OK - its not next to a school, its 500m away and not on the same street !

They now have 4 buyers offering the asking price and it is going to sealed bids, deadline 12pm tomorrow. Apparently one is a cash buyer but no proof has been given.

Only offer what you are comfortable paying. No more. There wil be another equally perfect property at some point. Honest.

In mitigation alongside your offer please ensure you are very clear about your buying position and explain your financial situation as well as you are prepared to - and make it known you could supply official confirmation if required (all assuming you do actually have a documented confirmed financial foundation upon which to base an offer - you'd be surprised how many potential buyers don't and then get disappointed and learn to "hate estate agents" or "the English process" when perhaps they could have made their own life easier if only they'd listened to professional advice).

If you want any more help just ask.

Footnote to the above - be very careful which advice from internetists to heed. I'm regularly stunned by what I read in this forum from all knowing well built directors.

In a peverse way, I am glad that I am not the only person who has experienced questionable methods by estate agents to maximise profits.

A good few years back, we saw a "perfect" house, which had been on the market for around nine months with average interest, but not a single offer. Viewed it twice, and prepared an offer. (But didn't submit the offer)

We then viewed a "new to market" house in the same area (but a more desirable street if that makes sense) which was being marketed at £20k more than the property we first viewed.

After viewing the second house, we made a cheeky offer on it, £25k below the asking price.

This was rejected.

Second offer was £20k below asking price.

Rejected.

Third (and final offer) was £17.5k below asking price (and we would have been stretched at that)

Rejected, but were told that another £2.5k would secure it.

We decided to abandon the "more desireable" street, and go back to the "perfect" house.

We viewed it a third time - just to be sure... and then submitted our offer. It was £8k below a £295k asking price.

To our surprise, in the week we had been negotiating on property number two, property number one had "suddenly become popular" and there were other offers.

We were told that we would need to offer the asking price to stand a chance..... So we did.

We were then told that other potential buyers were prepared to go OVER the asking price, and it was down to best and final offer via sealed bids.

We decided that we wanted it - so we bid £305,656 via a sealed bid.

We won the sealed bid auction (by £1,655 apparantly), and started the ball rolling on purchasing.

As the weeks/months progressed, I had doubts about the person buying our house... and those doubts were substantiated when our buyer pulled out (they said that there were some slipped tiles on the roof - and for that reason, they would not progress.

We re-marketed our house immediately, but the property market had literally begun to crash in the recent weeks - and there was little chance of finding a buyer without dropping our price to a point where we couldn't have proceeded with our proposed purchase.

Ah well... and all that.

Anyway - a few months after this, I heard through a mutual friend of someone who worked at the estate agency that the two other "buyers" which forced the property to sealed bids were fabricated purely because the agent believed that we were financially better off than we were (viewing a house that was a good £30k over our realistic budget had convinced the agent we could pay more!)

By a bizarre turn of events, we bumped into the original vendors a few years later at a social function - who confirmed the story. As far as they were aware, our "Sealed bid" offer was the only offer they had ever recieved... and they knew nothing of the sealed bid process.

Estate agents?

Bloody crooks if you ask me!

Don't think that. The internet is absolutely full of people who feel exactly the same way. You're not alone.

When an offer is made for the asking price, that is it to me. That is what the seller wanted and that is what is offered, so the house can be immediately withdrawn from the market.

The only reason a seller would want to keep the house on the market is to attempt to get a bidding war going. I am not interested in that kind of person, because up to exchange I would expect them to "find another buyer" etc thereby needing a higher price.

And before you ask, yes I have withdrawn my property from sale the minute someone put in an offer for the asking price of my house, even when I had other viewings lined up that weekend. In fact I've done this a few times, once I did it and the buyer withdrew their offer about a week later, just after the weekend in fact. However to me a deal is a deal.

It may be that the property has been priced attractively to garner interest with the aim of then getting a few people to go sealed bids. The EA is there to get the max price for the seller so I see nothing wrong in still marketing a property after a full asking price offer is received. It may be that the offer comes from a buyer who later cannot proceed so it's good to keep a few irons in the fire. In addition, why would you accept full asking when you obviously have a bunch of people willing to go higher.

I'm all for playing fair and keeping my integrity intact; I think it's crazy to fail to maximize the return though.

Justin, normally I would agree with you but, in this case, the issue is that there were viewings and offers already lining up so it would be foolish of the seller to accept and take the property off the market.

In a 'normal' buying situation I would expect it too, not in this case though.

Let's also not forget, where house selling in concerned there appear to be no rules

Well we have put in an offer over the asking price, no more I can do.

From what the OP said, there were merely further viewings.

If the agent receives an offer with conditions attached they are duty bound to call the vendor and ask them. An offer made for full asking price (especially with proof of mortgage offer/funds) as long as it is accepted without anyone else viewing I would argue would be a good reason to accept - I probably wouldn't take the risk of allowing more people around in the situation.

The trouble is exactly what you've said in your last line - there are no rules. Further than that, 'Average Joe' is not usually an experienced negotiator and it may very well be his first or second house purchase. The experienced agent, or vendor simply plays the game to the rules - that being there is none.

Agreed.