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Open bidding - your thoughts?


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Hello all,

looks like i may be taking a stand (still not entirely decided), so I'd like to hear what people think of open bidding instead of sealed bids/BAFO. Basically they work like an auction - the agent rings people over the course of the day, and keeps going until there's only one person left.

 

nb the agent is keen that we don't use open bidding, although naturally they'll do what we'd like them to.

 

do you think we'll get about the same price for the house? do you think it's fairer this way? i've been encouraging any interested parties to put on offers of the asking price, jsut so the agent doesn't fail to contact them - is this sensible? We've had 6 offers at the asking price already and i'm expecting maybe 3 or 4 more, so there's plenty of interest. I've been as open as possible with potential buyers (saying what i really think the property will sell for) and they still seem interested. Is this wise to be so open? I'm doing it so that it's less unpleasant for whoever doesn't get it as some people have been house hunting fruitlessly for months and are fairly desperate.

 

Gaaah! Property mind games!

 

Your thoughts - pros and cons - on open bidding, please.

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open bidding IS how estate agents work, on the closing date of sale, they ask each 'bidder' for their best and final offer ... then its up to you who you sell to

 

not around here, according to my estate agent. sealed bids or BAFO is normal - either way, they don't let other bidders know what the maximum is, so people have to guess and bid accordingly. judging by previous threads, nobody likes this system, hence me wanting to keep the bidding on my house open.

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keeping the bidding open will mean that you will not get as much for your property, won't it?

 

When the house we bought went to sealed bids we put in our top offer. So we do not know if we could have got the house for less, as we do not know what the next offer down was. The difference could have been £5,000.

 

From a buyer pov, sealed bids are a nightmare but a seller's and agent' pov, they are a godsend! Obviously.

 

It really depends on whether you want a certain amount for the property or not, I suppose, along with other things.

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keeping the bidding open will mean that you will not get as much for your property, won't it?

 

When the house we bought went to sealed bids we put in our top offer. So we do not know if we could have got the house for less, as we do not know what the next offer down was. The difference could have been £5,000.

 

From a buyer pov, sealed bids are a nightmare but a seller's and agent' pov, they are a godsend! Obviously.

 

It really depends on whether you want a certain amount for the property or not, I suppose, along with other things.

 

I;m not so sure we won't get as much, as we have lots of interest from some people who are pretty desperate. all it takes is for 2 of them to be able to afford a bit more, and it might push the price up nicely.

 

when we bought our current house, it was by sealed bids and we hated it so much we swore we wouldn't sell our house that way, so i'm glad i've stood by my morals.

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From a buyer pov, sealed bids are a nightmare but a seller's and agent' pov, they are a godsend! Obviously.

 

Not really because it's like an auction if it's an open bid and people can change their mind and bid more if they really want it based on other peoples offers. Sealed bid is based on people having no idea whether or not it's good deal in relation to other bidders. You might be lucky and get someone who puts in a sealed bid over the odds but that's unlikely.
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Good luck with this. I hate BAFO/sealed bids and I wouldn't sell that way myself as it just creates bad feeling all round.

 

Things have changed now in that we can actually find out what houses went for in a given area (with a bit of a time lag of course). So there is less reason for people to put in stupid bids, as everyone roughly knows what a house's price should be and whether they can afford it. The 'asking price' could become meaningful in Sheffield.

 

I still think agents will make up imaginary bids to bump up the price - even if no-one else is bidding.

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One of my friends sold her house a while ago and the agent wanted her to go to sealed bids and she refused, for morals grounds. When the survey came back and the buyer wanted to renegotiate on the price, my friend refused on the grounds that she had not gone to sealed bids. Luckily the buyer did not back out of the sale.

 

So it worked in this case.

 

I think sealed bids are awful and next time I buy a property I am going to think about backing out if it goes to sealed bids. Trouble is if you have really fallen in love with a house then that it difficult, I would imagine.

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