Bidding after Survey

S

SiobhanMF

Registered User
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Hi,

I'm a first time buyer and have no idea how things are done. There is a beuatufl old house in Cork that I really would like - unfortunately so does at least one other person. Last week the agent asked us (the competing bidders) to get the house surveyed so that any offers from now on would not be subject to survey - I got a surveyor (recommended on this website) who told me this is not uncommon where the house is old and there is a lot of interest because if someone backs out after surveying because of say damp then the vendor has ot start all over again. So I got it surveyed yesterday and will have the report by the weekend. But assumining the report is good what do I do then? Presumably the other bidder having paid for a survey will be as a reluctant to let go as me. How much above the current offer (which is 405000, and which the vendor would accept) should I go? The previous offer (mine) was 400,000. Shoudl I bid low and see what the othe rperson does or if I do that will I lose it? Is the bidding process different after survey from what it was before?

Thanks a million

Siobhan
 
Thanks. I mean't how much above should I go in my next offer - just a tiny bit (2000?) equal theirs(5000)? or close to my final offer (which I don't know, I'm already stretched but..)?

Thank you

Siobhan
 
Its straight forward, bid what your comfortable with. Some people might say go in high and scare off the competitor such as put 10/15 grand on it, but that might not work and its obviously an expensive risk. TBH if its going up in 5's I wouldn't put a smaller amount on it, cause that will be easier for the other party to match and also gives time for other interested parties to jump aboard. In this situation I would put another 5 or at least 3, but thats without knowing the property and having no attachment to it so really only you can decide.

Is current offer far off the asking price
 
Hi,

I have got mortrgage approval in principle. The house price has already gone well above what I can afford but my parents have seen the house and think it's really lovely and are willing to advance me part of my inheritance (they are in their seventies and want to see me settled) but I don't know how much they would be willing to add (neither do they really but obviously we can't go wildly higher).

Thanks

Siobhan
 
siobhanMF maybe match their bid say your a first time buyer not in a chain and can close quickly, you don't have to offer a higher bid.
 
a friend of mine did it and it worked because the other bidder was in a chain, worth a chance :) best of luck
 
We were in a similar position on an older property with loads of character that we fell in love with. We were FTB and got the house by bidding 1k over and letting the vendor know we had full formal mortgage approval, ready to move on it ASAP at FTB. I think the other bidder was willing to offer more but they wanted a FTB that was sorted and ready to go. The vendor was a retired solicitor and knew how trecherous property chains could be.

Personally I would be wary of showing your full hand straight off (ie bidding your budget) as you said the vendor was willing to sell at 405 if that is the most they could get.

Also, just to note, is the vendor in a hurry to sell, as in do they need the profit from this sale to move on to another house, or do they have time to wait around? If they have time to wait around, you need to be patient and bid in small increments.

Best of luck!
 
SiobhanMF said:
The asking price was 375000.

....the current offer is 405000
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While i appreciate that all cases are different, current national climate seems to be that offers are 5 to 10% below asking price.

Current offer is 8% above asking price...

I think i will do some further research to establish the "normality" of this in similar area in Cork before putting in an other bid..

You could well be bidding against yourself, which is (was?) quite common..
 
SiobhanMF said:
So I got it surveyed yesterday and will have the report by the weekend. But assumining the report is good what do I do then?
Click to expand...

Don't want to alam you, but if it's an old house the chances of it being a totally good report are pretty slim (the voice of bitter experience here!).

I had thought that offers above the asking price were a thing of the past.

Personally, I'd stick to (or even reduce if the survey shows any problems that'll have to be fixed) your offer. As a FTB, you're in a strong position, and there's ALWAYS another house, no matter how much you like this one. It doesn't make too much sense to be to be stuck in a bidding war in the present climate.

Best of luck, with whatever you decide.
 
Also consider the fact that it might be costly to refurbish the house if you do get it. Maybe get some builders quotes for any work the surveyor sees has to be done on it and factor that into your offer. I can't believe that it's gone that far above the asking price in the current climate.

Another question I don't know the answer to - could you get a valuation done on this house by an independant auctioneer before making any further offers?
 
This house isn't the only one going above asking, in my area (limerick) asking price or over is still the norm, so you can't take a uniform approach to the property market in Ireland. Unfortunately for you Siobhan it looks like this property is one for the heart more than the head as it may seem that both bidders are putting in higher offers than they feel are suitable. The Cork market has tightened up a lot so i think do as other s have said and use the Ftb card. I would honestly doubt that you are bidding against yourself at this stage of the process considering that you are already above asking. Tell EA that you have already exceeded your budget and that you can just about afford the 400k,but you can close on the deal in a matter of weeks. I would be very wary of pushing your budget as far as you already have given you may need regular expensive servicing for an old house. Could you envisage pulling out and waiting for a better deal somewhere else?
 
MrMan said:
This house isn't the only one going above asking, in my area (limerick) asking price or over is still the norm, so you can't take a uniform approach to the property market in Ireland.
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hence my statement.....
I think i will do some further research to establish the "normality" of this in similar area in Cork before putting in an other bid...

MrMan said:
I would honestly doubt that you are bidding against yourself at this stage of the process considering that you are already above asking.
Click to expand...

I have to disagree. There is no relationship between asking price and whether you are bidding against yourself or not...
 
Bacchus,
To be honest there is rarely proof of people bidding against themselves at all, my point was that given that the market has tightened it would take a very thick skinned EA to risk losing a buyer that has already exceeded the asking price, unless he has undervalued the property to move it. I'm not naive enough to say that phantom bids don't occur its just that whenever a bidding war occurs, paranoia seems to kick in and people think they are being screwed. I work in the industry and have seen phantom bids in action, usually to get to a difficult vendors asking price, but it was not commonplace with my old firm and it 100% doesn't happen where I'm at now. We spoke about it when I started and it was clear from the outset that fake bids are a definite no-go area, yet that hasn't stopped people accusing us when bids go beyond their budgets, sorry to off the point a bit
 
Thank you. I'm learning a lot. I don't think it's a 'fake bidder' - it would surely be a bit extreme to pretend another bidder was getting a survey done. And it is an exceptionally nice house in a very popular area - on the other hand I don't want to pay more than the house is worth - but the surveyor said there weren't many nice house in that area of that size so there would be a lot of interest.

Siobhan
 
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