Top tips to make sure your offer gets accepted when making a sealed bid for a property
When the housing market is busy, there are more buyers than there are properties available to buy.
This results in a veritable bun fight when a new property comes onto the market.
What can be done to make sure that you're successful?
When the housing market is busy, there are more buyers than there are properties available to buy.
This results in a veritable bun fight when a new property comes onto the market.
Scrambling to get a viewing appointment is just the first obstacle.
Then, when you get to the open house viewing, you are suspiciously giving your competitor viewers the side-eye.
Did they look keen?
Did they say anything about making an offer?
How many people were viewing? Can they all move straight away?
Were they cash buyers? That one family had a nice car; I bet they have cash!
You can be so distracted by the sheer volume of interest in the property that you don't actually take the property in properly.
The amount of interested parties only increases your own interest in the property.
After all, everyone wants to buy a home that is considered desirable by others, don't they? No one wants to buy a property that no one else will touch with a 10-foot barge pole.
So, the desire increases. It's a melting pot of interest that results in, you guessed it, multiple offers!
Great news if you're the seller!
But what if you are one of the unfortunate bidders competing with others to secure this one property?
What can be done to make sure that you're successful?
Usually, when interest is this high and multiple offers a made for one property, it makes the most sense to go to Best & Final bids.
It prevents fierce bidding wars, where one party increases, and then so does another, and another, until no one knows what price the bids are even at anymore, and the agent is desperately trying to keep everyone informed along the way.
Best and final bids are precisely that. The very best offer that you're willing to make for the property.
It prevents any kind of bidding war or frenzy because all offers placed with the agent are final. And you can't simply say, "I will offer £50 more than the highest offer." There is no re-negotiation.
But there are some downsides.
How to formulate your offer -
Placing a best and final bid is difficult. You have no idea how many offers you're bidding against or how badly the other parties want the property. You're going in blind.
And the fact that you can't re-negotiate after the deadline adds further pressure.
This way, you aren't being forced or coerced into offering more than you're really comfortable with just because you want to win.
If you're pushed up in small increments, each time you increase, it's only by a small amount. It's easy to get carried away and think, "Oh, it's only another thousand."
But very quickly, you can be at a higher figure than you were initially comfortable with, pushing you to or perhaps beyond your limits.
It's the eBay effect. When faced with a competition, you want to be the winner, irrespective of the consequences or the end price.
So, what should you do?
The advice would always be to make YOUR best offer.
What's the highest offer that you're personally comfortable making?
The absolute maximum amount that is affordable to you.
Or the most that you personally feel the property is worth.
If you're unsuccessful, then it wasn't meant to be.
But at least you gave it your best shot. It was just worth more to someone else than it is to you.
And that's fine - there will always be other properties.
Submitting your offer -
When you put forward your offer, submit as much evidence as possible to support your case.
Why should the sellers accept your offer?
Can you pay the price?
What timescale will you work to?
Are you ready and able to move forward with your offer immediately?
These are all details that the sellers' will need to know to feel confident in you as a buyer.
It isn't just about the highest price; the most 'complete' offer with the most information has every chance it may be successful.
Demonstrate that you know what you're doing and have your ducks in a row, so to speak. You'll come across as a competent buyer who can be relied upon to progress the sale through to completion.
What if you're unsuccessful? -
There can be only one buyer. So there's a strong chance that you won't be successful. If your offer is declined, you'll have to bow out gracefully. You can't re-negotiate or try to place another bid after the Best and final offers deadline.
So, the best thing is to let the estate agent know that you want to be kept informed should the sale fall through.
On average, almost a third of property sales in the UK don't go ahead. There is a 33% chance that the deal will fall through, and the seller will need to find a different buyer.
So, the agent will let you know if this sale doesn't go to plan.
And then, if you haven't found another property to buy and still want to buy this one, you'll be able to reinstate your offer.
Don't panic if the property you've fallen in love with has multiple offers.
Throw your hat in the ring.
You've got to be in it to win it, and if you don't even make your offer, you'll definitely NOT be able to buy the property.
Get your paperwork together, put your best offer forward and cross your fingers that the stars align and your offer is accepted.
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