"Best and final offer" - only one other bidder?!

[namechangeaskingprice]

Been told to submit "best and final offers" next week. There is only one other bidder, and haven't been told where their offer is in relation to mine. I offered the asking price.

They are having a few more viewings today, probably expecting another offer.

I don't know whether to up my offer and by how much. It seems strange to do best and final offer if there are only a couple of bidders (so far) no? And is it really final or would I have a chance to increase my bid if they accepted another offer?

I'd prob go to 5% over, but it seems a bit of a leap if there's only one other bidder who might not have offered the asking! Is this standard?

Am in a good position - FTB, mortgage in place, 40% deposit.

I’d be inclined to stay well away from anything that has the potential to turn into a bidding war like this. Are there other houses you are interested in?

Not that many houses come on within my price range in the area. I'm quite keen, but it feels odd to have no idea what I'm bidding against - if anything!

In other scenarios like this I've seen, there have been multiple competing bids, and people are told of the highest bid so far - or where is it in relation to your offer/ the asking price - before making their best and final offers.

It depends how much you want it, our current house we paid 5.5% over asking and won the house. We bid 9.5% over on another house and the winning bid was about 30% over asking 😳

Base your bid on how much you love the house and what you can afford.

I've NEVER been told what bids are in a bidding war, it defies the point surely as you just bid £1 over if there are only two of you?

We are buying in a bubble where there is a lot of competition for family houses (council allowing lots to be turned into HMOs).
There were seven bidders on best and final and only one initial and one second viewing a lot . We bid higher than asking (very good position but thought we should go to our psychological max) but were outbid by quite a significant amount.

Dreadful way to try to buy but great for vendors.
Good luck!

But not to be told whether the other bid is higher/ lower than mine, or where it is in relation to the asking price? So this is normal?

Another property I had to pull out after survey on, I was pushed up by 10k, but at least I knew roughly what I was working with.

@durian

Thanks, yes its so stressful!

This is at the bottom of the market - I don't know if it would be big enough to be a proper family house, but big enough for me and my toddler. In this case, I'm guessing the competition might come from BTL investors.

Surely if the other bid was higher than the offer they'd tell me to make sure I raise mine - argh I don't know! It is a horrible way of buying.

Offer what you feel is the right price for you and be prepared that you may have to walk away from it. I probably would withdraw my offer if someone played games like that, because I find that system rude. As for the £1 over regarding why not to say the offers on the table, a seller can set a minimum increase to avoid that.

I agree, it’s a greedy way of selling - by not being transparent they are hoping to get offers way over the asking price from potential buyers who don’t want to miss out.

I would bid what the house is worth to you and no more. Research sold (actually sold not just SSTC) prices first.

When I sold my flat years ago, there were two noted interests and I wanted the flat sold as I thought the market was changing (it was).

Went to a closing date and the highest bid was for the price I was asking; the other bid was a stupid amount under the asking price.

It doesn't mean there is genuine interest at all. Just offer what you think it is worth to you.

Arrgh God I've got to work out my offer!

House is on for 120k and could pay up to 126k - anything over 120 is basically coming out of my current account so every little counts, and the house needs some work.

I can't work out the local market at all - a cheap area but skewed by low supply. Not enough comparable stuff has sold in the area over the last few years for me to come to much of a judgement on that.

When I had this recently I was told what other offer was.

The best advice I was given was work out at what price you'd be happy for someone else to have it and that's your maximum.

Good luck!

Don’t offer any more than you’d be happy paying. Offer asking price if that’s what you’re happy paying, you don’t need to go over it.

Try and fast forward to hearing that you didn’t get it. Gutted, relieved or just meh. Base your offer on that (without ridiculously overpaying)

Estate agents aren’t allowed to tell you other bids, as far as I know. You have to just bid what you’re happy to pay. When there is low stock, it can become a sellers market.

I suggest offering an unusual amount not a straight say £125, 895 instead of £126,000 because we once bid a straight number and the winning offer was £160 more. It was our first attempt at buying but their third. I loved the house the views were amazing and I was gutted. However a year later we became friends with purchasers and were great friends until they sold up and moved then later we did. It was Scotland so always sealed bids. Bought a house in England where 3 then two and they kept bidding against us. I put final bid in nearly£4,000 over ( lot of money those days) and we got it and we are still here 30 years later. We had to do major work too.
Work out your absolute max and then what you are prepared to pay.
Have you asked estate agents? They sometimes tell you. If you knew what first bid was you might be able to gage it.

Down Udderer
They can tell you in England.
Different system in Scotland so it depends which country OP is in.

Love the name by the way😄

We had this. When viewing it was they will definitely accept asking price, maybe even a cheeky offer... house been on market for a while. Then after offer all of a sudden once we did offer there was another interested person and they wanted best and final offers. I still to this day am not convinced there was another buyer. But anyway we did offer slightly above offer because we had just lost out on another house and really did want this one. But not stupidly high. We won and have added lots to the value so no regrets but I will always wonder...

It’s not just the price though. We sold our house and it turned into a bidding war. I think we picked the 4th/5th highest one because the buyers were first time buyers happy to wait until we found where we wanted to go. It suited us better and took pressure off the situation.

This is England.

I understand the bids system if you have a dozen bidders or something. But if you only have a couple it seems a bit unnecessary. I understand not being told about people's final bids of course, but before people put final bids in, I've heard people told where the highest bid is in relation to the asking price for example.

We weren't even told formally about the best and final offers thing, only when I rang to chase up my offer. And the sixth former EA didn't seem sure what time we should put our final offers in.

I think am going to ring first thing on Monday to confirm this is indeed a former final offer scenario and see if can find out if there are any more bids, and put in offer based on that!

When you make your offer be sure to include your position-first time buyer, mortgage approved, and then add things that make you seem more appealing so offer to be flexible on timescales (you can proceed quickly if buyer want it but equally you'll be happy to wait if they need time to find their perfect next home,) and a sneaky one can be that you're willing to use estate agent solicitor/solicitor of choice - Estate agents get a commission from their solicitors so may be willing to push you as the best buyer to the vendor - - no comment on the ethics of this--

We went to best and final offers, ours was lower than some of the other bids but as we were chain free cash buyers with a flexible timescale and included proof of funds in our offer, we were then deemed the safest bet for the sale not to collapse half way through the process. So I'm basically saying rather than just offering loads of cash make yourself look serious about buying the property....

@Dragon

Thanks for the advice. I've already got solicitors in place, so don't think could do that. But I have mortgage in principle and surveyor ready to go, as I recently had to pull out of another property. But as its the bottom of the market, I think other bidders might be in an equally good situation to me? (FTBers/ BTL).

It's a landlord who is selling - its a shame the area is dominated by BTLs, whereas I would make the house a nice home for me and my DS, but I don't think a landlord would be bothered by that .