It's interesting to look back at the land registry sold prices as well to see what things actually went for in the end - we were outbid on loads of places that it turns out we offered more for in the end, as the actual buyers managed to negotiate the price down after surveys etc I expect.
We completed on a house a month ago that we were outbid on (we really couldn't afford to go higher, even though it ticked all the boxes), then three months later the EA came back and said the higher bidders had pulled out, and we could have it if we were still interested.
It's interesting to look back at the land registry sold prices as well to see what things actually went for in the end - we were outbid on loads of places that it turns out we offered more for in the end, as the actual buyers managed to negotiate the price down after surveys etc I expect.
We completed on a house a month ago that we were outbid on (we really couldn't afford to go higher, even though it ticked all the boxes), then three months later the EA came back and said the higher bidders had pulled out, and we could have it if we were still interested.
Tldr- it's a mugs game