What would you offer?

[MissEm]

Do mention to the real estate agents that your finances are "ready to go". More often than not it is the R/E agent who decide what offer they put forward (to the owner). R/E agents like to "pick" offers that suit them too. The faster they are able to settle, the faster they get their hands on their commission. So do mention your money is available straight away. Good luck

Real Estate agents HAVE to present every offer made, if they don't they are breaching their contracts.

[Teeki]

Thanks for the advice everyone. DH thinks maybe the other offer hasn't been accepted because it's a really low ball offer, so we've got a good chance of coming in higher than them. So kind of what you've said RhiChiChi - if it was what they wanted they would've done something about it already.

Manhattan, the deposit is a good point, I hadn't thought of that! We've got a fair bit in savings so could give them a decent amount.

When two parties were interested in a house we were selling the agent requested they put in their highest bid each. Worked out great for us (as the vendor) and they winning couple never knew they offered $24,000 more than the others, they just paid what they thought it was worth to them.

That's kind of what we're worried about. If we offer $325k & the other offer was $300k, we could probably get it cheaper but we won't know. It's a great situation for the seller but not so much for us lol.

We'll definitely mention that we're ready to go. We should be able to do a 30 day settlement. Ah the benefits of working at a bank! Lol. We're going to research the area tonight and see what has recently sold there and see if they've got a reasonable price on it. Just from the quick look we've had we're not willing to go higher than their minimum asking price, but I reckon 10% lower might be too low.

Thanks again everyone

[OceanPrincess]

We were in this situation when we bought our first house - the agent told us there was another offer in play and we should put in our "best" offer because we would only get one chance. We weren't too attached to it so we put in an offer we were happy with, which was lower than what we'd intended to negotiate up to, but they accepted it!

I think you need to do what makes you happy... no regrets.