Another extortionate way to profiteering.

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gavroche

Getting old but not past it
Location
North Wales
One of my daughters lives near Stoke on Trent and is trying to buy a house after selling hers. I don't know if this is going on just in the Midlands but she has to put a bid in an envelop and obviously the highest bidder will win. What happened to the old traditional way of just paying the asking price and more the the point, why bother about an asking price? Really, this is more like an auction with a set starting price.
 
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midlife

Guru
I though sealed bids was a Scotland thing?
 

winjim

Smash the cistern
Sealed bids are becoming fairly widely used these days, especially when there's a lot of interest in a property. Stuff is worth what people are willing to pay I guess.
 

Slick

Guru
I've put a bid in for a house this morning, 30k above asking and it's not enough to take it off the market until all the feedback from the viewings have been collated. I also tried to set up a Plan B by setting up a viewing on another house by the same agent, but the vendor didn't want any more viewings as the house is likely to go to a closing date from tomorrow.

It's definitely a sellers market.
 
Gone are the days where you can buy the house you like. Now days you are lucky to snare a house, any house that that has the desired number of bedrooms, the space you are looking for. Forget about design, condition etc Sealed and unsealed bids has pushed this too far. You can't even make an offer well above the asking price to take it out off the market. Your offer becomes the new reserve price for the seller and the agent.

Had a staff that spent months making offers. Finally picked a house that was not in a good condition and did it up. There was just less bidders.

Feel sorry for the young.
 
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Electric_Andy

Heavy Metal Fan
Location
Plymouth
I thought this was fairly normal? It happened when I bought mine. Our offer apparently wasn't the highest bid but it was accepted because it was a cash offer
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
I've put a bid in for a house this morning, 30k above asking and it's not enough to take it off the market until all the feedback from the viewings have been collated. I also tried to set up a Plan B by setting up a viewing on another house by the same agent, but the vendor didn't want any more viewings as the house is likely to go to a closing date from tomorrow.

It's definitely a sellers market.

Madness !!!

What has happened, we will be back in the office, even part time, but it looks like you have to be UK based and even get there if needed, so my home 9 miles away is fine, as is the caravan 67 miles away (similar travel time believe it or not). Some fool asked if it was OK to be in France for three weeks, but work the final week from there - cheeky monkey
 
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Slick

Guru
Madness !!!

What has happened, we will be back in the office, even part time, but it looks like you have to be UK based and even get there if needed, so my home 9 miles away is fine, as is the caravan 67 miles away (similar travel time believe it or not). Some fool asked if it was OK to be in France for three weeks, but work the final week from there - cheeky monkey
Maybe not so cheeky, my sister lives in the States WFH but came home to Scotland during lockdown for a couple of months. If you can work from home, you can work from anywhere.

The house thing though..........that is madness.
 

CanucksTraveller

Macho Business Donkey Wrestler
Location
Hertfordshire
I noticed a bit of shameless profiteering recently, but dressed up as environmental concern which makes it even harder to stomach.

Depending where you shop, Douwe Egberts instant coffee is about 6 pounds for a glass jar with 190g of coffee in it. They also sell a "refill pack" alongside, (for to save the planet from too much glass production they tell you - despite the refill pack being plastic). It appears to be cheaper at 4.50, so you consider that instead, because the jar has a cost so you believe that might be where the saving comes from... But then you look closer and notice it's only got 150g of coffee in the pack, making it actually more expensive than the same coffee in a jar, gramme for gramme. So you're not going to buy the refill pack if your head's screwed on, which negates their claim that it's all for the environment.

No, you Dutch coffee bait and switch mongers, the smaller pack is not for the environment, it's for your profits!
 

fossyant

Ride It Like You Stole It!
Location
South Manchester
Work has cottoned on to folk wanting to work abroad, when they are needed at some point on site - it's a University. I've worked from my caravan for a day to avoid traffic if I've been there at a weekend - use my own phone tethering etc, works fine, and no other disturbances, and if someone said, I need you here , then I could get there quickly.

Works both ways, I'm down at the van on my own this week taking holiday, but I'm logging into a workshop for 2-3 hours tomorrow, and a meeting for an hour on Wednesday.

This work from home stuff has made some house prices go through the roof, when many people have been out of jobs - I was the only working person in a household of 3 'workers' that still had a full time job during lock down. Wife furlough then no job, son, no job and just pizza delivery to pay car insurance.
 
Location
Kent Coast
I partly blame the TV property shows for this sealed bid thing.

The first time I ever even heard of "we will pay the full asking price but you must take the house off the market today" was on a TV show.

Now that has become a standard tactic.

Then a show included a house in Scotland being bought under the sealed bids system.

But in a sellers market, sealed bids (in England now) have become a way for a seller to see just how much someone is prepared to pay. It's horrible, but it's the way of the world just now......
 
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