Bidding on a home when there are several interested buyers

When several people are interested in a home, the selling agent usually opts for a bidding round. Everyone submits one bid before a set deadline, often in writing, and then the seller chooses. You don't hear what others offer. It is a single chance, not an auction where you can keep raising.

The seller may choose, even if it isn't the highest bid

A higher bid gives you no right to the home. The seller is free to choose whom to deal with. Certainty, conditions and the completion date count just as much as the amount.

What makes a bid strong beyond the amount

• —Financing that is demonstrably in place.
• —Few or well-chosen conditions.
• —A completion date that suits the seller.
• —A short, tidy explanation with the bid.

When I worked on the selling side as an estate agent at Burgersdijk Makelaars, I saw that this certainty often tipped the balance. A seller chooses not just an amount, but also the likelihood that the sale goes through.

A round number or not?

Preferably not. If you want to bid 500,000 euros, bid just a little more, for instance 502,500 euros. When many bids cluster around the same amount, that can make the difference. But it remains a detail. Your starting point is your maximum, based on the value of the home.

Set your maximum without looking at others

You don't know what others will bid, so look at the home itself: what did comparable homes in the area sell for, what is this home worth to you, and what does your financing allow? Write that amount down before you bid. If it isn't enough, the home was too expensive for you. That is an outcome too.

Don't let yourself be rushed

If the agent says you need to do a bit more to stand a chance, ask exactly how the procedure works and until when you can bid. An agent working for the seller is doing their job when they push the price up. That is their task, not yours.

Which conditions to keep, and which to drop

Only drop the financing condition if you are sure the bank will lend the amount, even if the valuation comes in below your bid. Having the building survey done before you bid, rather than as a condition, strengthens your bid without buying blind.

A verbal yes is not a sale

With a home, there is only a sale once the purchase agreement has been signed in writing. As a private buyer you then have three days to reconsider. Until then, things can still go wrong on either side.

Not chosen? Ask to be the reserve

A sale can still fall through on the other buyer's financing or survey. It doesn't happen often, but asking to be noted as a reserve costs nothing.

A buyer's agent knows the sale prices in the area and how the selling agent works. That lets you bid on value rather than on feeling, and tells you when it is better to walk away.

Sources: Dutch Civil Code, article 7:2 (written purchase agreement and cooling-off period for buying a home). The amounts in this article are an illustration.