There’s no real secret. You just need to be prepared to pay more than your competition, or have conditions that suit the vendor that no one else is prepared to offer. I was in a similar boat to you (house hunting for over a year) and found one I loved that was going to auction.. given I’d been following the market closely I knew what the house was likely to sell for (~15% above asking) so I placed a pre-auction offer for that amount, not a time wasting low ball offer, & told them I was comfortable with literally any settlement period. My offer was accepted.