How do estate agents handle bidding wars?

[Megapops]

How do estate agents handle multiple offers on a property? Just curious. Anything to be aware of?

We're in the process of selling a flat and we've had offers from 2 first time buyers this week. Both offers a little under asking price. Does each potential buyer get told what other offers are? Our current flat was bought new so didn't go through all this. Bit concerned about how our estate agent has handled our property listing so far and obviously looking to get the best price for our home and not lose buyers.

They go for the biggest commission

Sometimes they tell you what the other offer is. Some people are put off by being in a bidding war so may withdraw. Some ask them all for a best and final offer and details of their situation as you may prefer someone more able to proceed with a lower offer than someone else.

We've been in lots of bidding wars (because we kept losing out!) We've never been told exactly what the other offers are, but sometimes you do get some information. Never sure if it's true obviously because it's from an estate agent.
Things we were told include:
-our offer was highest, but there was a lot of interest (presumably true, as we lost out)

• our offer wasn't highest
• they couldn't say whether our offer was highest, but there were others in a similar ballpark
• we would have to up by a fair amount to be in consideration (again, presumably true as we did up a fair amount as we really liked the house, and didn't get it!)

We had multiple offers so our estate agent advised us to go with best and final bids. The highest offer won but only after our agent checked them out. If they hadn't been in a position to move with mortgage offer already in place our agent wouldn't have recommended we accept their offer.

We were told someone else had offered the same and we knocked back, then we were told someone had offered more and would we up our offer - which we did but we’re still outbid, they asked us to up our offer and we refused. The house sstc, but was out back on the market four days later and is still for sale… so the bidding war didn’t work or something came up very quickly in those four days to make it non proceeding.

When it’s multiple offers on the table they’ve always taken it to best and final with me plus getting you to fill out an enquiry on your position.

But they never tell you what another person has offered. All a tactic to get buyers to stretch themselves.

I'm in Scotland so it sounds like it's different here. If there's a lot of interest they set a closing date. Sealed bids must be in by then. Highest wins

We sold a flat a few years ago that went to sealed bids. We had several interested parties so they were told to present their "best & final offers".

As sellers, the EA invited us to come into their office to discuss the bids. He went through them all with us, including the amount bid and any additional information supplied such as the position of the people bidding.

We made the decision which bid to accept so it wasn't up to the EA to decide which one he wanted based on his commission etc. We chose a FTB who seemed very genuine about wanting to live there over someone we suspected to be a property investor as he rather cynically tried to cheat the system by offering "1k over the next highest bidder" so we didn't actually pick the highest offer.

The "winning" bidder was told they offered the second highest amount but not how much exactly all the other bids had been. I think it's common for bidders to be given a rough idea - such as you were close or the property went for way over what you bid - but not to be given exact amounts.

If you are the seller then they tell you and you decide . They don't get to choose who you sell to!

They will advise you the best option but ultimately it's down to you

If there are lots of offers then they might suggest sealed bids but otherwise you can go back to both and say there are two offers , can you offer more to secure it ?

I choose who to sell my house to every time I've sold !

It's really interesting to know they don't disclose the other offers, and just say aim higher if you're not on top. Thanks for that. We have one super keen (verified) cash buyer - they're not the top bid and we've asked them to bump up their offer by £10k (still under asking price, but we're satisfied to sell to a cash buyer for a potentially quicker sale). EA seems useless though and got the buyers mixed up at one point. We're keen to move as we've found a house we love and don't want to lose anyone through bad management!

I wonder if the agents ever get a little sweetener from a bidder? We bid for a house (the one that got away) once in sealed bids, had 50% cash, mortgage arranged, FTB no chain and wrote a note about raising our children there. Got beaten by a suspected 100% cash buyer and the recorded sale price was a good £5k lower than our offer.

In my experience estate agents are up there with car salesmen, absolute aresholes!

They nearly lost my sale, I’d agreed a price with a viewer, quite happy that they were in a good position to buy, we exchanged numbers to keep in touch. The prospective purchaser contacted me that the agents were engaging them into bidding frenzy. I was bloody furious with them. In the end I insisted that my handler at the agents to be changed and to back off and honour the offer I’d accepted. Thankfully it went through ok.

The same agents are now forcing potential buyers to use their Buyers Information Pack for £590. The solicitors do the searches etc for a fraction of this price, and they’re not impressed by this behaviour. Somehow they’re getting away with it, even though the 1979 estate agents act doesn’t seem to deter them. A friend made an offer on one of their properties and wasn’t allowed to proceed because they refused to take the BIP (buyers information pact). They didn’t bother and told them to get stuffed, not good for the seller who was never notified about the offer.

Mine asked for best and final offers by a certain time/date (end of the week) and then produced a report that detailed each offer and each prospective buyers position, I then had to make a decision from this. It was good because my decision wasn’t just based on the offer amount but things like how much deposit or timescales etc.