If you had a few offers on a property you were selling

[AnxietyForever]

How did you choose who to sell to?

We're putting a offer in tomorrow on a house and I know it's had a few offers already. Estate agents are wanting all offers in before Friday and then the owners are choosing.

Can we write a supporting letter on why it should be us etc? Or is that not how it's done? We're first time buyers.

Any help would be appreciated

• length of chain
• realistic finances
• offer amount
• gut feeling/questions asked about the property after viewing

I'd choose a balance between whoever was in the best position and the amount offered. Being a FTB wouldn't necessarily be a plus for me, because they are easily spooked and can be quite anal. Somebody writing a letter would show me they were serious and go-getting: ie. the sort of buyer I would want.

Is it set to closing date? When ours went to closing we were only given the offer price and the proposed date of entry. No other details were shared with us to help us make a decision.

I’d take the best clean offer ( not subject to a survey or mortgage ).

Failing that I’d go for the most secure financially.

Don’t write a letter - it’s not personal, it’s a business transaction. Just offer the amount of money it’s worth to you, make sure your finances are all sorted and that your solicitor mentions all the relevant factors.

I wouldn’t care about a letter. It’s a business transaction and not emotional

Best to proceed,
Highest offer
Not known to be messing folks about and put in previous offers then pulled out.

Past that, sorry your personal circumstances or why you wish the house would be irrelevant to me.

Being a FTB will stand you in good stead. Other than that, you’ll have to trust the universe that if it’s meant to be it will be.

It’s really hard not to get emotionally attached and spend your days daydreaming about living there and what you’ll do to it, but there will always be more houses.

Wouldn’t bother with the letter unless the EA has indicated that the sellers are looking to making an emotional decision.

Recently booked a viewing where it had been a family home for two generations and the vendor was vetting who they’d even allowed to view it as they were adamant that they would not sell to an investor and only wanted to show it to young couples who intended for it to be their family home for a long time. In those circumstances a letter might have been what got your offer accepted.

I’d write a letter. Can’t hurt. Some families would much rather sell to another family if price is the same. If they’ve worked hard on the house and have an emotional attachment etc......

It's not normal practice to write a letter so I wouldn't.

I would go for a chain free buyer over a buyer with something to sell as their sale could fall through. So a FTB would put you at an advantage there.

I would also favour those with a larger deposit so less likely to be mortgage issues.

I had FTB pull out over a non-issue before and then BTL investor bought no issue so I am a bit wary of FTB but many will favour as no chain. Things that would reassure me are anything giving me an impression you understand the realities of property ownership like our buyers said they had owned a Victorian property before and understood there would be constant work to do. But this sort of thing is very marginal and most people don't say anything. Someone saying they will proceed quickly would be a positive and then following that up with action - a solicitor and survey arranged as soon as the estate agent has given you the all clear to proceed after financial checks (normally a day or two after offer agreed). Ideally someone who won't negiotate down after a survey but I would be wary of promising that though all promises are worthless to exchange - anyone can do what they like pre exchange as no-one is legally committed until then.

I would also be careful not to overpay, some people get so focused on winning they lose sight of what the house is worth. Good luck.

I wanted a clean sale rather than highest price, most people do.

Outline your position and where you can be flexible (faster or slower exchange & completion)

Don't fart about with 3 viewings and tyre kicking if you like it: go in, view, make a sensible offer the same day or next date

I find the letter thing weird and twee personally

We went for the highest offer that looked like it would be the least complicated- they were first time buyers with a mortgage already arranged. They offered £3k less than another offer, but the other people were in a chain and having had the sale fall through previously right before exchange as the chain below us collapsed, we didn't want to take that risk again. If we'd had two cash buyers who offered the same, maybe a letter from one of them may have swung things. It can't do any harm!

@Rodent01

I’d write a letter. Can’t hurt. Some families would much rather sell to another family if price is the same. If they’ve worked hard on the house and have an emotional attachment etc......

Very very rare, in fact guaranteed not to be, that all is equal. Someone is always offering more or in a better position. And likely everyone has a story to tell.

It’s beyond pointless. I’ve never seen anyone saying gosh I will forego a few grand or take a risk. Because they wrote me a letter. Ever.

Money is what talks.

Shortest, most solid chain after that I wouldn't give a shiny sh*t and would consider a letter to be manipulative.

I git letters when my house went to best and finals. And unless, like poster above says, the sellers are after a particular buyer, I wouldn't bother with it. It didn't make any difference to me. I wanted the buyer who was in the best position to proceed with the right amount- not necessarily the highest offer.
Got three offers, one under the ask, one £45k above, one £80k above. The middle one were well underway in selling their home with same agent, those who offered the most were still marketing their house. I went with the middle.

I know someone who got a house easier, as they had gone through a financial advisor who they knew, and could verify things, including their finances, to the sellers.

We did have one seller who acted emotionally.

It was an elderly lady selling her family home and downsizing. She had an offer in and hadn’t accepted. It was below asking.We requested a viewing and were told this. The agent says she wants the viewing to go ahead then she will make the decision.

We then went to see the property. We were late twenties, with our toddler daughter. Nicely dressed, professional. Very nice to her, told her it was lovely etc. Came out and put an offer in.

The agent phoned later and said “ she’s went for the other family, I’m sorry” when I asked why as we’d clearly out bid, he told us she preferred the others because they were much older, sixties,, so decided to sell to them. I was quite annoyed to be honest, as she’d proper wasted our time. Apparently she felt she had more in common with them.

But no amount of letters in the world would have changed it.

We had three offers. First was £5k under, no chain and sneery in viewing ; I didn't want to sell to him. Second was £7.5k under, FTB who were still applying for their MIP. They were very positive about the house and we haggled up to £3.5k under - I would have sold to them had the absolutely lovely, enthusiastic couple not turned up and offered £15k over, no chain and finances all arranged.

So, even though it should be all business, it may not be for the seller. They may love their home and want to sell it to someone else who would appreciate it. I'd write the letter (but keep it brief)!

Emotions did come into the last time we sold. We chose the people we liked best and who were the most enthusiastic about our house or maybe that should say I did! I never told husband about a higher offer as I didn't get a good vibe from the person turns out the person was known to the estate agents for messing sellers about so my instinct was right.

Al those saying it’s a business transaction and not emotional, even if everything is done via solicitors a buyer can make things difficult.
I turned down the best offer (over asking price) from a guy who was a PITA, nothing dramatic but just annoying. I didn't relish having any further dealings with him and the EA agreed with me!

OP, I am selling my late Mum's house at the moment. We had four offers. One of the potential buyers wrote us a letter detailing everything that was wrong with the house and why that meant that their offer was fair and should be accepted. They were the highest offer.

They TOTALLY misread the room. This is a much loved family home, being sold due to an unexpected bereavement, to pay for my Dad's care home fees. I was so, so upset by their letter than I went for the next couple down. The irony being, they then fell through and a new offer came in higher than the letter writers, which we accepted. I told the estate agents to tell the letter writers that we would never sell to them and that has remained the case. I know it's an emotional reaction, I know it wasn't commercially based, but they were so upsetting I couldn't countenance selling to them. So be very careful about writing to the sellers... it could be the final nail in the coffin!

Thanks for all the input, I don't think I'll write to the owners moving forward but I will tell the estate agents how much we like it etc.

Unfortunately we didn't get to see the owners so they wouldn't have got any vibe off of us, it was the estate agent who showed us around.

A couple of sentences at the end of our offer email to the agent were helpful in our case; after buying we happened to meet the seller and they said they had wanted to sell to a family so that the house could be enjoyed as a family home again.

I think if there are multiple similar offers, a couple of sentences in the offer email to the agent might help and are unlikely to hurt. Some sellers will have a preference who lives in their house next, and you may seem more committed if you have good reasons to move.

I'd be wary of writing a full letter as that could be divisive, some sellers might like it and others might be put off.

NC because outing, but I can relay our experience as a buyer, which resulted in our being the winning bidder on a house from a field of seven bidders despite (according to the estate agent) our not having made the highest monetary offer.

The best advice I can give is this: try to speak directly with the sellers, and take that as an opportunity to find out what they want, and to build their confidence in you as buyers.

In our case, the estate agent had us that they wanted to sell quickly, but from speaking with the owners, we worked out that they wanted a relatively quick exchange in order to get financial certainty for themselves, but they also wanted more time before having to move out. The estate agent either hadn’t listened to them or wanted a fast completion in order to get their commission faster. Knowing what the owners wanted gave us a huge advantage over any other bidders who had only listened to the estate agent.

Since we were chain-free, we were able to offer them a «long stop completion» , and we ended up agreeing a completion date more than three months after the exchange. There was some risk for us to that, but we could afford to take it, and we trusted the sellers to take reasonable care of the house between exchange and completion, plus we were doing a complete refurb anyway so any cosmetic damages would have been a non-issue.

We did also write a letter, at the request of the estate agent, and we think that may also have helped us to win the house. But most importantly, we sought out the sellers when that was possible during a viewing, we listened to them, and then we gained their trust that we could and would stand behind our offer. With 1 in 3 house transactions falling through, that had real value to the sellers.

I have heard the poster who would have been put off by a letter, but I should think it would help with most sellers, provided it sticks to elements that support your capability and your motivation to follow through with your offer. We wrote about being chain-free buyers so not dependent on another house sale, with a large deposit so very low financing risk, able to offer huge flexibility around the timing of both exchange and completion, and being highly motivated to move to that specific area due to our children’s school locations. It worked!

After all of our various experiences with London estate agents, both on the lettings side and on the purchasing side, I have become ever more convinced that the best approach is to speak directly with the principals (either sellers or buyers) as a better way to get truth and transparency. The estate agents have so many other houses to deal with, and are likely to forget important details about what the sellers want, plus they are sometimes, er, economical with the truth ... Meanwhile, your written offer, with the details you choose to include in it, should get handed over without modification to the sellers.

@AnxietyForever, sorry cross-post, just saw you did not meet the buyers. If you have until Friday, then maybe tell the agent you are definitely putting in an offer, and would like another viewing if at all possible in order to help you finalise the amount? Then, if you are lucky you might still meet the owners. Even if you don’t, you can ask the agent, during the viewing, what the owners are like, whether they already have another place lined up or need time to find one, etc. and see whether you learn anything that could help to shape elements of your offer beyond the price.

This might be bad advice I suppose, and others should correct me if that would usually be a bad idea. But in our case we ended up doing 2-3 viewings including one with a builder, and that also gave us the extra time with the owners including a chance to build rapport, and I think it really helped.

I’d do a letter. Can you imagine how you’d feel if the EA came back and said another offer had a letter and that was the deciding factor?