Just submitted a sealed bid / best and final offer

[ZimZamZoom]

We sold our previous house last month and have been living with family whilst we look for a new house.
A fantastic house appeared on Rightmove last Wednesday and I booked to view it on Saturday. EA said 5 viewings the day before and at least 10 were booked for this Saturday. Because of this, it's going to sealed bids. These had to be submitted by 3pm today and we'll find out the vendors choice as soon as they decide.
I'm so nervous! It's the best house we've seen since about November last year. It's perfect and would be our home for at least the next 20 to 30 years.

We went £10k over asking and included the fact that were chain free, local, happy to move to the vendors time frame etc etc.
We had to include screenshots of proof of AIP and even proof of deposit, which is new to me.

Not sure why I'm posting here! Other than a handhold from more experienced folk. Thanks for reading.

Good luck! Hope your offer is accepted!!

Thank you

You sound like a ideal buyer! Fingers crossed.

Thanks. Everything is crossed here! I'm just worried we misjudged the amount or a full cash buyer is also in the running. I can't handle the nerves!

We lost out this time. We offered £10k over asking, as I mentioned, but it went for £20k over asking
Onwards and upwards I guess.

We just had almost exactly the same. Offered 20 over the asking - it went for 100 over the asking . Ours was sealed bids in at 3 yesterday too. Feeling your pain!

@Lostmarbles2021
Wow!! I wonder what will happen when the mortgage lenders do their valuation though? It may well come back to market at some point.
Totally crazy market atm.
I hope you find somewhere else suitable v soon

we had to offer £45k over asking on our house but mortgage valuation came back and said it was worth 3k more than we are paying (think that was to round it up as we offered an odd number).

It might do but there are lots of people buying here coming from London who have vast amounts of equity compared to the prices here - so they have possibly bought it outright with no mortgage.

We will keep trying! Good luck all.

I recently offered over £20k over the asking price - it went for £50k over!

In Dublin lately a house went for €500,000 above asking
But auctioneers in Ireland are notorious for telling clients to put a low guide price on their house to entice gullible housebuyers in. If you offered the guide price no way in hell would it be accepted !

So many going over the asking price.
In Scotland we have the home report value, anything offered over this the buyer pays themselves ie cannot be mortgaged. Is this the same elsewhere?

@thinkningaboutit no, the bank will do a valuation and lend up to the value it thinks the property is worth, so you can still have a mortgage for the amount you've offered over the asking price.

Maybe houses prices wouldn't get so crazy if it came out of your pocket instead

It's tough isn't it? We lost out on a few that went to sealed bids but I never offered much over asking or because I think that you can very swept up in things and end up massively overpaying. If you lose it something else will come along.

We had to £50k over to secure dream home. We only need 35% mortgage though

OP I'm really sorry to hear you lost out. Everyone else too!

It looks like we are about to be in a sealed bid situation. We were first to make an asking price offer, but after block viewings there are now several on the table (not sure how many in total). We're in a good position (only one other person in our chain, who's buying in cash). These houses are vanishingly rare in our location. It's VERY expensive for what it is due to the location but we reckon still worth it to us as we want to live there long term. The crazy market and inflated prices does worry me a bit, though.

Can I ask where you are all in the country, in relation to the values of the winning bids in each case? We are in leafy South East, very attractive to people leaving London. We've been here for a decade and it's really hard to secure a family home as there's so much competition now.

Any advice from those who have been successful? We were considering going £50k over but know someone buying a much more expensive house (asking £1.5m) who won the bid by going £15k over. Now we have no idea how to pitch it!

The best advice is to bid the maximum sum you could afford and the house is worth to you. You could bid £100,000 and lose it, and regret it as you could have bid £10,000 more and got it, or bid £10,000 over and regret it. No house is worth an exact sum: it’s what it’s worth to you that matters.

So we bought recently and bid over £100,000 more than asking and I winced at it, but my DH was right, to us it was worth it and we have been so happy every day.

Thanks @workingItOutAsIGo! Can I ask, did you get to know what the next highest bid was? I can imagine if we go to the highest we can possibly tolerate and then find we miles above the other offers there might be a little remorse we're comfortably off but we do need to work to pay the mortgage and fund improvements (compared to friends who have big inheritances/bonus pots and £50k is less of a big deal).

Can I ask roughly where you are in the country? I'm trying to get a feel for norms, if there are any...

Everyday - no we didn’t partly as I am not sure the agent is allowed to tell you but mostly because there is no upside in knowing. We got the house, we could afford to pay what we paid, and maybe our vendors got a little extra or they got a lot extra - neither matters because what matters is we have the house! But if we hadn’t got it it would have been fine too - you have to offer that amount in the sweet spot where a pound less and you would kick yourself for bot getting the house, and a pound more and you would kick yourself for overpaying...not easy, and only you can know where the sweet spot is for you.

Thanks Working that makes sense. Pricing is, fundamentally, psychological. If we win I may insist DH does't ask about the other bids - ignorance is bliss

Thank you @EverydayCook. I think @WorkingItOutAsIGo has it right. It's just about deciding what the house is worth to you and then going as high as you're happy to go.
We ummed and ahhed but, after the initial disappointment of missing out, I can see we never would've bid £20k over, so I'm at peace with it now!
I asked the EA what the winning bid was and he told me; not sure of the etiquette around that tbh. I am glad we didn't just miss out by £500 or something like that though.
We're in Bedfordshire btw.

[quote IsItAllOverYetPlease]@thinkningaboutit no, the bank will do a valuation and lend up to the value it thinks the property is worth, so you can still have a mortgage for the amount you've offered over the asking price.

Maybe houses prices wouldn't get so crazy if it came out of your pocket instead[/quote]
I see, that makes sense. So if the bank value for less than you've offered are you still able to proceed but just make up the shortfall yourself?

In Scotland you need deposit, lbtt (stamp duty), and solicitor fees. Then what you've offered over home report comes out your own pocket too. Very regularly goes over home report in parts of Edinburgh and West End of Glasgow. It makes it very difficult for first time buyers.

Good luck moving forward @ZimZamZoom
Sealed bids/closing dates are tough.