above the guide (we both won!) hers was sealed bids so unsure what other offers were, but ours we outbid next person by only 1k So we weren't the only ones valuing at at that price. It was still a great deal and we have made money in 2 months of ownership. This is SE popular area not London.

I sold a house last year that was on at £260k, we had an asking price offer on the first day from the second lot of viewers, which I would have taken, but the first guy that viewed was on his own as his wife was away, so we let her view the next day to make it fair. These two couples ended up biding against each other to 14k over the asking price. We didn't do sealed bids as I don't like them so was happy for our agent to hopefully get the best price, and each party knew what was going on.

But I think once you find somewhere, it's what it's worth to you, another 5k is not a lot if you can afford it, if you will then stay for 10 or 20 years.

I'm currently living in a rental while we have major renovations on our house and am paying 1k a month for a very small property, which is just money straight down the drain!

Are you in Edinburgh, by any chance? I'm asking because my friend has just gone 15% over on an OO house there. The market is buoyant, and you may have been badly advised to start with such a low offer.

It sounds like a good house with potential in a good area. So I'd offer as much as you'd be prepared to spend and then maybe add on a random 1,700k

I hate that sealed bids things!! SO stressful!

No, not in Scotland. It's NW England.

I can narrow that down to three areas then OP and they are all sought after. If you really like and can afford it then you need to up your offer. What you could do with is knowing what sale prices have been agreed in the area which haven't yet completed - if they have passed survey they aren't over priced.

Thanks for your advice.
We did up our offer and offered a smidgen over £280K. Not holding out much hope though as they were meant to have made a decision today, but now it's going to be tomorrow...argh the wait is agonising. Looks like there are several high offers, and our only chance is that we are chain free with a big deposit.
I am fed up of house hunting

Good luck. You have given your best shot. If you don't get it, Motherwell come up.

We got it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently there were 7 other offers very close together. So so happy!!

Congratulations!

Thanks!

That's fab news OP :) congrats

Wow, well done! sounds like a great house! Lovely news for a Friday

Well done! We've just been in a similar position (also in the NW so maybe nearby).

After losing out on the first best and final bids house by only bidding a couple of grand more than asking we went more tactical second time round.

We bid halfway between the asking price and the price it had just been reduced from. I don't know if it influenced the vendors but we wrote in our offer about how we viewed it with our 2 children and how we thought it would be a great family home. We were also chain free with a decent deposit which I think was attractive to the vendors who were emigrating. So I don't think the highest offer necessarily wins.

It's a great feeling to win the bid and you soon forget that you paid more than the asking for it. With houses that are so sought after that they go to bids, you should usually be able to sell it for at least what you bought it for at some point down the line (hopefully!).

Wonderful. Honestly a house you love is worth paying your top price. You may not have been the highest bid. Being chain free is worth a lot. We went 7 k above our comfortable top price as the housevwasvso fairly priced. In the end much of that was reclaimed when surveys came back we got 5 k off towards new roof. But living in a house you really wanted is just so nice. So glad you got it. Can you post a link now? Great houses are great to others too so you will recoup one day .

Good news. I think I know the area too and nearly every house in the area - at that sort of price - is going over and above the asking price. Great part of the world. Obviously you can never be sure but prices only seem to go up here!