bidding process

mkdon

any tips on this?

whole system seems flawed in terms of bidding.

keep getting outbid ...where is the evidence of actual bids.. expected to take EA's word for it?

LirW

EAs are legally required to keep a log of all bids.
See it like that, if an agent closes 10k over the asking, this would change his commission by 20 Euro or so on an average house. It's not worth to ruin your reputation for a few quid.
Like it or not, they work for the vendor, not you, and their job is to get the best price for the seller.

There are people who can bid more than you do and this is the reality in almost all cases where you lose.
You can just keep looking and bidding, it's certainly not a system that's built against you, affordable properties are still in really high demand.

averagejoe123

Set yourself a limit and don't go over it.

In the past I have gone in with my strongest bid from the start if I thought the house was worth it.

If a house has been on the market for a while with no bids I would make a conservative offer to see how it is received.

bri007

Where are you looking?

Set a max price you can afford, if it goes to that walk away and move onto the next one. Don’t over commit. You will get one that’s for you, will just take time.

We are in same position as yourself, horrible and actually one estate agent in particular (not naming) I made a complaint about as something didn’t appear right with whole thing!

But ye, we have been out bid on lots and lots of houses, even when we thought we were the highest bidder and no other bids for a few weeks up steps another and we are out! Frustrating but keep looking, from experience we have been looking a good while now and it appears to have slowed somewhat in demand compared to start of the summer, may pick up again in new year!

mkdon wrote: »

any tips on this?

whole system seems flawed in terms of bidding.

keep getting outbid ...where is the evidence of actual bids.. expected to take EA's word for it?

Seth Brundle

1. set yourself a max limit bearing in mind that you will need money for various things including stamp duty, furnishings, etc.
2. Don't get sucked into a bidding war. Consider each bid carefully. Forget about the notion of phantom bidders, etc.
3. Ask the EA for details of who has already bid, how much, etc. It's helpful to know who are the serious bidders and who are just testing the water.
4. Be prepared to walk away. We had the home of our dreams and what appeared to be a phantom bidder* was up against us. Hit our limit and I said to herself that we walk away (she didn't want to). We were obviously disappointed. However, we soon found a better house and in hindsight the one we missed out on wasn't as great as we imagined (massive garden and a great location but the house was meh). The "phantom bidder" was actually genuine (as they usually are) and seem to have had builders there for 18 months so maybe we dodged a massive bullet!
5. In terms of the EA, yes, take their word for it. As mentioned phantom bidders are usually genuine but also bear in mind that these days houses are selling well and there is generally no need for an EA to lie. Furthermore, for them to bump the price up by say 2k would only earn them maybe €50 in commission. Hardly worth the hassle!

* we figured there was a phantom bidder because there was nobody else at the only viewing but it turned out to be a friend of the vendor.