Bid War

blueredface

Hi there,

I have started looking to buy house in March this year and an advertisement came infront of my eyes in first week of April this year. Initially property was advertised in November 2014 and came back to market as was sale agreed previously.
Ea told me it was sale agreed higher than current asking price but due to bidder couldn't get approved his mortgage in end, property came back to market again after 5 months (I don't know if its the truth or something else), so I viewed the property 3 weeks ago where total 4 people came to view this property while I was there.

I asked couple of question to concern person in Estate Agency by email but didn't hear from them after a week as the concern EA was on holidays. I was called after a week for my feedback which I told I haven't heard from them about my queries. So concern EA rang me and said if I'm interested, I can make offer which I made 10k lower than asking price which EA range the vendor immediately and rang me back within 30 minutes saying vendor didn't accept it.

So I wait for another week and rang to enquire about 2nd property advertised by same EA which I viewed within a week whereas property one was on open view same day which I noticed only 1 person turned up to view 1st property during 2nd time of open view.

Following week, I rang and emailed to enquire about 2nd property but at the same time I said, since I haven't heard from you for the property one, can I make an offer for 2nd one I viewed which EA said why don't I increase my first offer by 5k (still 5k less than asking price) and she can talk to vendor again. I said, I'm already tight to this offer but if she insists, I can add 1k more from my last offer (now 9k difference from asking price) which EA rang again vendor but same answer that Vendor is looking for asking price atleast.

EA also told me after my first bid that would she contact me if she get higher bid which I said yes, do let me know. EA had another open view (third time since I started) last weekend but I haven't heard from them today (Monday) if they have received any bid over mine.

I've been watching the price changes on the properties I have been interested in have slightly decreased the price (5 to 7%) advertised since January but not this one I'm interested in. I also noticed stock has also been increased.
I don't want to put myself in over optimistic situation that market is going to be in favor of buyers again as I have already wasted time by watching only last year when my mortgage was not approved as I wasn't serious to apply. At the same time, my concern is that I don't want to be in BID WAR situation that if I straight away make an offer same as asking price as vendor might think he/she could wait for further or unlimited time to get more price than asking what he/she got last year. I want to buy asap and try to avoid this bid war.

Please advise, should I hope that prices are going down bit and could wait a little bit more before I can talk to EA again but best bet is how would I know how desperate / ready is vendor to agree the sale as quickly as possible lower than asking as I'm bit tight about funds as this house is nearly empty and only include kitchen appliances and curtains?
Even if I bid close to asking price, can I say I can offer closer to asking price provided if bed/mattress and furniture could be included in asking price. (Something Is Better Then Nothing)

Thanks in advance.

P.s: if a property has been sale agreed and presuming the survey/valuation would have been done by first bidder, can we ask Vendor/EA if they have any Valuation/Survey report during the first sale agreed process so we would have an idea if there's no issue with this property itself structure wise or any other major fault?