Smallest amount I can bid?

quantity771 · 29-03-2021 10:24pm #1

I’ll keep it brief. Looking at house, current offer on it is €240,000 which is the asking price.

What’s the smallest increment I can increase my bids by, I mean I want to slow down the bidding a bit and obviously frustrate other bidders.

Can I go up in 500’s or can the EA dictate what the minimum increase should be?

I have heard differing opinions, some saying they will tell me 1k is the only option.

Advice much appreciated!

Dav010 · 29-03-2021 10:41pm

quantity771 wrote: »

I’ll keep it brief. Looking at house, current offer on it is €240,000 which is the asking price.

What’s the smallest increment I can increase my bids by, I mean I want to slow down the bidding a bit and obviously frustrate other bidders.

Can I go up in 500’s or can the EA dictate what the minimum increase should be?

I have heard differing opinions, some saying they will tell me 1k is the only option.

Advice much appreciated!

You can pretty much bid in whatever increments you like, but I’m not sure how this frustrates other bidders or slows down the bidding if others want to bid in 1k/5k/10k increments. If bids are going up in thousands and you are going up in hundreds, the seller/EA may see what you are trying to do and focus on other bidders.

Some sellers will instruct EAs to only inform them of bids which increase above a certain level.

Wesser · 29-03-2021 10:43pm

1 cent

Brian? · 29-03-2021 10:43pm

You bid €1 At a time. But it'll piss the seller off.

I wouldn't bid any less than 5 grand at a time. Depends how much you really want the house

kippy · 29-03-2021 10:46pm

quantity771 wrote: »

I’ll keep it brief. Looking at house, current offer on it is €240,000 which is the asking price.

What’s the smallest increment I can increase my bids by, I mean I want to slow down the bidding a bit and obviously frustrate other bidders.

Can I go up in 500’s or can the EA dictate what the minimum increase should be?

I have heard differing opinions, some saying they will tell me 1k is the only option.

Advice much appreciated!

Are you aware of the bidding history so far?
There are two tactics generally, bid in relatively small amounts (as much as will be tolerated by the auctioneer) or bid in larger amounts to scare the competition off...
I don't think bidding in small amounts will frustrate other bidders and if it does it will more than likely result them in bidding in higher amounts. All hard to tell tbh without knowing the situation of the sellers and other bidders.
The auctioneer will tell ya what to bid in as they essentially control the process.
It may get to a point where there are two or three matching bids and the auctioneer will advise the client which one might be best to accept. Bear that in mind....

Snotty · 29-03-2021 10:51pm

Quarter of a million house and bidding in €500 is a sure fire way to have you ignored in the bidding process.

Have a price in your mind and bid up to that amount in similar increment that the other buyers bid, if you are fast approaching your ceiling, you can certainly either lower the amount, €1k would be minimum, however you could go the opposite approach and when you think you are about to reach your ceiling, put in a large bid matching your ceiling amount, it may put off the other buyers.

Iodine1 · 29-03-2021 10:54pm

€500 is easy to top by other bidders. €1000 means you have to bid €2000 to top and this is more likely to put off the competition than the €1000 it takes to top a bid of €500, thus agents will look for a minimum bid and as property gets more expensive, ie €1m+ the minimum bid will increase too. But it's a convention rather than rules I understand.

SteM · 29-03-2021 10:57pm

You bidding low amounts won't frustrate other potential buyers, only the EA and seller. Not sure what you would gain by that to be honest.

quantity771 · 29-03-2021 10:57pm

Thanks all much appreciated, I’ll keep posted how it progresses!

Graham · 30-03-2021 12:11am

quantity771 wrote: »

What’s the smallest increment I can increase my bids by, I mean I want to slow down the bidding a bit and obviously frustrate other bidders.

I'm not even convinced small bids would achieve your goal.

It takes a lot less consideration for a counter bidder to increase their bid by €1k than €5k or €10k

Milena009 · 30-03-2021 12:14pm

Graham wrote: »

I'm not even convinced small bids would achieve your goal.

It takes a lot less consideration for a counter bidder to increase their bid by €1k than €5k or €10k

I agree so much here. When we were bidding on a house, it took far longer for people to counter bid a 5k than 1k even.

So i think 500 Eur increments would be exact opposite of what you're trying to achieve other than pissing off the EA and seller.

spaceHopper · 31-03-2021 12:25pm

Are you a first time buyer, are you in a chain, have you mortgage approval. Stress this to the EA and ask them have they verified that the other bidders can complete the purchase. There are a lot of dreamers out there who drive up prices only to find later that they can't afford it and the EA never checked. Or the EA lets them bid to drive up prices and once they hit a level they are happy with they start to ask questions.

If you like the property work out what it's worth to you and what you can afford. Bid that if that's not accepted, walk away.

JustAThought · 31-03-2021 1:18pm

spaceHopper wrote: »

Are you a first time buyer, are you in a chain, have you mortgage approval. Stress this to the EA and ask them have they verified that the other bidders can complete the purchase. There are a lot of dreamers out there who drive up prices only to find later that they can't afford it and the EA never checked. Or the EA lets them bid to drive up prices and once they hit a level they are happy with they start to ask questions.

If you like the property work out what it's worth to you and what you can afford. Bid that if that's not accepted, walk away.

I know someone who was encouraged by an EA to bid against herself to guarantee she would put everyone else off and get the house. Totally unethical EA weaseled another 10K out if her by scaring her into paying over her own bid before he closed the deal. CA should be put onto them.

Having experienced the totally unethical dealings of someone working in one of the big EA I’d ve extremely cynical. Do these other bidders or bids even exist? Are you the only person interested and in a position to buy? Is the EA just having a laugh at your embarasment and misery - they get a % of the final sale price.

Someone should look at this whole industry.

Dav010 · 31-03-2021 1:23pm

JustAThought wrote: »

I know someone who was encouraged by an EA to bid against herself to guarantee she would put everyone else off and get the house. Totally unethical EA weaseled another 10K out if her by scaring her into paying over her own bid before he closed the deal. CA should be put onto them.

Having experienced the totally unethical dealings of someone working in one of the big EA I’d ve extremely cynical. Do these other bidders or bids even exist? Are you the only person interested and in a position to buy? Is the EA just having a laugh at your embarasment and misery - they get a % of the final sale price.

Someone should look at this whole industry.

Are you saying the EA told your friend that if she bid a certain amount, the seller would accept it? You don’t see the benefit in knowing this? The buyer can either bid or walk away.

SteM · 31-03-2021 1:39pm

JustAThought wrote: »

I know someone who was encouraged by an EA to bid against herself to guarantee she would put everyone else off and get the house. Totally unethical EA weaseled another 10K out if her by scaring her into paying over her own bid before he closed the deal. CA should be put onto them.

Having experienced the totally unethical dealings of someone working in one of the big EA I’d ve extremely cynical. Do these other bidders or bids even exist? Are you the only person interested and in a position to buy? Is the EA just having a laugh at your embarasment and misery - they get a % of the final sale price.

Someone should look at this whole industry.

This sort of thing comes up time and again on this forum. The % that the EA gets from each sale makes it a volume business, the more houses they sell the more they make.

Estate Agents make between 1% and 2.5% of the sale price as commission and they have to pay income tax on that. Do you really think EAs are willing to loose their business or have a laugh at people's embarrassment for this amount?

joeysoap · 31-03-2021 1:49pm

Agreed. I know someone who bid below the asking price and was told he could have the house but €5,000 was to be paid ‘under the counter’. Went ahead used his own solicitor ( the seller wanted his).once all was signed and sealed for the offer ( less the €5,000)he was approached for the 5k by the EA. He told the EA to fcuk off. Few years ago now

kippy · 31-03-2021 1:54pm

SteM wrote: »

This sort of thing comes up time and again on this forum. The % that the EA gets from each sale makes it a volume business, the more houses they sell the more they make.

Estate Agents make between 1% and 2.5% of the sale price as commission and they have to pay income tax on that. Do you really think EAs are willing to loose their business or have a laugh at people's embarrassment for this amount?

It's in the estate agents interest to increase property prices.....over time this is what happens and while that small figure over one transaction isn't much, over ten or a hundred transactions it is a large sum.....
I have little doubt that it goes on.

MacDanger · 31-03-2021 1:58pm

SteM wrote: »

Estate Agents make between 1% and 2.5% of the sale price as commission and they have to pay income tax on that. Do you really think EAs are willing to loose their business or have a laugh at people's embarrassment for this amount?

That's true but if an EA gains a reputation for getting a good price for properties, they get an increased volume of customers and that would make it worth their while

SteM · 31-03-2021 2:04pm

kippy wrote: »

It's in the estate agents interest to increase property prices.....over time this is what happens and while that small figure over one transaction isn't much, over ten or a hundred transactions it is a large sum.....
I have little doubt that it goes on.

Everyone has little doubt it goes on but no one really has any proof that 'phantom bids' actually exist. Its brought up on this forum so much that surely someone has some proof other than 'a friend told me this' type of evidence.

JustAThought · 31-03-2021 2:11pm

SteM wrote: »

This sort of thing comes up time and again on this forum. The % that the EA gets from each sale makes it a volume business, the more houses they sell the more they make.

Estate Agents make between 1% and 2.5% of the sale price as commission and they have to pay income tax on that. Do you really think EAs are willing to loose their business or have a laugh at people's embarrassment for this amount?

Ten thousand is no laughing matter and no the kind of money people just have handy on a shelf to give away because some EA wants a bigger cut of the pie.
There was also that case in Dublin some years back where the EA was prosecuted because he kept pushing the ‘new’ price up to the amount he knew the buyer had mortgage approval for. Should happen more and there should be a proper policy in place for routinely checking and policing it.

JustAThought · 31-03-2021 2:12pm

SteM wrote: »

Everyone has little doubt it goes on but no one really has any proof that 'phantom bids' actually exist. Its brought up on this forum so much that surely someone has some proof other than 'a friend told me this' type of evidence.

I think when the friend is the EA and working in the industry that should be enough. I certainly know it happens and with the big sellers. Not ‘just’ small one shop family businesses.

riclad · 31-03-2021 2:24pm

i Would bid 5000-7000 more ,
the ea doesnt care ,do not waste peoples time.
if someone wants to buy a house they will probably keep on bidding,
Up to the limit of the amount they can afford to pay .
the no of houses for sale is at an all time low.
remember if someone wants to buy a new house they,ll be paying 300k plus.
1per cent of 5k is 50euro.
the job of the ea is to sell house,s accept any reasonable bids on the house.
I Dont think phantom bids exist.
on the radio this morning pat kenny show it said house prices went up by 8 per cent
in 2020.

SteM · 31-03-2021 2:28pm

JustAThought wrote: »

Ten thousand is no laughing matter and no the kind of money people just have handy on a shelf to give away because some EA wants a bigger cut of the pie.
There was also that case in Dublin some years back where the EA was prosecuted because he kept pushing the ‘new’ price up to the amount he knew the buyer had mortgage approval for. Should happen more and there should be a proper policy in place for routinely checking and policing it.

That's my point though. You mention a case in Dublin some years back but if it was happening as much as many here suggest then there would be many more cases, not just one you could recall from a few years ago.

JustAThought · 31-03-2021 3:27pm

SteM wrote: »

That's my point though. You mention a case in Dublin some years back but if it was happening as much as many here suggest then there would be many more cases, not just one you could recall from a few years ago.

Agree totally.

Its an industry that is riddled with lies and corruption. Can’t understand how the industry of ‘homeless’ hasn’t latched into them.Been forcing prices up for decades. An utterly corrupt cohort who feed off human despair and desperation.

The J Stands for Jay · 31-03-2021 3:28pm

Brian? wrote: »

You bid €1 At a time. But it'll piss the seller off.

I wouldn't bid any less than 5 grand at a time. Depends how much you really want the house

I have made bids of less than 5k and been told to not do it again by the EA.

Dav010 · 31-03-2021 3:30pm

JustAThought wrote: »

Agree totally.

Its an industry that is riddled with lies and corruption. Can’t understand how the industry of ‘homeless’ hasn’t latched into them.Been forcing prices up for decades. An utterly corrupt cohort who feed off human despair and desperation.

How dare they try and achieve the best possible price for sellers.

Any proof you have of corruption should be reported to the relevant authority.

Claw Hammer · 31-03-2021 5:23pm

joeysoap wrote: »

Agreed. I know someone who bid below the asking price and was told he could have the house but €5,000 was to be paid ‘under the counter’. Went ahead used his own solicitor ( the seller wanted his).once all was signed and sealed for the offer ( less the €5,000)he was approached for the 5k by the EA. He told the EA to fcuk off. Few years ago now

Most sellers wouldn't sign until they get the cash first!

Graham · 31-03-2021 5:25pm

Mod Note

ok folks we're heading way into the weeds here. The question is "Smallest amount I can bid?"

Claw Hammer · 31-03-2021 5:46pm

Most EAs have limits on the samllest increment they will accept. I have come across some who will not talk in hundreds and tell the owner this at the outset. They will refuse to accept bids which are an advance in the hundreds on the current bid.

ted1 · 01-04-2021 12:23am

Snotty wrote: »

Quarter of a million house and bidding in €500 is a sure fire way to have you ignored in the bidding process.

Have a price in your mind and bid up to that amount in similar increment that the other buyers bid, if you are fast approaching your ceiling, you can certainly either lower the amount, €1k would be minimum, however you could go the opposite approach and when you think you are about to reach your ceiling, put in a large bid matching your ceiling amount, it may put off the other buyers.

I bought mine for xxx,500
I let on thats alm I could afford and had to borrow and scrounge to come up with that amount.

OP if you are a cash buyer or FTB you can bid the same as the existing offer , if they are in a chain the seller will take your Offer. Sometimes they’ll take a lower offer from someone not in a chain

ted1 · 01-04-2021 12:26am

JustAThought wrote: »

I know someone who was encouraged by an EA to bid against herself to guarantee she would put everyone else off and get the house. Totally unethical EA weaseled another 10K out if her by scaring her into paying over her own bid before he closed the deal. CA should be put onto them.

Having experienced the totally unethical dealings of someone working in one of the big EA I’d ve extremely cynical. Do these other bidders or bids even exist? Are you the only person interested and in a position to buy? Is the EA just having a laugh at your embarasment and misery - they get a % of the final sale price.

Someone should look at this whole industry.

Sounds far enough. What he was really saying is that the sellers will only sell for 10k more than your offer.

Smallest amount I can bid?

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