Argh. Don't know what to do.

[kirinm]

So, we've been looking for the last few months, missed out by various sums, downgraded expectations, still lost out on flats and are on the verge of giving up / having a breakdown.

Anyway, we saw a place on Saturday and made an offer £7k over the fixed price. Two others have made offers and we've just been told ours is the still the highest. But we've now been told everyone is being given the opportunity to make best and final offers and we've been asked if we want to increase.

I'm so stressed. Our offer is decent and so we don't want to increase especially as it's the best offer so far! But I can't face losing another flat. I don't know what to do.

Any tips?

If you can't face losing it, what is your upper limit? You've got to ask yourselves whether there is any more room for manoeuvre or have you offered what you think it is worth? I don't think I would increase that offer by much.

Can you include a positive comment about how quickly you can proceed/ have mortgage in place?

Other than that you wil have to up the offer. Although I wouldn't necessarily recommend it, you could reduce you offer after the survey if something needs putting right. Of course you do risk the vendor saying no.

I think off you can afford more and you really want it.... It's really horrible, we were in a similar situation. You need to think which would be worse:

A) You don't up your offer and miss out by, £3k that you could have afforded

B) You up your offer and get it (hurrah!) and find out you were the highest bidder by, say £10k, so you've "wasted" £10k. But you've got the place you wanted!

You really just need to decide what's the maximum you would pay for the house and offer it (up to what you can afford, obviously). Easier said than done, though!

Good luck!

(In our case, we upped our offer, got the house and then managed to knock it back down a bit when the valuation came in less than expected)

I think we'll increase and then try and reduce it if it gets down valued which it almost certainly will.

We've already 'sold' ourselves with the mortgage in principle / ready to move story. We are up against other FTB so I'm pretty sure everyone is in the same position.

I'll speak to the agent tomorrow. I currently have a horrible anxious feeling in my chest!

We can only increase by a few thousand in any event. We've got the ability to borrow more but can't financially deal with a huge down valuation. One on the same street in a better condition sold for a few thousand less than our offer last week so we know it's a good offer already.

Be careful not to get sucked in, there will be other properties. I know it's really hard when you keep missing out. I recently bid on a house (in Scotland, so the system is different and we went to a closing date). I bid 8.5K over the valuation, my solicitor said that was at least 25K too low. I t turned out 3 of the other interested parties did not offer, and I got it. You have to think of when you come to re sell as well. Good luck

The decision was taken out of my hands. Someone offered £30k over the asking price. I couldn't and wouldn't want to offer that as it will be down valued for sure - even the EA agreed. If the person making the offer has the ability to deal with the shortfall than good for them.

The search continues although I really don't give a fuck anymore and feel like we might as well stay renting.

Don't get disheartened, the house you're meant to get is just round the corner. 30K over is ridiculous, and they'll end up regretting it.

...or pulling out.

Tell the EA that you'd like to be kept informed if the sale falls through.

Yeah we've told them to get in touch if the buyer pulls out. It just seems ridiculous that last night we were the highest bidder and at 8am someone had made a 'considerably higher' offer. I bet the email doing the rounds last night panicked them and so they made a hasty decision.

Urgh. So depressing.

Similar this big happened to me, only I was the seller. Got offers in, went to best and final, someone offered 30k over. Obviously I bit their arm off, but a couple of days later they pulled out, giving no reason. Clearly it was just a case of cold feet/realising the property simply wasn't worth that much. I sold for asking price in the end. So don't despair OP, things could change.

I'm hoping they come to their senses. If for no other reason than paying that much just increases the price of the area and it, like other areas we've been looking, becomes unaffordable.

As a seller did you take things like the risk of down valuing into account? I understand that someone is obviously going to take as much money as they can get but if it all falls apart because it's such an overstated offer, is it worth it? I guess the vendor doesn't pay anything if it gets down valued, only the purchaser.

I honestly saw myself in that flat. :(

TBH I didn't really think about it - I was too busy gloating over my ill-gotten gains It only took them a couple of days to change their mind so things didn't really progress at all.

Really sorry to hear it fell through - I thought you finally had one in the bag.

As to whether sellers take it in to account, some will some won't. When we got an asking price offer, day after our house went on the market last year (south Leyton), we were really suspicious and convinced they were just trying to get it off the market and would argue it down at survey. We almost didn't accept it!

It was a two bed starter home, so similar to the flats OP is looking it. I now feel like we missed a trick, and should have done an open day and "best and final offers". Estates agents advised against this as we wanted a quick sale - that seemed counter intuitive at the time, but I now wonder if they knew that although an open day would get a higher offer, it may be less likely to continue through to completion.

I went on to look at family homes in the area, and have noted that very few of those I looked at have actually come through sold on the land registry ( I keep looking as I am curious about what some of them actually sold for).

Don't worry. Another flat will come up.

We had several offers on our house, two of which were from people with no chain and ready to go. We actually chose the slightly lower offer because they seemed like more reliable buyers. The other buyer then tried to offer more (after a best and final offers scenario ) which only confirmed to us that we'd made the right choice. We suspected that the woman who made the highest offer would also be quickest to seek renegotiation down at every point of the transaction.

I guess when someone comes in £30k over the next highest offer its hard to then say 'no' (we were only talking a couple of thousand difference in offers), but as a seller I would still be a bit wary about someone coming in an offering way over the asking price and much more than local sold prices.

sometimes people who offer over the odds and claim to be a cash buyer, will drop the price the week before exchange.

I can't really blame the vendor for accepting huge sums of money. But I would quite like it to fall through so I can buy the place!

ftm - I thought this might be the one

Oddly, I've not seen any of the places we viewed / offered on in Leyton come up as actually sold on the land registry site so no idea what the final agreed prices were. Given that there were no chains involved in quite a few, it seems a bit slow.

Oh no. Sorry to hear this one hasn't worked out. Fingers crossed they come back to you. I think you can set alerts on rightmove to be updated with sold prices when they have them?

Leyton/Leytonstone is mental. But don't give up. We nearly bought a small Victorian terrace in Leytonstone but lost our buyer (definitely a case of people bidding on lots and then deciding later with all the time pressure) and just when we were ready to give up and rent our dream home in Leyton popped up. It's a horrible market though, trust that things will work out for the best or you'll get sucked into ridiculous bidding wars. Are they still doing buyers fees?

Otherstories - some agents do it but I won't see anything with them. We are back up to Leyton tonight against my better judgment. I know we won't get this place within our budget but the EA doesn't think it'll reach crazy prices because it's in a state. I don't believe him but at least it's only a weekday night so won't ruin the weekend!