# Auctioneer ignoring our offer?



## alana (10 Jul 2009)

One week ago, we put in an offer on a property with the auctioneer. The property is currently vacant (the owners have died). They had no family between them and the proceeds of the sale is going to the church!We rang the auctioneer today ( he said he would ring us two days ago and didn't) and he told us that our offer is the highest but he wants a few more weeks to view the house. When i asked him was our offer rejected, and he said that he didn't tell the estates solicitor about it.Surely, our offer should be accepted or rejected? I don't want to be strung along for weeks in limbo so we will be ringing the auctioneer on Monday to say that we need an answer by Wednesday. We have bought houses before and I've never been treated like this by an auctioneer before - what do ye think?


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## mathepac (10 Jul 2009)

Look for another house or put your offer in writing to the solicitor with an expiration date.


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## alana (10 Jul 2009)

Thanks for the quick reply! To be honest, i'd love to tell the auctioneer to shove it but we love the house! We don't know who the solicitor acting for the couples estate is.....


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## so-crates (10 Jul 2009)

Just because there isn't a live person on the other side of the transaction doesn't mean that the property shouldn't be sold for the maximum amount possible, perhaps that is the light that the auctioneer is viewing it in. In which case he is acting on behalf of his clients.


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## Robin Banks (10 Jul 2009)

I thought auctioneers were obligated to relay bids to vendors.


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## Gordanus (11 Jul 2009)

You'd think so, wouldn't you?


10.	Members shall at all times make it their first duty to protect and promote the legitimate interest of their clients to the utmost of their ability.  To the extent possible without prejudice to that duty, members shall adopt a fair approach in relation to business conducted by them and encourage property sellers, property buyers, property owners, landlords, tenants, licensors and licensees to adopt a similar approach.


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## sam h (11 Jul 2009)

I had a similar situation with an autioneer.  He didn't pass on the offer so I said I have to have an answer by 12 tomorrow as there is another house I was keen on .

 He called me back 10mins later saying the seller had accepted my offer (he had been on bridging finance & it was costing him a fortune to keep the property)


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## redo (11 Jul 2009)

Sounds like the EA is holding the house for an investor mate.


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## Brendan Burgess (11 Jul 2009)

Folks

I have had to delete a post with foul language and a number of posts quoting it. 

If you see foul language, report the post. The little red triangle on the top of every post. 

Don't quote it.
Don't get into a discussion with the poster.

The poster in this case has been banned for foul language and for the abuse of the posters who responded to him.

Brendan


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## alana (12 Jul 2009)

redo said:


> Sounds like the EA is holding the house for an investor mate.


 
Thats actually what i think as well. Is there anything i can do? We love the house!!!!!


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## MrMan (12 Jul 2009)

alana said:


> Thats actually what i think as well. Is there anything i can do? We love the house!!!!!


 

What was the asking price and what was your offer? If the EA was being underhand why would he tell you exactly what he was doing, surely he would simply say that they have not accepted your offer?


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## alana (12 Jul 2009)

The house is on the market for €299,000. We put in an offer of €280,000. The highest bid before ours was €250,000. We thought that putting in an offer 30k above highest bid, would secure it for us. As other posters have said, i want to put a termination date on our offer, but will that just "put us out of the picture" so to speak, once that date has passed?


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## MrMan (13 Jul 2009)

alana said:


> The house is on the market for €299,000. We put in an offer of €280,000. The highest bid before ours was €250,000. We thought that putting in an offer 30k above highest bid, would secure it for us. As other posters have said, i want to put a termination date on our offer, but will that just "put us out of the picture" so to speak, once that date has passed?


 
Well he has to come back to you as the under bidder, but I would first contact IAVI or IPAV (whichever he is affiliated with) and put your case to them and ask that they approach the EA about his conduct and revert back to you. Tell the EA that you are not happy with his mishandling of the situation and that you will be contact aforementioned bodies.


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## MOB (13 Jul 2009)

I don't see that it is either necessary or appropriate to report the auctioneer to anybody.  It is entirely possible that the auctioneer has been instructed to conduct the sale in whatever way he sees fit.   It is possible he has agreed with his client vendor that he will keep it on market for a certain minimum period before bringing offers to client for consideration (a period which may not yet have expired) and is simply doing exactly as agreed with client.  Based on the limited information to hand, it certainly does not seem to be the case that there is anything untoward.   If OP is worried about the property being sold to someone else, possibly for less than OP is willing to pay, then OP should put their current offer in writing and make clear that they want auctioneer to come back to them if there is a higher offer.  Other than that, I don't see that there is much else to do.


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## MrMan (13 Jul 2009)

MOB said:


> I don't see that it is either necessary or appropriate to report the auctioneer to anybody. It is entirely possible that the auctioneer has been instructed to conduct the sale in whatever way he sees fit. It is possible he has agreed with his client vendor that he will keep it on market for a certain minimum period before bringing offers to client for consideration (a period which may not yet have expired) and is simply doing exactly as agreed with client. Based on the limited information to hand, it certainly does not seem to be the case that there is anything untoward. If OP is worried about the property being sold to someone else, possibly for less than OP is willing to pay, then OP should put their current offer in writing and make clear that they want auctioneer to come back to them if there is a higher offer. Other than that, I don't see that there is much else to do.


Contacting one of the main bodies may resolve the mystery for the OP. If the EA has been instructed to carry out the sale as he sees fit then there should be no worries for him, if he is not acting in the interests (deliberately or not) of his client then the OP might get a little more leeway. In fairness to the OP the offer is decent.


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## alana (13 Jul 2009)

Thanks everyone for your advice. I will be ringing the auctioneer after lunch, so we'll see what he says. I certainly don't want anyone to get into trouble - i just want to buy the flippin' house!


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## jack2009 (13 Jul 2009)

I appreciate that you want the house, be firm with the EA and give them no more than 24 hours.  Given that you have put in a good offer and some time has since past it is unlikely that a better offer comes along.

This may sound very silly but I had a similar problem in the past and when the issue got dragged out for too long I took it as a sign that the house was not for me.  2 weeks later I managed to find a much nicer house for 50k less!


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## alana (13 Jul 2009)

tried ringing the auctioneer, wasn't there, so was told he'll ring me back.....will try again tomorrow.


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## LM26 (14 Jul 2009)

Alana, did you have any luck with the EA today?


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## gaius (14 Jul 2009)

alana said:


> The house is on the market for €299,000. We put in an offer of €280,000. The highest bid before ours was €250,000. We thought that putting in an offer 30k above highest bid, would secure it for us. As other posters have said, i want to put a termination date on our offer, but will that just "put us out of the picture" so to speak, once that date has passed?


 Saw something similar happen before. Turned out that a colleague of the auctioneer was the lower bidder.
Does the owner live in the property? Stick a letter in the door to let them know of your bid.


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## alana (16 Jul 2009)

finally got a call from the auctioneer this morning. We still have the highest bid, but (once again) he told us that he has several more viewings on the house. I told him that our offer is nearly 2 weeks old and is it accepted or rejected?
He then told me that valuations have to be done on the property before he gives me an answer. Could be next week.
Fed up.


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## gaius (16 Jul 2009)

alana said:


> finally got a call from the auctioneer this morning. We still have the highest bid, but (once again) he told us that he has several more viewings on the house. I told him that our offer is nearly 2 weeks old and is it accepted or rejected?
> He then told me that valuations have to be done on the property before he gives me an answer. Could be next week.
> Fed up.


 Tell him to get lost. There's no shortage of properties out there. Don't let one hoor string you out like this.


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## alana (16 Jul 2009)

gaius said:


> Tell him to get lost. There's no shortage of properties out there. Don't let one hoor string you out like this.


 
Trust me Gaius, I'd flippin love to! But it is the house of our dreams, and i'd hate to let it go cause of this idiot.


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## gaius (16 Jul 2009)

> Trust me Gaius, I'd flippin love to! *But it is the house of our dreams*, and i'd hate to let it go cause of this idiot.


All you are doing is letting the EA know that. What will you do if a mysterious late and higher offer comes along in a week's time?
Your current strategy is leaving you open to gouging. Play hardball. It's what he is doing after all.


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## MOB (16 Jul 2009)

I find myself in the position of defending the auctioneering profession;  There's a thing that I didn't expect.

Folks, before we all rush to assume that the auctioneer is doing something hooky, read the first post.  This is an executor's sale and the proceeds are going to the church.  It may in fact be a sale by the church, depending on how things are organised.   It is entirely possible that the auctioneer has to produce a written report on the bids received together with his own assessment before the Bishop and\or the Diocesan Trust will sign off on the sale.  It is possible that the sale will be subject to the consent of the Commissioners for Charitable Donations and Bequests.   It is clearly not the case that there is a 'motivated vendor' on the other end of the phone who can simply instruct the auctioneer to accept the offer.   And two weeks is not that long.

Stories of hooky dealings by auctioneers are two a penny, but where there is a more prosaic explanation available, I think it at least behoves us to concede the possibility that the auctioneer is simply doing his job.


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## JoeB (16 Jul 2009)

I'd put in a new reduced offer in writing, saying that although you did offer 280K previously you are only prepared to offer 265K now... and you'd appreciate if you could be informed if a higher offer comes along... you can always re-instate your higher offer in the future.


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## maxol (16 Jul 2009)

+1 joe. Why even offer 30k over the highest bid? Offer 5k over that.


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## alana (17 Jul 2009)

maxol said:


> +1 joe. Why even offer 30k over the highest bid? Offer 5k over that.


 
The auctioneer told us that he would "let it go" for that price.


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## jack2009 (17 Jul 2009)

alana said:


> finally got a call from the auctioneer this morning. We still have the highest bid, but (once again) he told us that he has several more viewings on the house. I told him that our offer is nearly 2 weeks old and is it accepted or rejected?
> He then told me that valuations have to be done on the property before he gives me an answer. Could be next week.
> Fed up.


 
How could the house of gone to market without a valuation being done already?  is this not what the EA does on day one before issuing marketing etc?

I think you may have let the EA know how much you want this house and they are stringing you along and effectively taking the good out of it!

I would definately withdraw your offer in excess of 30k because so much time has passed.  You have obvioulsy offered way to much in an effort to secure the deal.  I can understand this but not when the EA is stringing you along for so long.


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## csirl (17 Jul 2009)

Agree with MOB.

Its very likely that the church made a formal decision to put the house on the market for a set period of time and take the highest offer that has been received during this period - they may not have the capacity to make a quick decision on an offer in the same manner as an individual can. Auctioneer reports on highest price received at a meeting scheduled at some stage in the future.


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## maxol (17 Jul 2009)

Yes but even if it's a case of church waiting if alana offers anything above the previous bid then hers should be accepted so immed withdraw the 30k extra!! Plus if it's not EA decision then how can he 'let it go' for a certain amount.

He's taking the Mick. Sure in this Market the valuation is falling every day. The churce aren't foolish when it comes to finances and I'd imagine would see the sense of dealing sooner rather than later in a falling Market.


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## alana (21 Aug 2009)

Hi everyone,
Just to keep you updated on what happened to our offer.
After being screwed around by the auctioneer, we decided to withdraw our offer and rang the auctioneer to tell him. He said no problem and that was it....didn't ask why or anything. End of story.
Two days ago, the auctioneer rang me and asked was i still interested in the house, as the highest bidder had pulled out. The highest bid was €270k, 10k lower than our bid "so we'd get a great deal"!
I told him to take a running jump.............!


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## manta356 (22 Aug 2009)

Make him a new offer of €250k and give him a date to accept or reject.
Fact is he was stringing you along with this other bidder (if he even existed) and got caught out.
You hold the cards now


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## MrMan (22 Aug 2009)

manta356 said:


> Make him a new offer of €250k and give him a date to accept or reject.
> Fact is he was stringing you along with this other bidder (if he even existed) and got caught out.
> You hold the cards now



The cards still belong to the vendor though, so it may not be straight forward.


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## Bronte (24 Aug 2009)

alana said:


> Hi everyone,
> 
> Two days ago, the auctioneer rang me and asked was i still interested in the house, as the highest bidder had pulled out. The highest bid was €270k, 10k lower than our bid "so we'd get a great deal"!
> I told him to take a running jump.............!


 
Don't be hasty, do you still want the house?   With this market you'll probably get it for less than 270.


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## Robin Banks (25 Aug 2009)

MrMan said:


> The cards still belong to the vendor though, so it may not be straight forward.


 
Vendors hold no cards. They hold overpriced inventory in an oversupplied market.

Average time to sell is currently 364 days. 

Its funny how every house in the country has an offer on it if you express an interest. Withdraw your offer and the other offer may disappear too. Funny that.


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