House bidding

[Loopylooloo]

Our son has offered full asking price on a house, first time buyers, mortgage all agreed, the estate agent has said that there were four other offers, all asking price, so they are asking for full and final offers by Friday, the highest will win.
The other offers will be non disclosed.
Has anyone any experience of this situation or advice?
They can afford to go slightly higher, (up to £10,000) but, of course the danger is it being under valued in the survey. Seems like a crazy market situation at the moment, demand is far outweighing supply in our area.

[tspill]

Yep - it happens occasionally. My parents bought their current house - all done by secret bids to be opened on a certain date.
I personally dont like this process, but if it is how the sellers want to do it, then ether isn't anything wrong with it.

[Pinchy]

Originally Posted by Loopylooloo

Our son has offered full asking price on a house, first time buyers, mortgage all agreed, the estate agent has said that there were four other offers, all asking price, so they are asking for full and final offers by Friday, the highest will win.
The other offers will be non disclosed.
Has anyone any experience of this situation or advice?
They can afford to go slightly higher, (up to £10,000) but, of course the danger is it being under valued in the survey. Seems like a crazy market situation at the moment, demand is far outweighing supply in our area.

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Not just your area. I had six offers immediately on a fixer-upper around or at the asking price (high IMO). I was tidying up in the front garden and at least 5 cars stopped to look and 2 people asked if they could look round the garden. That was just one day!Then the offers over started cash buyers and mortgage secured with cash. Not seen the likes for many years.

[Disney Jo]

This happened to someone I know. They ended up offering £30k over the asking price and were the winning bidders. As the process had started, searches began etc, the house was then surveyed and they come back to say that it was worth £30k less then what was being offered. In the end the people selling agreed to come down to the original asking price and the sale all went through.

[Loopylooloo]

We are just not sure what figure to put, an odd number is probably best, rather than rounded up. I think the not knowing what others have put makes it tricky for everyone.
I don’t like the whole situation but it is a first time buyers dream house, two bedrooms, off road parking, nice garden, in a village etc… and clearly sellable!

[JAF]

Someone we know last year out bid the next nearest buyer on a house in Sheffield by £7k and still didn't get the property. Evidently the sellers solicitors recommended which bid the they should accept. Not a system I would want to get involved in.

[loldis]

Had this happen a few years ago. I didn't increase our offer as the house was already considerably overpriced for the road, it just happened to meet all of our requirements so were prepared to pay asking. Agent was quite annoying about it actually, saying we were effectively withdrawing our offer by not increasing it. But stood my ground as it wasn't my dream house by any means, and it ended up being sold to a cash buyer for asking price.

[Mpet]

You may find that it may not necessarily be the highest bid that wins.

My son sold his house a few years ago and as there was so much interest, the estate agent asked for 'final offers'. Aside from the £££ offers, he was told the positions of the individuals - whether they were in a chain, if they had a mortgage offer in place etc. He did not go for the highest bidder as they were in a long chain and he wanted a quick sale.

Personally, I don't like these sealed bid arrangements, but it seems to be the current thing.

[tspill]

We sold our MiL's house in the winter. Estate agent put it on at a price I thought was bonkers high. And it still bid up 45K from that. Utter madness. This was normal open bidding. People queuing up to view.

This all makes it very hard for buyers at the minute.

[ali-s]

A friend has just moved into her new house today. She thought it would never happen. She was making appointments to view houses that were being sold before she got to the appointment. Then she offered the asking price on one and was immediately out bid, finally she bid way over the asking price to secure the house she just bought.