What is a winning bid in the Netherlands?

In short, the winning bid is the bid that is most appealing to the seller and offers them the right mix of financial and secondary terms and the security that you are serious and will move forward with the purchase.‍

1. Financial terms

The purchase price is of course the most important aspect. Too low and your offer won’t get accepted, too high and the seller might question if you’re able to actually pay the full amount. Please note that the bank will only offer you a mortgage of 100% of the actual value of the property. An important fact is that the asking price is not the same as the value of the property. To give you an example:

If the property is offered for 500K and the market value is 485K, you will only get 485K from the bank. If you offer 520K you would have to pay for the remaining 35K out of pocket.

Therefore always double check the actual value of the property before defining the amount you would like to offer.

If you are keen to purchase some of the furniture that the seller has to offer, this could also be a great way to boost your offer. You can add the amount you would like to offer for the moveables separately to the offer to make it stand out.

2. Secondary terms

Besides the purchase price there or some other terms you can add to your offer. The most important terms for you as a buyer are the dissolving clauses. These clauses give you the right to pull out of the deal if they are not met.

Think for example about a finance clause that gives you the right to pull out if 2 mortgage providers have rejected your application.

One other important dissolving clause is the technical inspection clause. This one allows you to cancel the deal if the results of the technical inspection are not to your liking.

Both of these clauses give you some extra security. But please note that these clauses mean that the seller will have to wait either until you have confirmed your mortgage or that you are happy with the technical inspection report or until the dates of the clauses expire before knowing for sure that you’ll move forward with the deal. Therefore if you’re competing with offers that do not have these clauses in your offer might be perceived as less interesting.

Other terms of the offer can be when you would like to move into the property. Some sellers have a preference for the handover of the property due to them having bought a new place that will only come available at a certain date. You can cater to the sellers requests or use the transfer date as a bargaining chip.

The last but not least element to a winning bid is making sure you give the seller the sense that you are a serious candidate and that you’ve done your due diligence.

Sharing some more information about yourself, where you work and why you love the property can definitely help give the seller some sense of security. If you require a mortgage to finance the property it can’t hurt to also add a letter from your mortgage advisor or add to the offer that you’re receiving support from a specialist and that you’re in advanced talks to secure your mortgage.

The last thing we would like to share with you is that if your not given a deadline to submit your offer by you want to make sure that your offer is not used as a benchmark for other potential candidates. Therefore you can add a deadline to your offer to create a sense of urgency. Please make sure you’re aware of the situation of the seller before you do so. If they’re going through a divorce or have just inherited the property with siblings adding extra pressure through a deadline might backfire instead of strengthen your offer.

These are the most important elements to get to a winning bid. Good luck and may you find your dream home.