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Original poster

Best and final offer - help!

40 replies

IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 14:24

Any advice on how to make a the "best" best and final offer? Do we go to our maximum budget (which is over the cost of the house)? Is it worth writing a letter to the vendors explaining why the house is perfect for us? Any other suggestions please?

(Backstory: we've been let down on a dream property, this house is the only one we've seen that compares and we are also worried about losing our buyers).

OP posts:
KitKat1985 · 08/08/2017 19:32

We need some more information I think. How long has the house been on the market? Have they rejected previous offers? What makes you think you need to offer above the current selling price of the house?

freelancedolly · 08/08/2017 19:35

Totally agree re. best and final offer - we need more information!

I made my first offer as my 'best and final offer' and it was accepted. BUT the house was on at 'offers in excess of...' and I offered at exactly that amount, saying I didn't want to mess around but it was my maximum. The property had been on the market for 4 months and had reduced in price about 4 weeks beforehand so I think - in my case - it was a good time to be able to make such an offer.

Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 19:35

Sorry! It's been on the market for 2 weeks, 3 interested parties who've all offered the asking price. Not much comes up in this area so it's really a sellers market.

OP posts:
KitKat1985 · 08/08/2017 19:36

But based on the info you've given if you really don't want to lose the house my first instinct would be to make a full asking price offer on the basis that the house is immediately removed from the market. You can then decide based on their response if you want to offer more.

GreenTulips · 08/08/2017 19:37

Then speak to the seller - go knock on the door

Have you sold
Have you mortgage solicitor in place
Do you have children in local school
Panning in staying as a family
Can you move at vendors pace?

Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 19:37

@KitKat1985 We've already made a full asking price offer - along with 2 others interested buyers.

OP posts:
KitKat1985 · 08/08/2017 19:38

Sorry x-post. In that case I'd offer about 5k over if you can afford it. You may need to up that though if the other interested parties are in a particularly strong position (e.g, first-time buyers or cash buyers).

freelancedolly · 08/08/2017 19:39

What, they've already had 3 offers in two weeks? Is it worth the higher amount you're offering?

I'd put together a paragraph detailing exactly why they should go with you, demonstrate your seriousness, mortgage readiness, LTV mortgage you require, the fact you have a buyer (if relevant) - make yourself sound super attractive as a buyer and then offer say £5k over the asking price.

freelancedolly · 08/08/2017 19:39

Snap, KitKat :)

Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 19:41

@GreenTulips we are under offer ourselves, mortgage is all in place, this would be our forever home with kids going to local schools (it's a new area for us so not there now). In theory we can move at their pace.

@KitKat1985 thanks - I'm not sure that'll be enough. My dilemma is do we just offer the max of what we can afford even if it means we slightly overpay?

OP posts:
Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 19:42

Thanks @freelancedolly I was thinking something to make us a bit more "real" would help but I didn't want to do a sickly sweet letter. I think your suggestion is a good balance of facts with a bit of the sweet!

OP posts:
QuackDuckQuack · 08/08/2017 19:43

It depends on the price of the house. £5k over on a £120k house is very different to £5k over on a £950k house.

There's no right answer, but do outline the totality of your offer - so if you've got a big deposit of have already sold your house etc. My DP's house went to sealed bids and the one they accepted wasn't the highest.

GreenTulips · 08/08/2017 19:44

You need to get the vendor in side - people like to sell to nice people - they think of the niebours etc

We had a higher offer from a charity - they offered temp accommodation for 'certain' people - my elderly neighbors would not have been happy

Sold to a young couple with a baby with links to the school across the road

freelancedolly · 08/08/2017 19:46

IWant - we once 'won' a sealed bids situation where there were three similar offers on a property by writing a personalised note - along with the hard facts selling us to the vendors as credible buyers, we were also parents of young twins who had fallen completely in love with the house and felt it was an idyllic place to bring them up. It worked, don't be worried about doing it, and in our case it was true!

KitKat1985 · 08/08/2017 19:52

QuackDuckQuack makes a good point. Obviously how much 5k is worth to the vendors is relative to the price of the house. How much is the asking price?

Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 19:53

@freelancedolly that's good to know. It's a difficult balance to strike - I don't want to come across as gushing and insincere (which I'm not but it may sound that way). Any wording gems would be gratefully received! Grin

OP posts:
Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 19:54

@KitKat1985 the asking price is £675k

OP posts:
KitKat1985 · 08/08/2017 19:57

Ahh in that case 5k is probably a bit paltry, as it's not even 1% more. I think you would need to put more like 10-15k difference between you and the other buyers, possibly more. It depends really how much you can comfortably afford and how much you want the house and think it's worth the extra money.

freelancedolly · 08/08/2017 20:03

What is your position as a buyer though? If you are appealing in other ways I wouldn't go too crazy on the price. £5k is £5k and is still a sizeable sum of money.

Are you under offer, in a short chain or chain free?

fortyfourfeasts · 08/08/2017 20:03

We put a note through the door of the house we wanted. It detailed the position we were in, and we were lucky enough to have a link through a friend with the buyers which gave us credibility. We made an offer of the asking price and it was accepted. I think we thought we may have over paid for the house, but the market was (and still is I think) like yours. I don't know how we would have felt if we'd not been successful. But we could afford the asking price, so I think I would suggest working out what you can afford and offer that.

freelancedolly · 08/08/2017 20:11

Re wording - I've now looked up my email to them - here it is:

"Well, here we are - better late than never! Here are the details you requested; please let me know if you require any further information today. I'd also be grateful if you could confirm that you have received this information in time for your discussion with the vendors.

  1. We'd like to offer £XXX for XXX, and for that to include - if possible - all XXX.
  1. Our mortgage is AIP with XXX, at an approx. 63% LTV.
  1. Our estate agent's details are as follows: XXX. He can confirm that the buyers of our house are keen to move asap and are not in a chain. If he is not in the office tomorrow please speak with another member of staff - property details are XXX.
  1. We are also keen to move asap, but there is flexibility. Our house is tenanted until XXX XXX. We would aim to exchange as soon as possible.

In case it's relevant, I'd like to add that we completely fell in love with XXX, and think it would be a wonderful place to bring up our twins. If you need to contact me over the weekend, please try me on XXX.

Regards and hope to hear from you soon.."

Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 20:17

Amazing - thanks @freelancedolly that's great!

OP posts:
Note3 · 08/08/2017 20:27

I have been in this position and it's very tense and stressful. Not wanting to pay over the odds, but not wanting to pay less than willing and lose the house if we were willing to pay more.

My advice based on what I read when researching how to proceed would be:

  1. consider how much the house truly means to you. Even if it means you're paying 'next year's price' if you're truly planning to live there for the next ten or more years then prices will be highly likely to catch up with what you've paid and probably exceed it. If you are willing to pay say £690, but you only put in £685 and then lose out will you be gutted and unlikely to get similar elsewhere?
  1. As outlined above, note down clearly your position as a buyer (example above is excellent). Add in the details of the solicitor you have/will be instructing as this adds further weight to your position as a serious buyer.
  1. Official advice with best and final offers is to pick an unusual number. Eg, instead of offering £680,000 you'd offer £680,201. (I felt like a complete twit doing that so I went with offering an extra 100 over the base figure. I guessed that the other party would work in 500's and 1000's so if I added £100 I would increase my chance of beating them even if by a small amount. (So instead of offering £685,500 and risking other party doing the same, you could offer £685,600).
  1. Finally, remember offers are subject to contract and this can mean the buyer getting a survey and other specialist reports to inform their purchase decision. Although it's not a guarantee that they'd agree to a reduction, there's a chance work will crop up on survey and they may reduce purchase price. Sometimes that work can turn out to be cheaper than expected or even not necessary at all so it may prove to be a discount for you
Original poster
IWantAWittyUsername · 08/08/2017 20:56

@Note3 great advice - thank you so much for taking the time to comment.

OP posts:
rainsbow · 09/08/2017 14:42

The sale of our house went to final/best.

It was on for £560k.

Two offers of asking price.

One then offered £568k.

Second offered £575k.

We accepted that happily!

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