Bidding - need advice

Anon55

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Hi there,

FTB here. I placed a bid just over a week and a half ago on a house for 10% below asking..the estate agent has said that a successful precovid bid fell through at 2% below asking (bidders job affected by covid).

I've compared properties on the road that have sold within the last 12 months. I think my bid is fair based on the property price register values (some needed work and were sold for lower, some with more work done than this one sold for higher) .

I went to view another house with the estate agent and casually enquired on this the status of my bid..she told me that the vendors had been considering it but that they would need something closer to asking to take the bid seriously. She didnt explicitly say that they had rejected it. My questions are

1) should I ask for confirmation that my bid has been rejected
2) I can increase my offer..should I do this now and set a time limit on rejection or acceptance?
OR
3) as the only bidder patiently wait it out?

Any help would be appreciated from anyone wiser/more experienced than me. I'm not sure if its relevant information but I'm buying solo. Thanks in advance.
 
This is a really tricky conundrum. I’ve always gone with the mantra ‘never bid against yourself’ so that rules out number 2.
how you continue is up to you. But it is a waiting game.Vendor is obv waiting for someone to bid against you. They may be waiting... if your offer is a decent offer during these times I’d hold fire and do nothing. Play a long game. But keep viewing other properties, esp with the same agent!
You can at some point put a time limit on the offer but unless they’re in a hurry that’s unlikely to work either
 
Thanks so much. This is a really helpful reply I appreciate it!! I'll wait it out...I always imagined saving the deposit would be the hard part and didnt realise the bidding part would be like a poker game! Thank you for your help.
 
No need to up the bid at this point. Let the agent know that you're ready to move, with proof your offer won't be impacted by COVID-19. You want them to convince the vendor to let it go at the current price, so you don't want to appear too keen. No movement on the price over a couple of weeks and speculation about the re-imposition of stricter COVID measures might encourage the vendor to take what's on offer. Ask the agent about other properties, or mention one on sale with a different agent so they know you're still looking around.
 
Same as above - sit on your hands. Also remember that the higher bid isn't necessarily always the better one either from a seller's point of view (especially if previous sale already fell through).
 
I am in a similar situation but EA explicitly said the vendor rejected our bid. There are currently no other bidders and the EA has shown the house 4 times. Do I need to increase the bid if it was rejected or wait it out?
 
I am in a similar situation but EA explicitly said the vendor rejected our bid. There are currently no other bidders and the EA has shown the house 4 times. Do I need to increase the bid if it was rejected or wait it out?
Depends on a number of factors - how long it’s been on the market, what is the vendors position and how much below asking have you offered
 
Hi there,

FTB here. I placed a bid just over a week and a half ago on a house for 10% below asking..the estate agent has said that a successful precovid bid fell through at 2% below asking (bidders job affected by covid).

I've compared properties on the road that have sold within the last 12 months. I think my bid is fair based on the property price register values (some needed work and were sold for lower, some with more work done than this one sold for higher) .

I went to view another house with the estate agent and casually enquired on this the status of my bid..she told me that the vendors had been considering it but that they would need something closer to asking to take the bid seriously. She didnt explicitly say that they had rejected it. My questions are

1) should I ask for confirmation that my bid has been rejected
2) I can increase my offer..should I do this now and set a time limit on rejection or acceptance?
OR
3) as the only bidder patiently wait it out?

Any help would be appreciated from anyone wiser/more experienced than me. I'm not sure if its relevant information but I'm buying solo. Thanks in advance.
I am in a similar situation but EA explicitly said the vendor rejected our bid. There are currently no other bidders and the EA has shown the house 4 times. Do I need to increase the bid if it was rejected or wait it out?

For what it's worth (we had a similar situation when we bought our current house) I wouldn't go in changing the offer without the seller offering some indication / movement. You could ask the EA the question "What sort of level is it going to take to get movement" - essentially get them to make a counter offer. That might get a conversation going - not that you have to meet it but maybe get to a point where you can say "Well, if we were to offer X to get it closed would that work".

Or just wait and let the lack of other offers put pressure on the sellers
 
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When we bought our home I offered what I believed it to be worth to us. The offer was never rejected/accepted. We made the same offer 14 months later and they closed in 4 weeks. I think our two expectations finally reached a point we agreed on. Buying houses in this country is more complicated than it needs to be. Best of luck!!
 
Depends on a number of factors - how long it’s been on the market, what is the vendors position and how much below asking have you offered
5% below asking. The house been on the market for a month and has had around 5 viewings. The EA has said the vendor is in no hurry.
 
5% below asking. The house been on the market for a month and has had around 5 viewings. The EA has said the vendor is in no hurry.
Then you’re in no hurry either. 5% seems reasonable.... unless property priced well under ‘market value’ in order to gain interest. Silly though if it has. Property market has stalled while people are on WSS and PUP. Are you affected? Can you drawdown a mortgage?
 
Then you’re in no hurry either. 5% seems reasonable.... unless property priced well under ‘market value’ in order to gain interest. Silly though if it has. Property market has stalled while people are on WSS and PUP. Are you affected? Can you drawdown a mortgage?
Yeah! I can draw down a mortgage and am not in a chain. I had hoped the process would be a bit quicker once we find the right house but I agree waiting it out is my best bet. Thank you for your input.
 
Hi as an update to this I got news my first bid was rejected so I asked for the vendors expectations. I then slightly increased the offer from 10% under asking to 7% under asking to try get things moving after so many weeks. I am still the only bidder. Ive been told that's still too low to be considered and they need asking price so at this point I am going to start looking elsewhere or hope that the vendors expectations come down a little in line with the current market. If anything changes I'll post an update here. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Hi as an update to this I got news my first bid was rejected so I asked for the vendors expectations. I then slightly increased the offer from 10% under asking to 7% under asking to try get things moving after so many weeks. I am still the only bidder. Ive been told that's still too low to be considered and they need asking price so at this point I am going to start looking elsewhere or hope that the vendors expectations come down a little in line with the current market. If anything changes I'll post an update here. Thanks for all the advice.
Inform the EA in writing/email that you’re withdrawing your offer. Best of luck, there’s plenty of properties out there and bound to be a lot more coming onto the market soon.
 
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