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Original poster

Help - I think I got carried away with sealed bids

72 replies

PandaLorry · 14/04/2021 06:39

We saw a house recently which we loved. In an area where the right house doesn't come up often. It was also chain free which was a huge plus for us (we were considering going into rented to avoid losing our buyer and to avoid dragging the whole process out too much for our son who will need to move schools).

Anyway, other people liked it too so it went to sealed bids and I think we went a bit crazy and offered 10% over. It was competitively priced, but it was still not a cheap house. We got it but ever since I've been feeling a bit sick and have buyers remorse.

I feel like people in the area will look at us and think we are total idiots to pay that much. It's hopefully a long term home and not a house to us and we can afford it but I still feel like a mug.

DH thinks we maybe did overpay but is just glad to get it all sorted. We have a decent amount of equity and are porting our current mortgage so surprisingly the bank just approved it on an online valuation based on the address of the property. We haven't had the survey yet.

Any advice, anyone been in this situation? Does it get better or are we idiots?

OP posts:

MaryIsA · 14/04/2021 07:33

Buyers remorse is really normal. Thing is it’ll even out over the years and start to mean very little.

We could have bargained harder for ours. It needed new plumbing, fully redecorating....but the location is great, sought after area, it had a brand new roof, and we both really liked it.

So we could have held out for 10% off, but we’d have probably lost the house.

There’ll be people who didn’t bid enough kicking themselves. And you’ll be in a nice position when you sell of having a lovely house in a great area.

BatleyTownswomensGuild · 14/04/2021 07:35

Not exactly the same situation but we paid the full asking price for a house that was clearly overpriced. We did it because we were desperate to stay in the village we loved and 3 bedroom family houses come up so rarely around here. The house was everything we needed but tired and in need of a lot of tlc.

I haven't totally made my peace with it all. It pisses me off how much work we are having to do. But my consolation is that my DS clearly loves it here.

SylvieHortensis · 14/04/2021 07:40

I reckon we overpaid by 25% when we bought our current house. I've never regretted it in the 10 years we've lived here. The owners (acquaintances) offered to sell it to us at a fixed price prior to putting it on the market. I wasn't going to risk losing it - period property in good area, no chain.

You love the house and area, can afford it and are avoiding the nightmare of the English house purchasing system - you don't sound like a mug to me just very lucky.

Enjoy your new home - we love ours!

Fleurchamp · 14/04/2021 07:40

We overpaid too. Not over asking but the asking price was aspirational (it is on the edge of the naice area that people pay a premium for and just outside the catchment for an outstanding school but they priced it as if it was).
We were at the point of having to move into rented to keep our buyer too, we would have had to rent for a year which made up the difference in price. I do feel like people will look at us like we are fools when the price comes out on Rightmove (who doesn't look, especially for their own street ) but another house down the road came on the market last week for the same price and went under offer in a few days, so maybe we weren't so silly?

Or you could do what this person did - we saw THE house last year just before lockdown, we put in an asking price offer upon leaving our first viewing. It went to sealed bids and the winner was a comfortable 15% over (we went 10% over and were a bit worried that we had overdone it). They then got a survey and renegotiated to 5% over asking FUNNY THAT I honestly believe they never intended to pay that amount but knew that once they had their offer accepted and were in the process the seller would just go with it.

It is still the one that got away but the house we have now is much bigger (same price as THE house eventually sold for)
The whole buying and selling system is horrendous in this country.

KoalaOok · 14/04/2021 07:42

Someone else might have offered 9% over or 10% over but had worse circumstances

Ivebeeninlockdowntoolong · 14/04/2021 07:43

We offered and bought our home for the asking price last year (and whammy, missed on on the stamp duty break which was gutting).

But someone else also offered the asking price and the owner chose to proceed with us because we made our offer first. We offered on viewing as I knew the house was just right for us, and the impulse offer is what secured us the house.

You don't know how close the other bids were to yours, so I wouldn't sweat but take pleasure in securing your lovely home. And in years to come that extra money spent will not matter as the value of your home will increase anyway.

userxx · 14/04/2021 07:45

It's a house that you love so you've done the right thing. All the houses around here are going above the asking price, I thought that was quite a normal thing to happen. Don't overthink it, just enjoy it.

Dingleydel · 14/04/2021 07:45

I don’t think 10% over at the moment is that much. Especially for a type of house that doesn’t come up very often. I bet you’d feel 100x more annoyed if you’d missed out. If it’s a long term home I really don’t see that it matters. Property isn’t always just a financial investment. We offered over 15% more of the asking to secure our lovely long term home (similar in that the houses rarely come on and it was priced cheaply). There was a bit of a stand off between me and dh but he wanted to go for the higher offer. I did feel like we might have gone mad for a bit, but when we moved in that melted away as we are so happy here and I know we will be here for years to come.

WorkingItOutAsIGo · 14/04/2021 07:46

I have said this elsewhere, we overpaid by 10% on a house last year and I don’t regret it one bit. Remember the asking price is just a number the estate agent thought of - the value of a house is what someone will pay. Your house is not valued at the asking price as people were prepared to pay more. You just discovered the actual value of the house through the sealed bid process.

Ours was worth it for the rarity of the house - DH has been following the market and says there hasn’t been anything comparable in the time since we bought it so we did exactly the right thing.

Onandoff · 14/04/2021 07:54

Prices rose 50% here in 10 years, so if you’re in that kind of area it will be worth a lot more over time. And it sounds like it’s going to be your long term home. A bungalow round here went for £100k over recently! It was a doer upper and needs to stay a bungalow. By the time they’ve spent the money it needs it will be £200k over the top price in the street, including houses. But the people who bought it really wanted a bungalow and they don’t come on much as there are only a handful.

TheThingsWeAdmitOnMN · 14/04/2021 07:55

You've done the right thing.

You've secured a home in a place you wanted to buy, when not much comes up for sale.

You feel a little bit sick because it's a big purchase & 10% is a decent chunk of money - but really it's not money you have, it's just 'on paper' and if you stay there 5 years, the economy is likely to 'pay' that for you 'on paper'

Not to mention the financial savings and not having the hassle of finding a place to rent and moving twice etc! Less unsettling for DS.

Push for completion before June - it should be doable without a chain.

Put the offer behind you and get on with getting excited & making plans!!

Cattitudes · 14/04/2021 08:00

Also unless you are planning to move up the ladder again you are only really talking about not making as much profit in however many years time, or possibly even your children's inheritance if this is a forever home. It is only money at the end of the day and if you will enjoy living there that is what you are paying for.

MaryIsA · 14/04/2021 08:04

Yes the work we are doing on ours will take it way over what we’ll get for it so we’ll have to stay here for ever...

Atalantea · 14/04/2021 08:07

Depends how much actual cash 10% is

DodoApplet · 14/04/2021 08:20

There's no inherent value in anything: it's worth what somebody is prepared to pay for it. You wanted it; you got it, and you're happy. No problem!

Does anyone remember "Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons"? The head of the Captain Ochre puppet came up for auction late last year: it was sold for £19,000. Whoever bought that might possibly want to ask themselves afterwards whether it was worth it - but somehow I doubt it. When you're really passionate about something, you do whatever has to be done to get it!

RainingBatsAndFrogs · 14/04/2021 08:44

For all you know you outbid the others by only £500.

You might not have even offered the most: many vendors choose proceedability over an extra couple of £k, and with your equity the EA would have known that the lender is unlikely to make fuss over minor survey details.

I paid over the asking price for my current house because the stress and knock-on costs of renting would have been considerable. I am glad I did it.

Onesundaymorning · 14/04/2021 08:53

We were in your exact position two years ago. We knew we were paying more but there was a lot of interest in the house and we would have lost out if we hadn't.

Living here is worth every penny (location, light, garden, space) and the house has appreciated in value anyway, regardless of the sale price. Sometimes, a house is just the right fit and that's worth a premium, in my opinion.

Original poster

PandaLorry · 14/04/2021 08:55

I paid over the asking price for my current house because the stress and knock-on costs of renting would have been considerable. I am glad I did it.

This was a huge factor for us, along with loving the house of course. It is reassuring that others felt the same!

OP posts:

SylvieHortensis · 14/04/2021 09:03

Come on, OP - how much was the 10% in £s?

We're nosey!

Original poster

PandaLorry · 14/04/2021 09:16

Haha, not saying sorry. Not an insignificant amount by anyone's standards though!

OP posts:

1990s · 14/04/2021 09:21

Would it help if you knew you'd offered £999 and the next sealed bid was £997?

Because that may well have been the case.

neverenoughchelseaboots · 14/04/2021 09:27

As selllers, we were the victims of buyers remorse after sealed bids from a very competitive sale.

The buyer then tried to reduce the offer over the coming weeks.

We didn't entertain it and went with another buyer who paid over 98% of the original offer.

So my advice would be don't assume you're the only ones with a high price and be careful about trying to recoup any of it.

SylvieHortensis · 14/04/2021 09:45

@PandaLorry

Haha, not saying sorry. Not an insignificant amount by anyone's standards though!

Aww c'mon Panda - don't be a spoilsport

PM me i won't tell

NailsNeedDoing · 14/04/2021 09:48

If you hadn’t got the house you’d be worrying instead that you should have offered more, and you have the disappointment of missing out. This way is much better.

squarespecs · 14/04/2021 10:02

I offered far more than that over the asking price, having lost out on several.
Thirty years later I'm in the same house and it feels like a bargain!

I could have offered less and lost this house too. What good would that have done?

I know that some of my more recent neighbours have paid well over for houses that need a lot of renovation, but they regard them as a long term home so it's worth it.

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