Asked to give a best final offer, is this common?

[Specksofwhiteallaround]

DH and I are first time buyers nd have just started looking and viewing homes in the past two weeks. We viewed a house that was asking £325k on Friday, the photos were a bit misleading and the house needs a lot of decorating (door frames were peeling, they’d plastered over what look like a couple of large holes in a couple of rooms and not painted over them, bit of damp in a cupboard and the stair carpet had been shredded by their cat, that sort of thing.), and it needs two new doors, a single plus french doors, plus some windows replacing. The house is very over priced, no other house on the street has gone for more than £280k and some were bigger and done up to a higher standard. We decided that it would suit our family but it wasn’t worth the asking price so offered £285 thinking that if they negotiated up to £300 that would be acceptable, we wouldn’t be upset if we didn’t get it.

We got a message from the agent the next day saying that they had passed on our offer but let us know that another offer had been made. Thirty minutes later we got another email saying that due to the interest they want us to give our best and last offer on the property by midday on Wednesday. I was a bit surprised by this, I had assumed if more than one offer was made they would decline or negotiate each offer, this sort of feels like they’re using the power of FOMO to get us to over offer on what it’s worth.

Is this a common thing for sellers/agents to do? Has anyone had any experience of this?

Not unusual. Estate agent is just trying to get the maximum amount of money for the seller and for themselves via commission.
Just agree a price you are happy with and put that in.
Of course, there's a chance there's no other buyer and the estate agent is lying. Less likely but not impossible.

We had it on our house we were selling it went for over the asking price and the market was hot plus not many houses like ours. We ended up with 9 offers. Chose the one that suited us

Yes quite common. Just say what you are willing to pay and you either win or you don't. At least you will quickly know where you stand.

Not unusual. We had two offers from people in equal situations (both first time buyers needing a mortgage), so the estate agent went back to them both asking for best and final. One of them raised their offer, we accepted.

We’d got both offers on the same day, if they’d both stuck to their offer, we’d have had to just pick one randomly. But we certainly weren’t going to do that before asking whether either were willing to pay a bit more.

This

As others, yes, done this before both as a buyer and seller.

I liked it as a seller as it made it far easier to sort through multiple bids, not just on price but proceedable position etc.

As a buyer it should stop all the tedious back and forth, which feels like a game of 'who will get bored quickest' to me

Yes it’s hard as they don’t tell you what the other offer is.

We had this when we were buying. There were two other offers so they went to best and final.

In the end, our offer wasn’t the highest one but we were chain free and also included a note alongside our offer which made the sellers think we would be least likely to pull out.

This is what it's like in Scotland. You decide your best price and go for it. They also can take into account the date of entry you want and fund availability.
My son got his flat not because he was the highest offer but because he didn't need a mortgage and his date if entry request was early.

Yes it’s not unusual. Remember that the vendor won’t always choose on price alone. If you’re a more attractive buyer than someone offering a bit more, they may still accept your offer (no chain, cash buyer or whatever).
Don’t be tempted to offer over the odds. Find a price that you’re happy with and put your cards on the table.

I think this is what’s irking me about it, this isn’t a hot market where houses are selling quickly and people are willing to go over asking etc. Nothing in our area is shifting, most houses have been listed since late last year and every day this week at least two or three properties have dropped in price. This house has only been on two weeks so I’m a bit surprised they haven’t just turned down both offers and waited for higher ones.

Glad to hear it’s common, we have no experience of buying a house and people we know who have bought haven’t experienced it either.

This sounds similar, they’ve asked for all the details of our mortgage in principle, deposit, how soon we can move, and compelling reasons they should accept our offer etc.

You say houses are not selling quickly but also that this house been on the market for two weeks only and already has offers…

If you are feeling like you’re being played or similar than just stick to your initial offer. I think offering £30k less on a 300k house already shows you’re not keen on it and that’s fine.

I’d stick to your offer or up it by £1K if you’re happy to. You’re first time buyers so at an advantage - they should snap your hand off. If it goes for more than that, then the buyer has overpaid.

I have a gut feeling they’re not going to accept either offer unless the fomo makes one of us seriously up our offer to close to their asking price. We’ve already made clear our circumstances so nothing new to add to this offer they’ve asked for except more money which we’re not doing.

They've had two offers but presumably they weren’t that close to their asking price otherwise I’d have thought they’d have accepted that offer. Who knows how many offers the other properties here have had and been turned down. I was just surprised they’re asking for this after two weeks rather than waiting for an offer closer to what they want which it seems like other sellers are doing in this area.

Maybe they are keen to sell but want to get as much as possible.
No need to overthink it, just put in your best offer and see what happens.

Stick to your guns , there probably is no other buyer

Family member had 2 offers within 30mins at exactly the same price, £20k below asking price so it does happen. Went to best and final. The 2nd offer just walked away but 1st offer increased their price which family member went with.

We asked for professional advice before offering and they said not to offer over £290 as it’s just not worth more than that. When we viewed it the estate agent spent more time pointing out all the flaws than the positives which was pretty surprising, she told us how expensive all the doors and windows were going to be to replace and then went on to point out defects I probably wouldn’t have noticed until she pointed them out. If they’ve done that at every viewing it seems even less likely someone is going to offer more than it’s worth.

They offered £40k less not £30k if my maths is correct.

There was another viewer waiting to come into the house as we were leaving so I did wonder if it might be them as the times somewhat stack up.

I don’t think that in today’s market an estate agent would make up a buyer, it’s too risky. You say you are not that fussed about the house so don’t up your offer if you think you could get a better house cheaper.

I live in Scotland where this is normal. But from the details given here, it sounds like there probably is another offer, and it's probably similarly on the low side. As it's not been on the market that long, it would be too risky to ask for best and final offers if the other buyer were fictional. And the fact that they're doing it rather than just rejecting both suggests that they're not actually against accepting a lowish offer, and quite possibly will do if neither you nor the other buyer makes a much higher one.

I don't think I'd buy a house needing work that was priced higher than any larger, done up house on the street unless I fully understood why. Is it the only one with parking? Is the street (or that house) in the catchment for amazing schools?

It will be hard to get a mortgage if it's overpriced. Our surveyor based the house price on recent sales on the other side of the road (no parking) so we had to appeal.