House gone sale agreed, highest bidder not alerted

Viscount Aggro

Local areas, they want to sell to a local person.

I was bidding on a property in Laois, was highest bidder.

EA told me, the vendor simply wanted to establish the market value.

It was sold to his sister.

What a waste of time.

Enter name here

@Ficus Jam ...Good luck, hate to say it though. I have dual residency and consider myself Irish although I was raised in Australia. First thing I noticed when coming home over 4 years ago. Irish tend to be very selective and borderline racist against anyone even if they are white. More so in the smaller communities. I like you was a cash buyer with no chains etc etc. After having the 1st 3 properties I went sale agreed on fall through I came to the conclusion Irish EA's are completely useless and even worse than a used car salesman. The 4th property I viewed and ended up buying, I went to the viewing with EA, waited 30 mins til it concluded and the EA left. I then knocked on the door approached the owners are asked them what they needed to take the house off the market and sell it to me. Took no more than 10 mins to work out a deal, next day I called the EA and gave them the number of my solicitor and said they will take care of everything else. Also worked out with the owners they would vacate property within 5 weeks. To this the EA said not possible but she would do her best (LOL). I said great if it doesn't happen within 5 weeks explain to your client why you lost the sale. Long story short 4 weeks later I moved in.

After 4 years don't rely on the Irish to do anything within a time frame or a budget. They work to their own clock. Wait until you start renovating and try and get contractor's to turn up on time or complete a job, but I'll save that story for another day.

db

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119328627#Comment_119328627

And you call Irish people borderline racist 🤔

Enter name here

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119328843#Comment_119328843

I call it as I see it daily. Nothing racist about what I said, I cant help it if Irish people tend to be incompetent.

Brock Turnpike

It never ceases to amaze me the amount of people on boards willing to defend the terrible behavior & outright gouging of estate agents that goes on.

It's no wonder the housing market is in the state its in when people are willing to turn a blind eye to the EA behavior that goes on, and the lack of transparency which they operate under.

OP, you have my sympathy.

macvin

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119332913#Comment_119332913

I think a lot of stories are made up (not the op)

EAs are easy targets, just like politicians and petrol station owners.

People create stories based on hearsay and add their own angle.

If these stories were actually real, why don't people make complaint to the PRA?

Here's some that were prosecuted

https://www.psr.ie/sanctions-prosecutions/

Ficus Jam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119332957#Comment_119332957

I'd imagine it's because all but the thickest of agents are clever enough to cover their tracks. The lack of transparency in the process makes it difficult to detect when genuine wrongdoing has occurred, as opposed to a lack of information with a perfectly reasonable explanation.

The distinction between a lazy agent and a dishonest or dodgy agent is almost imperceptible from the buyer's end.

If you've done something dodgy, the best tactic is to obfuscate, avoid, ignore and distract. The PRSA requires something substantive to make a complaint. Fair enough. Knowing this, how might a dodgy agent avoid a complaint even being made, or if made, avoid it being sufficiently verified to progress to an investigation? I'm sure you can come up with a few ideas.

I would feel uncomfortable making a complaint without having undeniable evidence that wrongdoing has occurred. Whinging about a lack of email response is hardly justification for complaining to an industry body - as annoying as it may be.

If you take the time to look at those prosecutions in your link, you'll note that the majority of them in the past 5 years are comprised of a single estate agency. Perhaps that agency might be those thickest of agents not clever enough to cover their tracks.

I do agree with you, however, that estate agents are just like politicians. Astute observation.

Ficus Jam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119332913#Comment_119332913

Can't disagree with you there. Upside of boards is that it's easy to ignore those posts and focus on the insightful ones.

The agent did eventually respond to my WhatsApp message and is (supposedly) going to call me on Thursday to explain further. She's busy all week until tomorrow, business must be booming.

The house has gone sale agreed with another buyer, and the vendors aren't entertaining any further offers at this point. Interesting.

spaceHopper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119333534#Comment_119333534

They are calling you so there is no paper trail, take notes and email them to her asking them to let you know if you've misunderstood any of the facts.

Gael23

They could have got a cash offer, someone with no chain etc.

The highest bidder doesn’t always get the house

Ficus Jam

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119398660#Comment_119398660

Reaching a 5-digit post count seems impressive until it becomes obvious how many posters are just reading titles and madly responding with their completely useless takes in an effort to get their post count up.

Between my original post, my follow-up posts, and other posts, this has been covered at least seven times now. Let the thread die, friend.

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119320943#Comment_119320943

It might be worth your while to check for planning notices for the property at the council as a means to try and find the vendors details, then contact them directly if you can, and let them know of your higher bid.

The property I have been living in for 2 decades, was sale agreed, and when I contacted the REA, they advised the vendor wouldn't entertain a higher bid, so i did the above, contacted the vendor and they were pissed as the REA was lying about the vendor not entertaining alternative offers, and they had been getting the run around from the other buyer for months, and arranged a viewing the next day. We came to an agreement and the vendor agreed to sell to me and gave the REA and the other buyer the flick.

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119321736#Comment_119321736

House is a 150k property. 1-2k bids would be standard at that valuation. I definitely would not be putting 5-10 k bids on.

Bass Reeves

OP, you can go onto Land Direct. It costs about 10-15 euro to get the a copy of the folio. This will have the name and address of the owner. You can contact them from that.

This sounds fishy. It's a holiday home. Vendor is not from the locality. EA is stringing you along. Another 1-2 weeks will allow contract to be signed.

Claw Hammer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119417573#Comment_119417573

Not every property has a folio. Where it has, copies are €5

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119420005#Comment_119420005

Virtually all houses have folio's. It's not capable of being sold without a folio. Nobody will buy a house without a folio. I was not sure of the price I knew it was relatively cheap.

If it's a holiday home I imagine it's a dedicated build one. I would be very suspicious of this sale. If the owner is not from the area it's unlikely they would have a preferred bidder. If there was you would imagine that the auctioneer would inform any bidder if this was the case when the sale closed. OP is a bidder that can close the sale fast so that is unlikely to be the reason.

chops018

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421246#Comment_119421246

No, not "virtually all houses have folio's", there are still many houses that are unregistered which would not have a folio and the person selling would have the original Deed to them conveying the ownership to them being evidence that they are the owner. The Deed should also have a stamp duty and Registry of Deeds stamp on it.

If someone is now buying an unregistered property then it will trigger a compulsory first registration and the person buying has to put it through the Land Registry and then get a folio so hopefully unregistered title will become a thing of the past eventually as folios are a much more straightforward way to deal with title.

celt262

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421246#Comment_119421246

Sounds like a mate of the estate agent is the estate agents preferred bidder...

Bass Reeves

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421712#Comment_119421712

Wouldn't be the first time.

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421690#Comment_119421690

I very recently sold just such a property.

chops018

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422797#Comment_119422797

You mean you recently sold an unregistered property with no folio?

All you do is give them the deeds and the buyers solicitor makes sure there is good marketable title. You also have to get a land registry compliant map for first registration purposes for the buyer. Did you have to do that?

cnocbui

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119422834#Comment_119422834

Yes.

Claw Hammer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119421246#Comment_119421246

Houses without folios are sold all the time. There is an obligation on the purchaser to register it and obtain a folio. About 40% of titles in many urban areas are not registered. It is mainly a country rural thing to have a folio.

feetofflames

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119321561#Comment_119321561

Hi

I dont mean to interupt this post but does anybody know when selling land by tender when it comes to opening the tender bids can the seller pick an underbidder if it was just a small amount because they are the preffered buyer ? Thanks

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119849589#Comment_119849589

There is no obligation for the seller to sell to the highest bidder, when the envelopes are opened you can pick the preferred offer and sell to that person, granted that is usually the highest bidder.