What does 'Sealed Bids' mean when buying a property?
Find out what Sealed Bids means when you are buying a property. 'What does Sealed Bids mean?' plus over 150 other property related terms and jargon in plain English
Sealed Bids
Where one or more parties has offered on a property, usually at the asking price, the vendor may decide to go to sealed bids.
A date is set by which you are asked to put forward your best offer. The vendor then chooses the buyer he would like to go forward with.
As a buyer who has made an offer you are under no obligation to take part and if you do it does not mean you have to increase your offer.
Note the winner of sealed bids is not always the buyer who has offered the most. The vendor may choose the buyer in the best position to proceed trouble free (e.g. the one without a property to sell).
If you are taking part in sealed bids I always recommend choosing a very specific but unusual figure. So not £137,000 but £137,571. I have seen sealed bids won or lost for the sake of £20 so be unusual!
For more on how to handle sealed bids pick up a copy of my ebook How to Really Buy a Property.