So there was a fair bit of nail-biting last week. Our flat was on the market as sale by tender, we’d just had the second of two open days and the tender period ended on Friday at midday. I was counting down days until we knew what, if any, offers we had on the table.
The sale by tender concept is relatively new to Brighton and Hove. It’s marketed as a fairer way to sell a property as it discourages gazumping, the process of being outbid in the 11th hour when you’ve already had your offer accepted.
Instead, interested buyers are encouraged to submit their best offer in a sealed envelope. When the tender process ends, the envelopes are opened and the seller goes either with the highest bid or opts for the buyer in the best position.
An added incentive for the seller is they only have to pay a small fee for the marketing of the property, in our case £300, with the buyer footing the bill for the estate agents fees. Buyers are made aware of this in advance and adjust their best offer accordingly.
My nervousness came from knowing the flat is priced at the top end of the market for its size. My main concern was if we didn’t get an offer we were happy with, we’d have to re-launch the flat on the market at a lower price. In doing so we’d run the risk of possible buyers seeing the length of time it had been on the market, seeing the reduced price and suspecting there’s something wrong with it.
On the flip side, if we get an offer we’re happy with we’ll have saved £4000 on estate agent fees and it will have any taken just four weeks to find a buyer. It seemed like a risk worth taking.
Between me first writing this blog – deciding not to post it in case I jinxed things – and writing this edited version, we played the waiting game. By mid afternoon on Thursday I was able to breathe half a sigh of relief after getting a call from the estate agent letting us know we had two envelopes.
I’d spent the best part of two weeks worrying that we wouldn’t get any offers at all. Since putting the flat on the market I’d read an insightful article that listed putting a property on the market in summer as one of the 10 worst mistakes made by amateur property developers. Typical!
But we had offers. Of course we were still yet to find out if they were acceptable. Friday, midday – the moment of truth. The flat was marketed with a guide price of £200,000; our offers were £201,000 and £201,500. So. Bloody. Happy!!
Both cash buyers, naturally we accepted the higher offer. Now the sale process begins and we’re one step closer to our big project.