Making bid for house how to proceed?

thejuggler

So we've seen a house we like - guide price is €340k but estate agent says there is a current bid of €352k

Is this bs talk and what should our opening bid be?

Also we have seen another property on the website that we would like to view but the agent says that viewings for the property is on hold at present but should reopen. What does this indicate? Has a deal been done and are they keeping quiet until it goes through or are the owners taking it off the market.

Sorry to ask such basic questions but I am new to this - previously bought first house off the plans so the price was fixed.

masterK

It really depends on the Estate Agent, some are honest and some are not when it comes to asking prices. If they have a good local reputation they can probably be taken at their word. It would do no harm to have a few friends ring at different times of the day and speak to different people in the estate agents to see if everybody is told the same high bid.

There are any number of reasons why the other property is on hold, the sellers may be reconsidering whether to sell or not or they may have verbally accepted an offer from another party but haven't changed the status of the property to sale agreed until the bid is confirmed.

Victor

It could be for person reasons - death in family or somesuch.

How high do you want to go? If you think its worth a fair bit more then bid a few thousand extra, it'll scare off some competition, otherwise go in increments of 1k-2k to suss out the bidding.

dublinguy05

I was just bidding on a 2 bed house, guide price was 380 ended up sale agreed at 427 and this was the case with another house I was buying went up by about 10% the asking. I suppose if you really want it expect to pay for it. During the bidding stage I said I would'nt go over the 410, then 410 became 420 very quickly and then 425 and ended up 427. I thought the same about the auctioneer increasing the price, but at the end of the day the house would have gone sale agreed maybe not at the price I bought it for but I really wanted it, handy for work and that.

thejuggler

I've spoken to the Estate Agent since about the house that is on hold and was told that the owners have not found a place to move to yet which explains why viewings are on hold for the last fortnight. Fair enough said I and asked if the guide price was still 340k. Then I was told that there was an offer of 360k.

I think they're just plucking figures out of the air as I had enquired a week earlier to be told there was an offer of 352k - and all of this is happening when there has been no viewings of the house in question.

Dellgirl

Get a friend to ring and express interest. Get them to ask the latest offer on the house.

garred

thejuggler wrote:

I've spoken to the Estate Agent since about the house that is on hold and was told that the owners have not found a place to move to yet which explains why viewings are on hold for the last fortnight. Fair enough said I and asked if the guide price was still 340k. Then I was told that there was an offer of 360k.

I think they're just plucking figures out of the air as I had enquired a week earlier to be told there was an offer of 352k - and all of this is happening when there has been no viewings of the house in question.

Or there could be someone else genuinely interested in the house. Check to see if there is anything else in the same place for sale and judge the price then. Or as suggested, get other people to ring.