This is my first topic and something that I want to find out if other poeple have / are having problems with.

I have just bought a house with my girlfriend or at least we have han an offer accepted, which seems a million miles away from actually getting the bloody thing.

I accept that house prices have increased a hell of a lot - thats life and lets all get on with it. However, I really dont agree with the whole closed bidding thing that goes on.

We offered above the asking price but apparently this isnt good enough anymore!!! We had to go to one last final bid and probably ended up paying more than we actually needed to.

This system is so unfair to buyers. I suppose at least we got the place - has anyone else had any issues with the whole 'Closed Bidding' situation???

if you've had the offer accepted then you shouldn't need to make another bid...

When I was bidding on houses a while ago I refused to play. I made my bid at what I was prepared to pay, and when they phoned back later to ask me to increase it or to say that it was going to final bids I said that they'd already got my final bid.

I didn't 'win' any of the bidding though, so maybe it doesn't work!

Originally posted by Archy
This is my first topic and something that I want to find out if other poeple have / are having problems with.

I have just bought a house with my girlfriend or at least we have han an offer accepted, which seems a million miles away from actually getting the bloody thing.

I accept that house prices have increased a hell of a lot - thats life and lets all get on with it. However, I really dont agree with the whole closed bidding thing that goes on.

We offered above the asking price but apparently this isnt good enough anymore!!! We had to go to one last final bid and probably ended up paying more than we actually needed to.

This system is so unfair to buyers. I suppose at least we got the place - has anyone else had any issues with the whole 'Closed Bidding' situation???

I missed out on a couple of houses when I first bought.

Just remember, you will be selling one day, and you wont be complaining then!

I had my house up for sale a little while ago, and managed to get £7k more than the asking price of £89,950 - in a slow market.

I decided to stay put though.

Cheeky beggars didn't go high enough ;)

Yeah sorry I meant that we initially made an offer but got the same phone call as you - they were going to final bids.

We did play ball cos we really liked the place, I just think that its a crap way of people selling their house.

Its another estate agents trick to make more money!!!

Your right I will be selling one day but I really cant see the same sort of profits being made in say 10 - 15 years.

You should have sold just think of the years of sheff wed season tickets and copies of nuts that you could have bought with that!!!

Originally posted by Archy
Your right I will be selling one day but I really cant see the same sort of profits being made in say 10 - 15 years.

You should have sold just think of the years of sheff wed season tickets and copies of nuts that you could have bought with that!!!

Whoaaah, whooaaah, whooooah - sweet child o'mine! I'm a Liverpool fan!

The housing racket in Sheffield may or may not change. But, if it does change, and the dutch auction part is jettisoned, houses will simply be advertised at their 'true' value, i.e. what the vendor expects to get.
You traditionally pay around 10% more than the asking price round these parts, so I'd expect asking prices to rise by a similar margin overnight.

It's mental really, when in other parts of the country, you can offer below the asking price, and ask for stuff to be left in the house!

I'm fortunate enough to have bought before the boom of a few years back, so Gordon Brown would have to get his sums *very* badly wrong for me to be in a position of negative equity.

Originally posted by Archy
Yeah sorry I meant that we initially made an offer but got the same phone call as you - they were going to final bids.

We did play ball cos we really liked the place, I just think that its a crap way of people selling their house.

Its another estate agents trick to make more money!!!

I think it's only South Yorkshire that have this daft system...

Originally posted by amhudson119
I think it's only South Yorkshire that have this daft system...

And West Yorkshire.....

We had exactly the same problems trying to buy in Leeds a couple of years ago. The prices there were out of this world to start with, THEN you had to offer over the asking price not to be laughed out of the estate agent's, THEN it went to sealed bids. This happened several times, before we gave up on buying in Leeds as a bad job.

StarSparkle - but hey, Sheffield has THE forum, so big raspberry to Leeds! :P

Offered over the asking price? Even now...

I'm just surprised this is still happening in a declining market, i hope for your sake there really were other offers. I think it is often worth calling the agent's bluff and refusing to up your offer - after all the offer you originally put in was probably what you felt it to be worth.

Either we are the most paranoid bunch of people in England or fake bids really happen in Sheffield. What can we actually do about it then? I think I might by a fake mustache and glasses and do someb undercover investigation.

We had a nightmare bidding in a 'best and final' system with Blundells about 5 months ago. The sales negotiator spoke to us like something nasty she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe as well - I realise agents work for sellers but is it really necessary to treat people like scum because they are making a bid!

Anyway - we decided to do something a bit different in trying to buy a house to get past the competition and away from agents - we wrote a letter explaining our great buying position and asking people who were thinking of selling their 3 bed semi's to give us a call and think about selling direct to save on agents fees. We printed off about 400 of them and posted them through the area we wanted to buy in.

We got about 7-8 calls initially then nothing for 4 months and then a call from someone who had found the letter. We have just had the survey done and the sale is progressing. As the house didn't go on with an agent there is also less chance of gazumping.

It was a bit of work - but well worth it if the house sale goes through!

Originally posted by Poppy9
We had a nightmare bidding in a 'best and final' system with Blundells about 5 months ago. The sales negotiator spoke to us like something nasty she had scraped off the bottom of her shoe as well - I realise agents work for sellers but is it really necessary to treat people like scum because they are making a bid!



Agents work for themselves really as the higher the price the more they get!

We've bought twice and sold once and thankfully it was just a simple task of having offers accepted or rejected. If an offer is accepted it should be just that. If you dont accept an offer i think you're well within your rights to wait for the highest.