Anyone had any luck with auctioneera/bidx1?

bbehan202

1. I am looking to buy a house in Dublin
2. Estate agents are up to the usual tricks e.g. I viewed a property on Friday (first viewing), hung around the area, saw the estate agent leave with noone else view.
3. Put in an offer today. They saying they have 3 active bidders about 50K+ what the last one went in the area for on propertypriceregister. (There could have been viewings over the weekend but I doubt it)

I don't have the energy for these games so wondering if anyone has had success with auctioneera or bidx1?

Thanks,

K

s8n

bbehan202 wrote: »

1. I am looking to buy a house in Dublin
2. Estate agents are up to the usual tricks e.g. I viewed a property on Friday (first viewing), hung around the area, saw the estate agent leave with noone else view.
3. Put in an offer today. They saying they have 3 active bidders about 50K+ what the last one went in the area for on propertypriceregister.

I don't have the energy for these games so wondering if anyone has had success with auctioneera or bidx1?

Thanks,

K

How do you know the EA didnt show it to 5 other people the day before ??

bbehan202

They could have. I doubt it though as the property isn't in the historically best of areas and it looks like it will be somewhat of a buyer's market for a while.

I wouldn't say it's a buyer's market. There are plenty of people who were 18 around the last recession, who struggled to find work and have been told that their generation might never own their own homes. Then their careers kick off and they're socialising with manager-level colleagues who went into the last recession with money, telling them all about how they made out great by buying when prices had dropped their lowest. Those same 18 year olds are now hitting 30 and are looking down the barrel of the COVID recession, thinking this is actually the perfect time to buy. Not to mention that most people have saved up more money than usual over the lockdown.

That said, we had 4 other bidders on our house, who all came out of the woodwork at the last minute and pushed us to bid about €20k more than we expected. I do think we overpaid based on market value, but it was within our affordability range and we decided that while it was over market value, it was worth that much to us.

I was asked by a friend if I thought that it was the EA pushing the value up, and frankly I don't know. I don't know how I'd know and I don't know what I'd do about it. So we paid about 20k extra but we got the place.

bbehan202

true-or-false wrote: »

I wouldn't say it's a buyer's market. There are plenty of people who were 18 around the last recession, who struggled to find work and have been told that their generation might never own their own homes. Then their careers kick off and they're socialising with manager-level colleagues who went into the last recession with money, telling them all about how they made out great by buying when prices had dropped their lowest. Those same 18 year olds are now hitting 30 and are looking down the barrel of the COVID recession, thinking this is actually the perfect time to buy. Not to mention that most people have saved up more money than usual over the lockdown.

That said, we had 4 other bidders on our house, who all came out of the woodwork at the last minute and pushed us to bid about €20k more than we expected. I do think we overpaid based on market value, but it was within our affordability range and we decided that while it was over market value, it was worth that much to us.

I was asked by a friend if I thought that it was the EA pushing the value up, and frankly I don't know. I don't know how I'd know and I don't know what I'd do about it. So we paid about 20k extra but we got the place.

Madness. I done 4 or 5 viewings over past few days. I haven't made any bids and I had 2 estate agents call me and ask me if I wanted to make a bid. I still think the market will dip by 20 - 30% this year.

Anyway back on topic: Has anyone used the above sites to close on a property? Any advice? Are the vendors mainly banks?

L1011

If a property is listed there, chances are there's a problem of some description. Title, physical condition, sitting tenants, whatever. You will need to go through the legal documents provided with a fine tooth comb and legal advice before doing anything.

Also, buying at auction is very different in terms of stages than buying conventionally.

Jet Black

Few thread on here about bidding and the best advice is check the small print. Usually properties for auction have issues that's not easily fixed and sometimes not reported (title, pyrite etc)
The other problem is your on the hook for the property as soon as the hammer comes down so if you miss the issue and you can't proceed it's though ****, your going to have to pay, you could be sued for the amount if you can't. If you're going the mortgage route banks will want everything checked before signing off on it too. If it's a dump they may hold part payment up to the amount of repairs that you'll have to make up.
Auctioneers are just estate agents with a different name and selling technique. You can still get fecked around just as much by them as EAs.

bbehan202

Jet Black wrote: »

Few thread on here about bidding and the best advice is check the small print. Usually properties for auction have issues that's not easily fixed and sometimes not reported (title, pyrite etc)
The other problem is your on the hook for the property as soon as the hammer comes down so if you miss the issue and you can't proceed it's though ****, your going to have to pay, you could be sued for the amount if you can't. If you're going the mortgage route banks will want everything checked before signing off on it too. If it's a dump they may hold part payment up to the amount of repairs that you'll have to make up.
Auctioneers are just estate agents with a different name and selling technique. You can still get fecked around just as much by them as EAs.

Thanks. I figured as much.

Ortiz

bbehan202 wrote: »

They could have. I doubt it though as the property isn't in the historically best of areas and it looks like it will be somewhat of a buyer's market for a while.

Far from a buyers market in Dublin at the moment. It may be later this year but not right now.

Agents have to do viewings 1 on 1 now and there's no reason to think they didn't have several viewings earlier in the week or over the weekend.

Ortiz

bbehan202 wrote: »

1. I am looking to buy a house in Dublin
2. Estate agents are up to the usual tricks e.g. I viewed a property on Friday (first viewing), hung around the area, saw the estate agent leave with noone else view.
3. Put in an offer today. They saying they have 3 active bidders about 50K+ what the last one went in the area for on propertypriceregister. (There could have been viewings over the weekend but I doubt it)

I don't have the energy for these games so wondering if anyone has had success with auctioneera or bidx1?

Thanks,

K

Bid X1 generally deal with receiver sales I think. They will always sell via auction so just make sure you do your research beforehand on that etc.

Auctioneera are just one of these online only type agencies but they will sell be private treaty much like other EA's

Sidney77

be careful with bidx1, ive been stung before. condition of the lease was so bad that it couldtn be bought with a mortgage, i lost half my deposit.

Never used auctioneera but was looking to do my homework on them.

spaceHopper

Do a secret shopper have friend view it and get the details of current bids from EA.

Rupert Pumpkin

Per the OP, I really don't subscribe to the view that EAs create phantom bidders to push up prices. EAs usually work to about 1% commission, so if you were a good loan-approved (or cash) purchaser, and bid say 300k, the idea that the EA would risk their auctioneer's licence and their professional reputation to squeeze out another couple of hundred euro commission for themselves is not credible, and they also risk losing the sale for their client. Not saying it never happens, but is a lot less frequent than urban legend would have it. People can get understandably emotional when bidding on a house they like, and they often look for reasons they didn't get it.

Buying a property is such a big investment and commitment, it's hard to believe people would even consider doing so at auction without understanding the process. It appears that some people have a misunderstanding that they can successfully bid at auction and call their solicitor afterwards! It's too late, you're contracted to buy, regardless of its condition, or legal issues (there are some vendor obligations with regard to title, but you must satisfy yourself, and you need to know what you're doing.) A title may be marketable, but not bankable, so I would never bid on an auction property and need to sort the mortgage afterwards. Do not assume a lender will accept an auctioned title.

I've dealt with BidX1 a number of times, they can be maddening but are also very up-front and transparent. The property description will tell you exactly what they know, if there are no viewings allowed they will say so, but ask yourself "why not"? Is there an issue getting access? If so you will likely have the same issue when you become the new owner.. For investment properties, they will often not have a copy of the tenant's lease, often do not know the length of occupation, sometimes don't know if a deposit was paid or if rent is up to date, and may not have a set of keys or a fob for you after purchase. Usually I find it's the receiver who is the problem rather than the Agent. You are buying distressed property, the former owner might have put a family member or close friend in occupation on a long-term, low-rent lease, that then becomes your problem. The current perception is that all landlords are supposedly terrible, money-grabbing, heartless individuals, so good-luck trying to evict any tenant until Covid is well passed. Some of the financial consequences of the pandemic are being allowed to flow down to small landlords, just don't expect any sympathy or state assistance.

If you bid at auction, without having armed yourself with appropriate knowledge (and that doesn't mean relying on the online thoughts of "keyboard lawyers"), there is no point complaining afterwards about the condition of the property, or that the lease was only X years long, I can't get the tenants to pay, I can't evict them, I can't get a mortgage to complete, they took my money but won't give me keys. Almost invariably that will be your own fault, and will most likely have been clearly spelled out in the legally binding contract you effectively signed the day you bid...

I have had generally very good experiences and success with BidX1, but I know that eventually one will likely go wrong, most likely because I'll get greedy for the bargain. Good luck to all auction bidders, but buying distressed property, below market value, is not for the uninformed or the faint-hearted!

Colin Clarke

I haven't used an Auction before but I am planning to view a house in Cavan tomorrow but I have already downloaded the legal documents and briefly read through them but also forward them onto my solicitor to inspect them. If I do decide to bid and the legal docs are ok I will also try and get a survey done beforehand as I nearly bought a place before the lockdown, private treaty, but the surveyor reported that there where signs of Pyrite contamination in the Gable wall. Always get a survey done