Asked for best and final? How to choose one number.

What a best-and-final round is

When more than one buyer wants the same home, the agent may stop the back-and-forth and ask everyone for their “best and final” offer by a deadline. Often it’s a sealed bid: each buyer sends one offer, and no buyer sees the others. You usually get one go. If you’re asked by phone, confirm your offer in writing.

It isn’t an auction. The seller doesn’t have to accept the highest offer, or any offer. And in England an offer isn’t legally binding until contracts are exchanged. Until then either side can walk away, and the price can still be renegotiated, for example if your survey finds a problem.

The one number to decide

It’s tempting to guess what the other buyers will offer and pitch just above them. But you can’t see their offers. What you can see is what comparable homes nearby actually sold for, and that’s firmer evidence than the asking price or a guess about anyone else.

So decide one number: your walk-away. It’s the most you’d pay and not regret losing at. If someone outbids it, you’ve lost a home at a price you’d already decided was too much.

1. Start from the sales. Look up the comparable sales nearby, and see where the asking sits among them. Our guide to how much to offer on a house covers what to weigh.
2. Name any premium in pounds. If you’d go above those sales for this home in particular, for a garden, a school run or a street you know, decide by how much. That part is your call. Write it down.
3. Check the cash. Above the top of the sales, a lender’s valuation may come in below your price, and you’d cover the gap. Ask your broker what they’d lend at that top figure before you send.

Seal the price you’d pay without regret, not the price you think will win.

A worked example: a flat in Walthamstow

This one is from a published SettleIQ redacted folio: a ground-floor flat in Walthamstow, on the market at £450,000. Its size isn’t settled. Both its energy certificates, from 2015 and 2026, say 754 sq ft. The advert says 677 sq ft. So the folio gives what comparable flats nearby sold for at each size. Read the redacted folio →

Say other buyers come in and the agent calls for best and final. Neither you nor the folio can see their offers. The folio’s answer is one number, in writing: its walk-away of £465,000, which is £15,000 over the asking.

Over the asking isn’t the same as over the sales. At 754 sq ft, the size on both energy certificates, £465,000 is £21,015 below the bottom of the sales range: less than most flats like it sold for. At the advert’s 677 sq ft, it sits inside the range, £32,358 under its top.

So the size question decides how much room the sales leave above your number: £88,559 to the top of the range at the certificates’ size, £32,358 at the advert’s. A lender’s valuer looks at recent comparable sales too. Before the deadline, ask the agent who measured the floor plan, and plan to check it at the survey.

Room under the sales isn’t a reason to spend it. Your walk-away also has to fit your deposit and what you can pay each month. Set it from both, and a sealed number over the asking can still be one you can stand behind, whether it wins or not.

Bidding on a home now? Its sales can be laid out like this before you seal your number. See it against the sales →

What the agent can and can’t tell you

The agent works for the seller. Even so, the law and the industry code set some rules on offers:

• Every offer goes to the seller. Agents must pass on every offer promptly and in writing, unless the seller has said in writing not to pass on offers of a certain kind, such as those below a set amount. Under the Property Ombudsman’s code, you should get written confirmation within 2 working days.
• You’re told other offers exist. Under the code, buyers whose offers are still live must be kept informed of other offers put to the seller. That covers whether they exist, not how much they are.
• Amounts only with the seller’s agreement. If an agent does reveal what one buyer offered, the code says every offer must then be disclosed to every buyer still interested.
• No invented offers. Agents must not invent or misrepresent other offers, or the position of the buyers who made them. General consumer law against misleading practices applies too. Since 6 April 2025 it sits in the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

So it’s fair to ask: how many offers are there? Are those buyers ready to go, with a mortgage agreed and nothing to sell? What’s the deadline, and in what form? Will the seller decide on price alone?

These rules come from the Estate Agents (Undesirable Practices) (No. 2) Order 1991 and the Property Ombudsman’s code for its member agents. This is general information, not legal advice: your conveyancer or solicitor can confirm how they apply.

What to send with it

Price comes first, but it isn’t all the seller weighs. A seller may take a lower offer from a buyer who is chain-free or paying cash. Under the Property Ombudsman’s code, agents must also ask where a buyer’s money comes from and tell the seller. So send the proof with the number.

Keep the survey. A sealed offer is still subject to contract. If the survey finds work, get a quote and ask for that much off, no more.

Odd numbers. Some buying guides suggest avoiding a round figure, such as £425,050 instead of £425,000, so you don’t tie with another buyer. If two offers do tie, the seller may ask for another round. If you add an odd sum, put it under your walk-away, not over.

Escalation clauses. An escalation clause, or referential bid, offers a set sum more than the highest rival, up to a cap. They come from American home buying. In a sealed round, agents usually want one fixed figure from each buyer, and may not accept an offer that depends on other bids. Ask before you try one. Your walk-away does the same job: it’s the cap, decided in advance.

Before you send your sealed offer

Questions