Putting an offer on a house

Calling them, putting your bid in of amount X, then the waiting game begins, give them a week or so until you hear anything back. Inform them you want to be informed if a higher bid comes in.
Decide a max budget and don't go over it, if you lose, accept it and move on. If accepted keep looking until you have the keys.

We've just put in an offer on a house ourselves. First time buyers and first time bidders! There is another bidder involved and further viewings scheduled so there's a long way to go yet. All we can do is wait, hope and keep our options open I suppose!
edit: For info, we made the offer in person and we were not required to provide letter of approval, EA says that will be required if we go sale agreed.

I wouldn’t give the agent your AIP. That’s information they can use against you. Just tell them you are approved and give them a copy with the figures redacted if they really push you.

mickeyk wrote: »

I wouldn’t give the agent your AIP. That’s information they can use against you. Just tell them you are approved and give them a copy with the figures redacted if they really push you.

I had an agent ignore a bid (email) without telling me because I forgot to attach the proof again. I thought doing it only for the first bid was enough. I found out because I went to another open viewing and heard the agent say the top bid was whatever it was, below what I had offered :eek:

I would definitely not show the EA the amount that you have been approved for. Many banks will provide a letter stating that the buyer has the funds available to purchase house x.

Put everything in writing. If you make a bid, send it in an email & ask for acknowledgement of your bid. If the EA tells you that another bidder has made an offer of x, ask for that in writing.

Get to know your local estate agents. Show them you’re a serious buyer. Even if you don’t get this house, by building up those relationships you will eventually succeed.

In this case the buyer may want €235k but wanting & getting are different things.

There is no right or wrong approach to bidding. Some people advise a “knock the competition out” approach so you could top the latest bid by s significant amount & tell the EA it’s your one & only bid. Personally I’ve used this tactic 3 times & it worked. You have to judge when to do it. There’s a fear that you might pay a bit more than you had to but overall in a potential 20-30 year investment it’s usually pretty meaningless.

Alternatively you can hold back, telling the EA you are interested in the house but not interested in a bidding war and wait to see where the bidding ends & then jump in.

Or you enter the soul-crushing bidding war scenario where you go up in increments of 1k or 2k at a time against other people, never quite knowing the other bidders’ situations or finances or what cards they hold. Or even if they exist! It’s a game of poker.

Best of luck.