To Offer More?

[johnworf]

We have sold our house STC and our buyer is a FTB. We are also buying cash as we are downsizing so in a good position.

We have put an offer on a house that is perfect for us. Our offer is £20k above asking as we know there is a lot of interest in the property. I've just spoken to the estate agent who tells me that final viewings are tomorrow and that one person has put in a slightly higher offer than us. However, these people are yet to sell their house. He says it will go to best and final offers.

I am now panicking slightly as we would hate to lose this house - we've lost out on 4 previous houses already. Should we offer slightly more to better the offer above ours or not bother as we are in a better position to buy and hopefully the vendors will see this?

Help!

I wouldn't. You're already £20k over, presumably you think it's a good offer. The others aren't proceedable. You'd be paying even more on the basis of opposition you know isn't as strong.

And even though this isn't the point of B&F - if the others do "win", you can still go straight back and up your offer.

Thanks Lady Applejack

That's what I thought but the panic took over that we are going to lose this one as well. We need to find somewhere soon as our sale is going through and we don't want to lose our buyers.

The way I think of it is, if they told you tomorrow the other buyers had been successful and had offered X, would you be gutted and wish you’d offered more.

We loved a house we put an above asking price offer on but at £25k over asking we withdrew and I’m happy we didn’t pay for it what the other buyers ended up paying.

That same day the house we did buy went on the market and we ended up paying £40k over to make sure we secured it (against 30 other interested buyers). Some people might think we’re stupid but we absolutely love the house and the price we paid was still under budget for us so we’re very happy with it.

Estate agents are vermin though..
When we sold ours we had an offer we were happy with; they called and said ‘before you accept are you absolutely sure you don’t want me to call and squeeze a few more grand out of them?’

startuplife I would be gutted to lose this one. It is perfect for us and I would be willing to offer more so that we can move into it.

sexismdoesntrule aren't they just? Hate them.

How much is the house. £20k is a piece of string number, OP, unless we know the asking price. If the house is £200k, then 10% over is already a decent number so sit tight. If it’s £500k, then expect to be outbid if it’s a popular location.

sst1234 it's offer over £170k so we've offered just over 10%

I was a cash buyer recently, made a good offer but the seller went with a higher offer from buyers who needed a mortgage.

I asked the agent to come back to me if the sale didnt progress and six weeks later they contacted me to say the buyers couldnt proceed. So if you're unlucky it may be worth asking the agent to keep in touch.

That sounds like a good offer. Hope you get the house.

@Sexismdoesntrule

Estate agents are vermin though..

No, they're not. They work in your interest to get the highest price. All you had to do was to say "no thanks".

What’s wrong with that? They are working for you not for the buyers. It’s their job to try to get you the best price possible

We offered £80k over to secure one. You pay what you can afford if you’ve lost out on 4 already….