Best and final offers… being played?

[m3jappa]

We must be the only idiots in the entire country in this current financial situation who cant buy a house.

We have sold to someone who has sold to a ftb so a very short chain. Neither of them need to borrow, we have a portable mortgage and need to top up a bit.

Thats great.

However every house we look at seems to be insanity pricing. The agents always always tell us they have untold amounts of interest and offers but they dont sell. they sit and sit and sit. some reduce but 50k off something thats 250k more than it was 2yrs ago doesn't cut it.....

i am also very friendly with a director of a locally well known agent and in his words 'no one is buying houses like that at the minute' by all accounts they are fking dead.

So, in any case we found our dream house and i really mean dream house. I will sell whatever i need to and borrow what i need to as this opportunity wont happen again..........i really fking want the place put it that way!

When we first view we are told its already sold once but the chain fell apart and even though they had multiple offers last time some of whom are still 'floating about' they are inviting new offers.

We offer on sunday. we are told again theres still these couple of other offers from the last sale.

Why haven't you gone back to them then?

Anyway, after a couple of days the agent tells me theres 3 offers all similar, ours is higher end is all im told, he says we all need to get a mortgage (ours is just a top up).

Again mentions best and final offers, i am told that today they are doing viewings all day on it (what on a fking thursday? ) so i drive past and its all locked up........

so its dragging on, we haven't been told yes or no but the term best and finals seems to be a constant.......


Am i being played here? he knows we really want it.

could he be making up these other buyers? may mate who's the big boss man tells me that at the moment theres generally not one buyer let alone a few (that said this is imo dream house potential).

could he come back next week and say do best and finals and i offer another 50k and i luckily get it, even though no one else bid?

how do i progress? because we've been looking for a long time we are worried we will lose our buyer and they are worried they will lose theirs.

my estate agent friend did tell me that when it comes to best and finals i should stick with current bid. if i am out bid he says i can then bid again as they legally have to put the offer forward, my concern is their mind will be made up.

[Austin_Metro]

Get a mate to look at it.

Have them Bid 20k less than you.

Compare agent bullst.

[dalzo]

Play them at there own game

Tell them you’ve found another house and if you don’t have an answer by a suitable date/deadline you’ll be retracting your offer and moving on to that.

[Tango13]

Can you bypass the agent and speak directly to the vendor to explain your mortgage situation and see what sort of money they want/need to do a deal?

If I were a cynic I would be thinking the agent is trying to talk the price up not so much for the extra commission but to demonstrate they can get top prices and get more vendors on their books.

[Muzzer79]

Sounds like an iffy agent.

Does your agent mate know them?

I’d be calling them out and asking what you need to pay to secure the house. Then decide if you want to pay it.

I know the feeling - we were dicked around with a smashing house by an agent who made Jordan Belfort look scrupulous.

[m3jappa]

I should have added that the sale is through some form of middle man /management company.

Its been explained that they have to collect the feedback and offers then go back with that.

someone else said to basically threaten them with us retracting the offer........ill be honest i haven't got the bottle.

usually when i look at a house i can pull it apart in seconds, all sort that i dont like. even houses for multi millions.

this one i can not find any issue.......apart from being unable to purchase it.

i think he's talking the price up to make themselves look better too, especially in todays climate.

my mate doesnt know them unfortunately.

[Muzzer79]

If it’s your dream house and you haven’t go the bottle to play hard ball, you’re just going to need to offer the max you’re willing to pay and hope it’s accepted.

If the other offers are genuine, you’ll not have won it anyway

If they’re jackanory, you’ll be paying a bit more than perhaps you could but for a dream house, it’s by-the-by to an extent.

[number2]

Sounds like someone's watched too much Selling Sunset and thinks they're some baller broker.

Put a note though the door telling them you've made an offer but the 'broker' isn't saying it's accepted/rejected etc. and that you're confused, and wondered if they could either contact you directly or ask the broker to xyz....

Then bury the broker under your next patio.

[sutoka]

I think your eagerness must have stood out a country mile. Shows you're more than keen but the agent wants a few extra shekels commission so has invented a load of demand so you up your offer a bang you've spent thousands more than you needed too.

It happens, my aunt works from home and looked out directly opposite to a house that was for sale, I phone the agent "Oh we've had lots of interest and plenty of viewings and a few offers just under the asking price"

Ask my aunt she told me in the few weeks it had been listed she had not witnessed a single viewing on the Thursday evening. It actually sold after a few months and one viewing she witnessed.

[r3g]

sutoka said:

I think your eagerness must have stood out a country mile. Shows you're more than keen but the agent wants a few extra shekels commission so has invented a load of demand so you up your offer a bang you've spent thousands more than you needed too..

This ^. Your mistake was gushing over the place with the agent. Agent has gone back to office and said "we've got a live one here, get another £50k out of him because he's desperate for it" and now you're stuck in a game on who's going to blink first.

[sjc]

Muzzer79 said:

If it’s your dream house and you haven’t go the bottle to play hard ball, you’re just going to need to offer the max you’re willing to pay and hope it’s accepted.

If the other offers are genuine, you’ll not have won it anyway

If they’re jackanory, you’ll be paying a bit more than perhaps you could but for a dream house, it’s by-the-by to an extent.

Just do this
.Forget the games

[m3jappa]

Well all these replies confirm i'm not the only one thinking how i am.....

I have been eager, one downfall of my personality is being too honest in some respects its whats put me in a position to be able to get a nice house, in other respects it sometimes comes back and bites me


ok then, lets say today i suddenly grow a pair, what should my next move be?

I do really want the place and i am willing to pay a bit more, but i'm not willing to be ripped off or put myself into financial difficulty.



One thing it does show to me is the state of the current climate. i would imagine this would have gone for substantially more very quickly a couple of years back.

[m3jappa]

sjc said:

Just do this
.Forget the games

This has been our current plan.

I think my original question really should have been shortened to 'is this agent dodgy?'

We can only assume he isn't and my mate reckons its highly unlikely.

As i say long term its a bargain and for what i want its everything i could achieve unless i have some major change of circumstance.

[Pitre]

Easy to say and hard to do, but....

It's always a mistake when buying anything to want it desperately. There are always more fish in the sea.

Offer your best price and say you will sign a contract before x date or your offer is withdrawn.

You must be prepared to walk away.

[r3g]

Pitre said:

Easy to say and hard to do, but....

It's always a mistake when buying anything to want it desperately. There are always more fish in the sea.

Offer your best price and say you will sign a contract before x date or your offer is withdrawn.

You must be prepared to walk away.

He can't walk iaway. He is desperate for it and has basically said he'll sell a kidney and his granny to get it. The agent knows this because he's told them, so any ultimatums about withdrawing offers will be laughed at and his bluff called. He's now going to be ponying up £50k more to buy it than he would have done if he'd kept schtum. He's trapped himself.

[Flooble]

I agree with the others, you need to feign disinterest. I had a similar game where I was told "there are other offers" (with the implication that I should increase mine) to which my response was "That's great, let me know which one they pick"

Granted, this was as much down to my social ineptness and inability to spot hints as any cunning negotiating strategy, but it worked.

[TimmyMallett]

I know you want it but sounds like the best option is to get off the pot and show that you're losing interest now.

Its your best option at blowing all the smoke away and see if you really do have competition. You just have to take a walk around your neighbourhood and see how few boards are up, the market is still very low and any agent that tells you otherwise is just lying to save face, its all about the façade of a successful business they desperately need to uphold so the locals don't think they've 'lost it' and go to a competitor.


How long has it been on the market for?

[22]

m3jappa said:

i am told that today they are doing viewings all day on it (what on a fking thursday? ) so i drive past and its all locked up........

I called an agent about an empty commercial property (agent does residential too) and was told lots of interest and dozens of viewings. I explained we're already in the unit next door and that was simply not true (we didn't buy it).

I also think you need to take a step back, perhaps sow the seed of "something else has come up". My wife would say if it doesn't happen it's not meant to be. We viewed the house she wanted and similar games were played. We walked away (she was gutted). 6 months later (in the throes of covid) it's back on the market and we bid low (and got it) as they were already in rented and needed a quick sale.

[PhilboSE]

The agent is doing his best to get the best price for his client. In seller’s markets they don’t need to do anything but this is a buyers market and the agent might be trying to create a false market to drive up the price you’re willing to pay. It’s very common for agents to invent false buyers / fake offers to get more money out of the single interested party.

You should have a feel for how much demand / activity there is in the local market, so you can judge if there really are other people bidding.

In any event, I would recommend going back to the agent with a very clear statement of your position: your offer is £X, your chain is short, you are a willing and motivated buyer able to complete quickly but can flex around the seller’s requirements on timings. In many cases that makes you the most attractive buyer even if other “buyers” offer more but haven’t even put their own house on the market. Remember it’s the seller who decides who to sell to, not the agent.

You don’t really want to be forced to match a price from another offer that isn’t as well qualified as you, although sometimes of course you have to. However, most times I resist that and state my position and offer even if it’s less than someone else’s, and usually that of the seller. In one case the seller hadn’t found a property to move into but wanted to know their house had a buyer. It was a very desirable house tworks.

I’ve done maybe a dozen domestic house purchases in the last 20 years, and it’s useful to understand the motivationhat went to sealed bids and got about 20 bids…we won with a bid in the middle of the spread because we emphasised we were chain free and would wait indefinitely while the sellers found a new home. We eventually completed, at my bid price, over a year later. In another case a lovely old couple had a big house that had been full of grandchildren and they were downsizing. I sensed that they didn’t want the house to lose its vitality so every time we did a viewing we took our 3 children along. We bid under the OIEO price but the money wasn’t so important to them, they just wanted young children to live in “their” house.

It’s all cod psychology but understanding the sellers’s motivations is often key to success. Of course, sometimes it’s just all about the highest bid and that’s the game you have to play. Only bid what you are comfortable with. There’s always someone else with more money. I would say you’re in a good position to be an attractive buyer, stress those elements rather than making it all about the money. Unless it’s all about the money!

Also, there have been lots of reports about house prices falling nationally by 8%+ over the year, most of that drop coming in the last 6 months. I’ve had a deal going through for 7 months now, mostly because the seller has delayed things. I wondered if the property was worth less now than when I made my offer - using the ONS house price index you can filter by local council and type of property and it showed prices locally were stable against March levels. So depending where you are you might not need to be concerned that you’re “overpaying” in a falling market, because it might not be.

Edited by PhilboSE on Friday 29th September 09:23

[Car bon]

You can't force them to sell it to you.

You can either keep bidding against yourself & over pay. Or you can tell them they have your best & final and it's valid until x date as you have other options.

You can still say this one is your preferred one - but you can't sit around forever or you might lose your buyers.