How many houses did you offer on before you were accepted?

[FupOff]

I’m feeling quite despondent today. We made our 4th house offer last week after it went to best and finals as usual, to then get a call today to say it was ‘very close’ but a higher offer was accepted. The EA can’t divulge the winning offer but knowing it was close is frustrating. The house was on for 275, we originally offered 280 and increased to our best and final of 285. It was the perfect house for us and houses coming to market in our area is slow to say the least even in the run up to Easter. I’m just wondering if I am the only one? I feel like I will be private renting forever at this rate. Or maybe it’ll be 5th time lucky for us

One. But we don’t live in an area where things tend to go to ‘best and final’ offers. We offered, they accepted.

Might be the case where you live, certainly isn’t where I am.

But you are offering under asking though. You're not at the moment facing what buyers were up to a year ago - best and final, ridiculously inflated asking prices and gazumping. It's silly to compare the market now to what it's like now. Yes, there are areas that will still go for over asking, but I'm guessing they won't go for as much as they would have done 1 year plus ago.

I have a policy of offering on every single property I view - and I tell agents this beforehand. I always make an offer that I would be willing to pay with no regrets. Sometimes a place is so far removed from what I want that my offer is low - not usually less than 50% of asking, but so low that the sole motivation for going through with the sale would be to flip it and make some money - and no-one has ever accepted my offers made in those circumstances!

But other times, I make an offer much closer to (or even above) asking and I think extremely carefully about what that property would be worth to me. There's so many variables and imponderables - distance to the bus stop or train station, number and type of shops within walking distance, the amount of greenery and the view, noise, neighbours, the 'feel' of the street, whether it feels warm and cozy, whether my most loved furniture would fit in the layout (or up the stairs). I've often thought that most of this could be done remotely if EA's particulars were better and more consistent, but viewings are essential and change my offer range by far more than the Rightmove filters do.

Doing this has one massive advantage. If any offer is rejected, I move on. I never look back - I have no regrets about any of the properties I viewed. I've never 'missed out'. And I don't try and game it either - when I view a place that I really like, I don't mess about with trying to bag a bargain by making an initial offer that's lower than I genuinely value the place at. There's quite a lot of peace of mind that comes with choosing not to worry about whether you've got a good deal, because I'm not actually looking for a deal, I'm looking for a home.

Hoorah, congratulations!