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Original poster

Best and final - how high do people actually go?

49 replies

EasterChick98 · 07/04/2021 17:11

We're buying in an area which is meant to be a seller's market at the moment. Obviously some of this could be estate agents talking things up, but certainly the rightmove listings do seem to back this. All the decent properties seem to be under offer within a couple of weeks.

We've been told to expect to go to 'best and final' if we see a place we like. This is all new to us. On our last two properties we were the only bidder and we got both for slightly under asking price.

What I want to know is...how high do people actually go when placing best and final offers? Is there any ballpark of what's normal? 10k over? 50k? 100k?!

For context, this is in the SE and for properties around the 700-800k mark.

Thanks in advance for any help!

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Original poster
EasterChick98 · 08/04/2021 09:11

@giggythepomeranian I think there will be a lot of horses in the race tbh, it's just the market we are buying in. A few years ago it was similar and we were the same as you, we didn't want to get involved in any bidding wars but that was pre-DC and we were in no rush to move. It's a bit trickier now.

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GiggyThePomeranian · 08/04/2021 09:21

@EasterChick98 yes actually, as soon as I posted it I thought we are obviously in two different markets anyway as we’re midlands and things are crazy but not SE crazy so ignore that part. We were really lucky when our sellers cancelled all the other viewings after two asking price offers. We were desperate to move, we completed three days before DD3 was born Grin
If there’s going to be loads of horses and it’s the one, we’d max ourselves out and send a little letter alongside so we could say we did all we could if we didn’t get it.

Caroline147 · 08/04/2021 09:34

We had lost out on two houses at best and final after offering £5k over asking price. We’re now in the process of buying a house where we offered £15k over - we went to the maximum that we’d be happy to pay after losing out on the others! Good luck, it is a really stressful market for buyers right now

Original poster
EasterChick98 · 08/04/2021 10:21

@caroline147 congrats on securing a property! I'm sure in the long term you'll be glad you went that bit over. Do you mind me asking what the asking price was (roughly)?

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garlictwist · 08/04/2021 11:50

Never get carried away and offer far more than the house is worth. A friend did that and paid ridiculously over the odds for her house and regrets it.

We went to best and final on our current house. We offered 3k over asking price and we got it. This was because we had a good deposit and were renting so chain free.

We wouldn't have gone over that anyway as it was top of our budget and the area we live in is pretty cheap and I don't think the house would hold its value.

DblEspresso · 08/04/2021 18:14

We are buying as well but our offers are with reference to recently transacted prices that we can see in the land registry records and sticking to our budget.
We wouldn't want to get into a bidding war to pay over the odds and then be in a financially tight situation for a long time paying off the mortgage.

Panda368 · 08/04/2021 18:42

We've just sold with best and final. Also in sellers market that is currently bonkers.
There was a pretty big range of offers which was interesting - 7 in the end ranging from £500 over asking to 24k over asking. For context the house was listed at 225. It was pretty eye openeing seeing it from the sellers side shortly after we had been out bid a few days earlier in a best and final.

Our agents advise to us in the situation was to go high in the bids, then drop the offer based on surveys later on once the other competition had gone. It still doesnt sit very nicely with me as a tactic

irisetta · 08/04/2021 18:53

Last year we offered 50k over on a 650k house, but we knew it was a burning hot property - apparently they had 13 offers in end! We knew it would be tight but really thought we might get it with a 700k offer, being FTBs... sadly we were pipped to the post by a cash buyer who offered 10k less, but obviously was more proceedable! There was no way we were offering more than 700k though - beautiful house in a lovely location but in desperate need of an extension...

Cruddles · 08/04/2021 19:13

We saw a house we knew was about to have an offer on it, as the agent said you've got 2 hours to view it or its going, this was on a Wednesday lunchtime. Managed to see it but it was on at £675k (this is in London), we couldn't afford that but it in an offer of £660k, not expecting anything back. Agent surprised us by calling and asking us for a best and final offer.

We offered £666k, to @notdaddycool 's point, £665k was already pushing it but we figured go slightly higher than the 5k increment, and it worked. Other offer was £665k, so we got it by £1k. We're now in a stupidly long chain that is expecting to close before stamp duty holiday ends, fingers crossed

TinyGlassOwl · 08/04/2021 19:41

We've just lost yet another house on best and finals. Don't know how much the winning bidder offered but we went around 5% over asking which - imo - is more than enough but obviously someone else had more money to chuck at it.

You can only offer what the property is worth to you. And remember there will always be another house!

Having said that though, DH and I have just had a conversation about how we maybe need to be a bit more spendy, because over the course of a mortgage is an extra 5-10k on top of what would be your b&f offer really that big a deal? But it's a tough call and we don't want to start getting panicky and making daft offers.

seepingweeping · 08/04/2021 20:25

In my area you can expect to go 15-20% over the home report.

£300K house is actually going for anywhere between £345K and £360K and some go even more than that.

If a house is fixed price then the seller wants it sold quickly.

That's how it tends to work here anyway.

DblEspresso · 08/04/2021 20:47

How does paying 10% to 20% over asking work for people. If they have a budget of 500K do they look at 400-450K range houses and then hope to get those in their 500K budget.
Or they have a 500K budget, look for 475-525K range houses and then end up offering 550-600K ?

PurBal · 08/04/2021 20:51

A friends house sold for 10% over.

PurBal · 08/04/2021 20:53

@DblEspresso

How does paying 10% to 20% over asking work for people. If they have a budget of 500K do they look at 400-450K range houses and then hope to get those in their 500K budget. Or they have a 500K budget, look for 475-525K range houses and then end up offering 550-600K ?
Our budget was £350, so we looked at stuff up to £325. Fortunately they accepted an under asking offer.
CatAndHisKit · 09/04/2021 02:09

Our agents advise to us in the situation was to go high in the bids, then drop the offer based on surveys later on once the other competition had gone. It still doesnt sit very nicely with me as a tactic

That's a weird, unprofessional agent - they aer supposed to work for the seller, not advise buyers on underhand tactics. Unless you aer a friend Grin
And what if the survey doesn;t show any issues? You (and the agent) would feel a bit silly! Also in a hot market mot buyers would ask agent to contact the other bidders if there is nothing unexpected on survey.

CatAndHisKit · 09/04/2021 02:10

most sellers in the lat sentence, not buyers.

Panda368 · 09/04/2021 06:24

@CatAndHisKit

Our agents advise to us in the situation was to go high in the bids, then drop the offer based on surveys later on once the other competition had gone. It still doesnt sit very nicely with me as a tactic

That's a weird, unprofessional agent - they aer supposed to work for the seller, not advise buyers on underhand tactics. Unless you aer a friend Grin
And what if the survey doesn;t show any issues? You (and the agent) would feel a bit silly! Also in a hot market mot buyers would ask agent to contact the other bidders if there is nothing unexpected on survey.

This was our agents advise - not the sellers agent.

I think if you have offered way over the odds the valuation will likely pull things down a bit if the survey doesnt. And often once you get to the point of getting survey reports back you are usually a month or so down the line and i auppose would be banking on the sellers not wanting to start again from scratch.

It isnt something we are planning to do. Although nervous that our buyer might

Andthenanothercupoftea · 09/04/2021 08:18

We wanted to view a house that disappeared within a week. It was on the market for £315k and went for over £350k!!! (EA wouldn't give us the exact figure) They said it "went a bit mad"...

Have mini fantasies about mine going for 10% over and the mortgage payment savings on the next house (we've done all our budgets based on it going for 12.5% under!)

BakeOffRewatch · 09/04/2021 11:03

I’m going to see a very low priced probate house today. It went crazy with viewings. It’s being sold through an asset management company so I think in this case best really does mean highest. Anyone have experience of offering on probate houses sold through a company (rather than directly by the family which can be very emotional)?

Bluesheep8 · 09/04/2021 11:31

We went with the highest price we were willing to pay to get the house, so that if we didn't win it we wouldn't regret not putting a higher offer in. Basically what it is worth to us.

Exactly this. Our offer was £168k, asking price was £159k.

Original poster
EasterChick98 · 09/04/2021 18:59

How does paying 10% to 20% over asking work for people. If they have a budget of 500K do they look at 400-450K range houses and then hope to get those in their 500K budget. Or they have a 500K budget, look for 475-525K range houses and then end up offering 550-600K ?

We could go up to about 950 if we had to but are hoping to get something cheaper so are looking at houses from 700 upwards. And it means there's quite a lot of flexibility for us to bid over if we needed to (assuming we don't offer something so ridiculous that the bank won't agree to it, as we still need a mortgage).

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DblEspresso · 09/04/2021 20:14

@EasterChick98 That is a lot of flexibility you have. Because the houses from 700K to 950K range in a specific area would have a huge difference. From a terrace/semi to detached, extra rooms, bigger garden etc. Did you not have a target type of house in mind when you started house hunting ?

mobear · 09/04/2021 20:32

This happened to us a couple of times over the last year, in London, but we never went over asking. A lot of properties seem to be falling through at the moment too, so if you don't get it the first time you might get it the second time around. There were at least three occasions when agents contacted me regarding properties we had seen and liked which had 'sold' but then come back onto the market (but mostly 'off market', i.e. they weren't advertising it was available again).

Original poster
EasterChick98 · 09/04/2021 20:35

@dblespresso there just aren't enough houses in the area we are looking at to allow us to be that specific, unfortunately. At the lower end of the budget we could get something smaller and extend it, or get something which needs work. And at the top end we'd have to get something pretty much perfect as we would have no money left over Grin

When we bought our first flat we were very choosy and it took us literally years to find the perfect place in the right location at the right price, but I feel like we can't do that now as we'll be in a chain and won't want to lose our buyer plus I don't want to drag out the disruption for my DC.

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