1st time buyer needing help

[Thomo101]

Hi
I am a first time buyer and recently put an offer in on a flat.
I was told that as there was so much interest in the property I would have to make an offer higher than the asking price advertised and that all offers had to be submitted by 4 oclock that day. I really wanted the flat so made an offer over the asking price. After a while the agent came back to me and said that i would have to increase my bid to secure the property which I did by another £6000, the next phonecall I received was the agent congratulating me on having my offer accepted and assured me that the property would be taken of the website and they would accept no further bids. The next day the agent rang me and told me another offer had been submitted much higher than mine and that the vendor had accepted it, when I asked what the offer was he would not tell me and did not give me any option to increase my offer.
I realise that an offer is not legally binding but is there anything I can do ?
I would really appreciate any help in this matter
Many Thanks

[jakhtar1]

The EA does not have to disclose thrd party offer. My advice to you would be only make an offer what firstly you can afford and secondly what you value the property at!

EA like to play games like this to get a higher price for the vendor. If there is a genuine offer made by somebody else, so be it. But if not they will come back to you

[brian]

You can only make an offer on what you the mortgage value is - don't be suckered into blind auctions, especially when there is generally such poor demand on flats these days you should be seeking to pay less than the advertised value, not over it!!

[Rusti]

It sounds like the estate agent thinks they have a serious and reliable buyer for the flat and are trying to make it go through smoothly by putting you off.

But if they changed the deadline rule once, they can do it again, especially if the offer is attractive enough, so don't be put off by that.

But first you need to decide what your top offer is. Then go back to the estate and make it clear you want the property, and ask them if you were to put forward £x, would it be competitive? Keep going until they indicate that they would be willing to take your offer to the seller. They might tell you to get lost using this tactic, but if they feel warm towards you and you convince them that you are a serious buyer, they might be prepared to help you out.

I can't stress enough though that you need to keep the estate agent on side though, don't get confrontational. Tell them you are desperate to get it, you have the money ready.

Just don't lose your head and pay too much for it, because something else will always come along. In my experience, when I've lost something, although it was sorely disappointing at the time, in retrospect, invariably I now consider myself to have been lucky.

I had a similar situation to yours in the past and really got the sense the estate agent wanted the other person to get it. Despite them saying it was too late, I still managed to get an offer in and accepted! Although in the end the other person came back again and I walked away. And a good thing it was too because the market dropped about 3 months later and I would have been stuck with a loss (I was going to do it up to sell on for a profit).

Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

[Thomo101]

Thankyou Very much for your help