Bidding on a house

foxy_j

hey there,

We bid on a house in dublin 10 days ago- 5k under asking price. Its frustrating & slow going. First off the estate agent was saying it was hard to get hold of the seller after we put our offer in as he was abroad. Eventually at the end of the week he said there was another offer in 2k over ours. So we thought about it and put in a bid of €1500 more. This went back n forth & now we're the highest at 2k over asking.

What i'm wondering is it seems suspicious that a bid came in just as the time frame on ours was expiring. The EA was pushing for us to put in bid of asking price saying that might secure it and scare of the competition. Is there a way to know if your bidding against yourself?

We still are awaiting the BER rating and another viewing of the house. The EA said its hard to get private viewing as there are tenants in the property at the moment & except for scheduled viewings they are uncooperative.

Any advice?

Also we are first time buyer so this is all new to us. Thanks

Bepolite

I'd expect it to go for 20% over asking. Dublin prices are mental at the moment.

the_syco

foxy_j wrote: »

The EA said its hard to get private viewing as there are tenants in the property at the moment & except for scheduled viewings they are uncooperative.

Maybe pop over and ask if there are any problems with the house. They'll either say no, or they may tell ye of any problems. Would be cautious bidding on a house that I can't access to see if it's worth it.

Michael D Not Higgins

foxy_j wrote: »

hey there,

We bid on a house in dublin 10 days ago- 5k under asking price. Its frustrating & slow going. First off the estate agent was saying it was hard to get hold of the seller after we put our offer in as he was abroad. Eventually at the end of the week he said there was another offer in 2k over ours. So we thought about it and put in a bid of €1500 more. This went back n forth & now we're the highest at 2k over asking.

What i'm wondering is it seems suspicious that a bid came in just as the time frame on ours was expiring. The EA was pushing for us to put in bid of asking price saying that might secure it and scare of the competition. Is there a way to know if your bidding against yourself?

We still are awaiting the BER rating and another viewing of the house. The EA said its hard to get private viewing as there are tenants in the property at the moment & except for scheduled viewings they are uncooperative.

Any advice?

Also we are first time buyer so this is all new to us. Thanks

Phantom bids are notorious. It's the EA trying to boost their commission or meet the asking price to keep their customer happy. Keep in mind you're the seller's customer, the seller is the EA's customer, you're not in the equation for the EA.

I'd have reservations on this house because of the sitting tenants. This could drag on for over a year with the PRTB while the bank won't let you draw the mortgage without vacant possession.

foxy_j

Thanks for the replies.

Ya might see if I can pop over in next couple of days. Think it would be better to talk in person & get some of our questions answered. We thought we were getting to see the property tuesday but he cancelled. I think his attitude was If you must see it again I'll see what I can do.

He did say it'll take 2 months from offer agreed date for the tenants to move out- they are landlords themselves so would have thought they would be more cooperative unless the Ea is up to something.

Guess we'll have to see how it goes....its the best property we’ve seen so far- quality, location etc but I know we shouldn’t get attached & bank on one property.

Any advice on bidding techniques or increments? We’ve been doing small increments so far

Thanks

Dr Strange

Yes, I would agree with not getting too attached. We bid on a property some weeks ago, visited it 3 times before that, last time with our architect to get an estimate for works to be carried out etc. on problems visible during the visits. We were the only bidders after some back and forth bidding over 6 weeks and when the EA thought we had it the vendor decided to pull it off the market and rent it out again for a year to get a better price.

They may or may not get that better price but we have wasted a lot of time and also some money (architects survey) with this. Unfortunately, the market is not a buyers' market at the moment.

Michael D Not Higgins

foxy_j wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Ya might see if I can pop over in next couple of days. Think it would be better to talk in person & get some of our questions answered. We thought we were getting to see the property tuesday but he cancelled. I think his attitude was If you must see it again I'll see what I can do.

He did say it'll take 2 months from offer agreed date for the tenants to move out- they are landlords themselves so would have thought they would be more cooperative unless the Ea is up to something.

Guess we'll have to see how it goes....its the best property we’ve seen so far- quality, location etc but I know we shouldn’t get attached & bank on one property.

Any advice on bidding techniques or increments? We’ve been doing small increments so far

Thanks

Be careful, 2 months might be the required notice period but that doesn't mean they can't drag it out over a year waiting for the case to be heard by the PRTB. Hopefully that won't be the case, but also make sure the property is properly inspected after the tenants leave. Problems can emerge later and the current owner would be more likely to try and cover it up than rectify it and chase the old tenants for the cost.

For bidding, simply set your upper bound and don't exceed it. Decide what the property is worth to you and don't let phantom bids or the EA to goad you into overpaying. If your time limit expires on your bid, retract it. Look at other houses, so you don't get too attached. Let the EA know you're looking at other houses and even let slip that you have to see how a bid on another house is going before you could increase your bid on this one. That leaves the EA with less room to squeeze you.

messrs

Im wary of EA's now and whether such bids actually exist, I placed a bid on a site through an EA - this was all done through email, wasn't getting any feedback at all, I emailed EA a good few times and each time there was a different excuse, seller was on hols, the EA was on hols ( I was dealing with someone else in the office) I still knew I was the highest bidder at the time ect, so eventually after 2.5 months , I got fed up with not getting anywhere so I emailed the EA and withdrew the bid, she emailed back to confirm my withdrawel. A few days later I actually rang the EA to see what the current bid was on it ( she wouldn't have know it was me) & the figure she gave me was actually my bid (that I had withdrew) so they were just trying to get the most money possible for it. Because I had withdrew my offer, she should have gone to the next lowest offer and been given that as the current bid.

foxy_j

Thanks for the replies

We're viewing the house tomorrow & that's the final viewing. I wonder will other people be also there to view it aswell.

We've been cool about contacting the EA for the last few days with him chasing us. However when he called to ask if we can make the viewing tomorrow he said the bid was up another €800. This makes it at 2,800 over asking price

He's going on hols today so someone else will be looking after it. I called the EA'S office on wednesday just anonymously about the house (as my other half has been dealing with it). It wasn't the EA that's dealing with it that answered but he said he'd look into organising a viewing and that there was an offer on it- (our original first offer)

Is that normal that the subsequent other bids weren't in the system? Could we be bidding against ourselves? I know that particular EA may not have been familiar with that particular property and maybe the bids hadn't been updated in the system.

We're going to view it tomorrow and think about what to do....before we originally bid first we agreed that our max amount we'd go to would be 10-15k over asking price.I'm afraid the EA is just making up counter offers til we say we are at our max but i don't want to say that for eg 5k over is our last offer and we're out if it goes over as we are willing to pay more (don't want to lose the house) but don't want to overpay if we can avoid it.

A few house we rang about before that were gone went for roughly 20k over asking price so maybe there is another bidder!?

Any help we would be great!! Thanks

Michael D Not Higgins

Wait, so your original 5k under asking was the quoted bid? Seeing as they already got you to 2k over asking I'd say the other EA is not fully aware of the bids. It's still possible that it's phantom bidders, can you anonymously call back when the EA is back from holiday to verify?

foxy_j

The original EA is away from today and not sure for how long. Another agent is taking over the sale. I rang anonymously earlier to ask about the house and I was told there was a viewing tomorrow. So I guess its not a private viewing for us then.

I suppose I could ring back and ask if there has been an interest/offers on the property!

Big Cheese

There is no way of knowing. Assess the house and agree with your partner what you are prepared to pay. If bidding goes above that then consider walking away. We have gone sale agreed twice now and have learned so much but still is hard to determine best bidding strategy. PM me if need more specifics or advice

foxy_j

Thanks so much for all the advice and big cheese for offering to pm you. I might take you up on that depending how it goes.

We saw the property yesterday and it looked more lived in than the original scheduled viewing. Minor things like wear and tear, shed needing to be fixed etc but i'm not as invested in it which is good. No one else was at the viewing despite when i rang anonymously during the week they gave out the day and time of our viewing. We told the EA were waiting to hear back from other properties and to give us a call monday to let us know where the bidding is at.

We still like it but will see how it goes.When EA rings tomorrow i'm not too sure how to play it.,,,maybe give him a final number and say that's all we're prepared to go to and think the property is worth.Tell him we're looking at others and waiting to hear back so if he can let us know how is goes? He has to keep us in the bidding loop doesn't he even after we give him a final max bid? We are looking at other places but haven't bid on anything else but he doesn't know that.

thanks

Bepolite

OP I'm a bit concerned that you're looking at a house in Dublin that doesn't have at least 50 people at each viewing and several stupid offers on it. Might I ask the general area and price range? Perhaps you're looking in a different market to the one I was.

goz83

It seems the original EA was telling you porkies. You'll get the best price if you're willing to walk away. With the knowledge that the original bis is the highest recorded, i would not go more than 2k over that bid. Tell them it's your final bid and that you already have a fall back property for less money, but have a small preference over their property for whatever reason. It's just a game of sales.

foxy_j

Ya my other half is convinced we're bidding against ourselves so based on yesterdays turnout I think we need to give a final price and be prepared to walk away- if he comes back to us they've def been telling porkies.

The house has been up for about a month and there was a bunch of people at the scheduled viewing we went to 2 weeks ago. Not sure why there wasn't more yesterday. The asking price on the house is over 200k and in a good area of clondalkin.

Maybe its not as desirable a location however we asked around and one of our friends sisters lives there and its quiet and mature. We drove around aswell at different times of day. We did go for a few scheduled viewings last weekend in lucan aswell and you couldn't move in there with all the people.

The photos I found of those properties were lovely online and enticed you to view them howver the place we put in an offer on I wasn't that keen on seeing it just based on the photos online but went along anyways- turns out that was the best in real life.

Thanks

Bepolite

OP I'd even remove some of the details you've posted, I'd say over €200K and give a broader geographic area.

How is it priced for the area?

foxy_j

Thanks bepolite I amended it there. There aren't many similar ones available in that area- its a quiet settled area so not much has come up on the market. There is one nearby that is going for nearly 25k less but needs a lot more work and it has smaller square footage etc.

A few parks over and there a lot more but they are 2 beds mainly so aren't comparable.