Best practice for putting an offer in..

gosuckonalemon

Hi,

I've found a house that seems pretty decent. It's on daft for 250K. I got in touch with the agent that said current bids are 230K.

Seeing as the agents are going to get a % of the sale price it is obviously in their best interest to get as high a sale as possible.

I was thinking of putting in a bid for 200K but willing to pay 220K-225K or so.

However, at the same time, I don't want to put in too low a bid and then lose out altogether.

Any suggestions on how I should play it?

Thanks

killers1

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

Hi,

I've found a house that seems pretty decent. It's on daft for 250K. I got in touch with the agent that said current bids are 230K.

Seeing as the agents are going to get a % of the sale price it is obviously in their best interest to get as high a sale as possible.

I was thinking of putting in a bid for 200K but willing to pay 220K-225K or so.

However, at the same time, I don't want to put in too low a bid and then lose out altogether.

Any suggestions on how I should play it?

Thanks

Couple of things... If the estate agent says there is an offer of €230k on the property you may be wasting your time offering a lower figure. You can do, but if there is a genuine offer of €230k you will lose the property if they proceed with the purchase. If an estate agent is on 1% commission of the sale price the difference in commission is €100 for every €10k on the purchase price so TBH isn't hugely relative either way. In this market the estate agents just want to secure a sale. As there are less buyers out there and plenty of properties for sale it is not really in the EA's best interest to put potential buyers off by creating imaginary bids... Either way once you have an offer in the EA will stay in touch with you to keep you advised on any further offers and will always give you the opportunity to increase your bid...

zulfikarMD

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

Hi,

I've found a house that seems pretty decent. It's on daft for 250K. I got in touch with the agent that said current bids are 230K.

I am in a same situation after revising my offer to 210k from initial offer for 259k asking and have been told by EA that any offer above 230K+ he is looking for.

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

I was thinking of putting in a bid for 200K but willing to pay 220K-225K or so.

I think 15-20% less from asking is decent offer to strart with considering the current property market.

ted1

Don't go near 230, that offer will more than likely dissapear. Tell them your intrested but not at that price. Tell them to call you when thaw sale falls through. But don't leave it to long as your intrested in buying.

zac8

If you were to believe estate agents then every property on the market in this country has an offer on it.

gosuckonalemon

zac8 wrote: »

If you were to believe estate agents then every property on the market in this country has an offer on it.

Yes, exactly.

But I don't want to put in an initial offer and then be told "sorry the flat was sold for 5K above it" (which I may have been willing to stretch too.

zulfikarMD

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

Yes, exactly.

But I don't want to put in an initial offer and then be told "sorry the flat was sold for 5K above it" (which I may have been willing to stretch too.

I bet nothing is going to sell in this market unless it is keenly priced and seller/EA is willing to negotiate.

TwoShedsJackson

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

Yes, exactly.

But I don't want to put in an initial offer and then be told "sorry the flat was sold for 5K above it" (which I may have been willing to stretch too.

That's what you're going to have to do though as you are operating with incomplete information. You don't know for sure if there are any other bidders, and if there are, what they have offered, all you have is the estate agent's word, and he has an interest in misleading you in order to get the best price for his client.

Think carefully about what you are prepared to pay for the house versus existing offers, then make an offer of your own. Be prepared to not get the house if there is actually a higher offer than yours, and try not to get emotionally attached to the house.

ppr

It's a tough one- I just sold a house and I am looking to buy now - Estate agents are hard to deal with - I liked a house that was for sale for 250 ish so I offered 200k and the estate agent said you'll have to come closer to 215k so after 3 weeks or so I bid 215k and they rejected it - Said the builder wasnt selling for less than the asking price - I could not believe it , Decided to to switch to another house after viewing it and was told even though it went on sale on the Friday with a price of 260 the current bid was 271 ( this was 2 days later), Two different estate agents but same outcome absolutely no interest in negotiating. Fair play to them if they get higher bids but the first house is for sale for nearly 3 years !!

Even though it hasn't worked for me so far - Start low - you can always increase it but if you bid too high first and its accepted you'll be wondering if you could have got it for less.

zac8

How about waiting until the property price database goes live? At least then you'll be able to make a more informed decision. I don't understand why any buyer would make their move now knowing this is just around the corner.

gosuckonalemon

ppr wrote: »

It's a tough one- I just sold a house and I am looking to buy now - Estate agents are hard to deal with - I liked a house that was for sale for 250 ish so I offered 200k and the estate agent said you'll have to come closer to 215k so after 3 weeks or so I bid 215k and they rejected it - Said the builder wasnt selling for less than the asking price - I could not believe it , Decided to to switch to another house after viewing it and was told even though it went on sale on the Friday with a price of 260 the current bid was 271 ( this was 2 days later), Two different estate agents but same outcome absolutely no interest in negotiating. Fair play to them if they get higher bids but the first house is for sale for nearly 3 years !!

Even though it hasn't worked for me so far - Start low - you can always increase it but if you bid too high first and its accepted you'll be wondering if you could have got it for less.

Yes it's this kind of mind games I was worried about!

Will put in a bid for 210K and see what it happens.

gosuckonalemon

zac8 wrote: »

How about waiting until the property price database goes live? At least then you'll be able to make a more informed decision. I don't understand why any buyer would make their move now knowing this is just around the corner.

What's that database about and how will it help? Thanks

zac8

gosuckonalemon wrote: »

What's that database about and how will it help? Thanks

It will be a register of prices achieved for every property sold in the country. You'll be able to look up what similar properties to the one you're interested in have sold for.

It's due before the end of the year.

TheDriver

what I an curious about is how the database will be compiled. i.e. will every house suddenly have 20k of fittings and furnishings in the value to bump them up etc.
No one ever seems to say how much they paid/how much they got for a house

Duckjob

zac8 wrote: »

How about waiting until the property price database goes live? At least then you'll be able to make a more informed decision. I don't understand why any buyer would make their move now knowing this is just around the corner.

When that arrives it will be great, but the problem is its arrival could be "just around the corner" for yonks.

It was talked about for bloody ages, then it got a release date, now that date has started being pushed back. I don't know whether somebody is doing a very good job of deliberately stalling it, or whether its just general lack of push, but I don't have any faith that it will arrive before early 2013 at best.

Also the gov. are trying to "kickstart" (yay!) the property market by dangling the carrot of FTB mortgage interest relief until y/e. Methinks they might not like the register to appear before then because if interested buyers can see the actual gap between asking and selling prices, they not rethink their offers or not offer at all.

Sala

Offer what you think it's worth. The bigger offers often go away. I made an offer on a house 20k below the alleged current offer so we shall see