Bidding & estate agent

Re: Bidding & E agent

... is it going through probate. You should be as well informed as possible (no better source than right here!) and ask all the right questions: reasons for leaving, ceiling price on the road, previous planning applications, freehold or leasehold, any structural surveys previously conducted? All these should factor in the value you place on the house, but they’ll also make the EA realise you are well clued in, so they’ll be less inclined to play their notorious games.[/quote]

any chance of explaining a few of these better as a few of us new to the game have been treated like the preverbial 'suckers' before. (probate/ceiling price on the road/ freehold lease hold etc..)
Thanks in advance
 
Re: Bidding & E agent

If your bath over flowed and caused damaged to house, u claim of insurer yourself or u can u a company to do it for u 99% of the time they will get you the better price
quote=OhPinchy]Fair enough, apologies for the overreaction Dodo, though I don’t quite understand what you mean about claiming through a broker.

Dino – I’d say so far so good for you – you’ve shown the estate agent you’re genuinely interested, now its time to show you are not a sucker. The seller and the EA do not dictate the value of a house – the market does that, and you are part of the market. Its early days in the bidding for this house so theres no need to rush in with an increased bid straight away. I’d tell the EA when you get news of being outbid something like ‘ah well, that’s a pity. Lucky for us we found another house we’re also interested in. When are they planning on closing this sale? Please be sure to get back to me before you finalise on this one.’.

If the house is likely to get a good few more bids theres no need for you to be involved until its nearing the end game. Its an EAs dream to have 3 or 4 bidders they can just get on the blower to and say ‘X has increased it by 2Gs. You’ll increase it by another 2Gs? I’ll let you know’.

Get a friend to ring every couple of days to see where its at and what the viewing schedule is. When its nearing wrap-up its time to get involved. If you stay involved through the whole thing and increase your bid every time the EA rings without much reluctance they know they have you around their finger and that you still don’t sound like you have reached your limit. Try and make every increased bid sound like its hurting you as they are less likely to think you will re-bid next time round. Also, the more people are involved in the early stages the higher the chance that one of them will try a major increase ‘to blow everyone out of the water’. Ask who you’re up against.

The bidding may well still reach a pretty high amount, but by leaving it late to get involved you are reducing the competition up to that point. Be careful to keep up-to-date by having others ring the EA and make sure you do get involved before it wraps up, but if you take this approach I see it as the lowest risk.

On the point made above about the seller’s circumstances this should be one of the first things you ask the EA when viewing – try suss them out and see are they desperate to get rid of it, or is it going through probate. You should be as well informed as possible (no better source than right here!) and ask all the right questions: reasons for leaving, ceiling price on the road, previous planning applications, freehold or leasehold, any structural surveys previously conducted? All these should factor in the value you place on the house, but they’ll also make the EA realise you are well clued in, so they’ll be less inclined to play their notorious games.[/quote]
 
Anyone got any views on bidding tactics. I think so far good advice is waiting until nearer the end game and not getting involved in unnecessary competition. What about the amount of raise. Does going up in say 1000's not tempt other buyers into a tit for tat game. On the other hand does a one off raise of say 3 or 4,000 perhaps throw money away. Maybe its like poker and a pure judgement call?
 
Re: Bidding & E agent

positivenote said:
... is it going through probate. You should be as well informed as possible (no better source than right here!) and ask all the right questions: reasons for leaving, ceiling price on the road, previous planning applications, freehold or leasehold, any structural surveys previously conducted? All these should factor in the value you place on the house, but they’ll also make the EA realise you are well clued in, so they’ll be less inclined to play their notorious games.
Click to expand...

any chance of explaining a few of these better as a few of us new to the game have been treated like the preverbial 'suckers' before. (probate/ceiling price on the road/ freehold lease hold etc..)
Thanks in advance[/quote]

Hi positivenote,

Probate is bad news and generally results in a long wait due to the legal issues involved in getting the will of the deceased sorted out etc.

Ceiling price on road: whats the highest price a house on the road has ever sold for - a useful bit of info to know.

Try this thread for freehold and leashold info.

Always ask has it been sale agreed before, and has there been any structural surveys done - they won't tell you if there was any bad news, but at least they can't come back later and say 'you never asked'. Same goes for planning applications - you'll want to know if there have been applications rejected in the past on your property, and also what are the plans for the area, and what applications have been accepted.
 
Re: Bidding & E agent

i have been a sucker, well my dad has, he has been dealing with the bidding process, and he has been responding to every raise in the bid, by slappiing another grand on the property each time. now we are in this situation

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=22076

think its time to let that one go, and go in with a new strategy, put an easly bid in and settle back, and let the others dust it out, and knock each other out of it, until it simmers down a bit, and hopefully get a blast at it then.

first time buying for me so mistakes have been made, and we have been played, however will take heed ofadvice from here

thanks
 
This string has been very useful. I am currently bidding on a property that I really want. I am bidding against one other person, or so I have been told. Today I counter offered their last offer up to my original max offer (although I have decided I will go higher if I have to). I know the advice says to tell the EA that its your final offer, but I am scared then of losing the property. It is in need of refurbishment, but the location is great and with my budget there is a not a lot in my price range. Is the EA obliged to come back to you before closing, even if you say that it's your final offer?

I have been told that you are entitled to ask the EA for a printed list of the bidding order and increments. Is this correct? Does it stand for anything or can the EA make up the list?

As was mentioned earlier, buying a home is very emotionally charged and it is hard to know when to let go...
 
AFAIK, the EA is obliged to come back and tell you that your "final" offer has been bettered.

From my own experience, there's not much point in saying that something is your final offer if it's not. We missed out on a house by ten minutes because I told the EA we weren't going any higher (there was a higher bid at the time). Called the boyf and he said up it by another 2k. I called, and it was gone. In fairness to the EA, she wouldn't let me gazump, saying that in that 10 minutes she had called the seller and the other bidder.
 
sun_sparks said:
AFAIK, the EA is obliged to come back and tell you that your "final" offer has been bettered.

From my own experience, there's not much point in saying that something is your final offer if it's not. We missed out on a house by ten minutes because I told the EA we weren't going any higher (there was a higher bid at the time). Called the boyf and he said up it by another 2k. I called, and it was gone. In fairness to the EA, she wouldn't let me gazump, saying that in that 10 minutes she had called the seller and the other bidder.
Click to expand...

i think that if you dotn pull out, then they are legally obliged to let u knwo that a final bid has been accepted and woudl you liek to raise it.

ur lucky had same situation there on wednesday and the dealer allowed someone to gazxump me, was very upsetting, within 3 hours gone from elation to having apt to deflation, whats more guy put bid fo 5 grand in, it had been goign up in increments of 1k

meeting them today, spoke to them yesterday and they said shoudl they bring legal representation !!! we dont have a casee but was advise by a solicitor friend to tell them that we are gng to contact their headquaters, and the local press, may make them more pliant !!!

in addition the agent said to me that it was shoddy work on their behalf, but not underhand, i said we'll see , and then he came back do you think (insert name of estate agents) woudl jeopardise their good name for a paltry 5 grand. its not paltry to a first time buyer, it can be diff between getting a place and missing out !!!
 
put a bid in on a house 5k below the quoted price qnd the EA asked me was i qaware that the bid was under by 5k, i told him that we were aware of this. He said he would get back to us and took our number. Its been 2 days since and he has not got back to us... it's only on the mrkt athis week, but is he obliged to let us know if our offer has been bettered even though we did not meet the asking price. We underbid because we recently got involved in a bidding war and it got a little crazy, money wise, and on reflection it was better off that we got out bid. I just have the fear that because we underbid the asking price he might not keep us informed if the bid has been bettered...
are we going about it the right way or should i ring him back and raise our offer to the asking price (we are prepared to go a few 'k' over it if we have to).
thanks again
 
positivenote,

I would get a friend to enquire about the house!! Don’t every show you are too keen!!
I would even go as far as bidding a good bit yourself and then pull out(shows the house is starting to get expensive) and get a solicitor to do the bidding from then on! It probably cost a few quid to get the solicitor but it could save you a couple of grand and you dont have to listen to the EA fill you with b*******

EA in my opinion are ******* and I have more respect for the dirty on my shoe than them!!


I probably get banned now!!!
 
Just to update you all, I'm going to buy the house at €390, the vendor wanted that amount all along and I'm happy to pay it, the other identical house went for €25k more, will get survey done asap because I sold my own house for €20k over my asking price (very pleased about that!:D ) and I'm hoping if surveys go well to close quite soon. AAM has been a great help in this process, thanks to all. :)
 
Re: Bidding & E agent

OhPinchy said:
If the house is likely to get a good few more bids theres no need for you to be involved until its nearing the end game. Its an EAs dream to have 3 or 4 bidders they can just get on the blower to and say ‘X has increased it by 2Gs. You’ll increase it by another 2Gs? I’ll let you know’.

Get a friend to ring every couple of days to see where its at and what the viewing schedule is. When its nearing wrap-up its time to get involved. If you stay involved through the whole thing and increase your bid every time the EA rings without much reluctance they know they have you around their finger and that you still don’t sound like you have reached your limit. Try and make every increased bid sound like its hurting you as they are less likely to think you will re-bid next time round. Also, the more people are involved in the early stages the higher the chance that one of them will try a major increase ‘to blow everyone out of the water’. Ask who you’re up against.

The bidding may well still reach a pretty high amount, but by leaving it late to get involved you are reducing the competition up to that point. Be careful to keep up-to-date by having others ring the EA and make sure you do get involved before it wraps up, but if you take this approach I see it as the lowest risk.

.
Click to expand...

Followed your advice OhPinchy and got stung!! Rang myself regarding a property a few times, had numerous friends ring etc, and when i felt it was near closing rang the estate agent to put in a bid. Kept getting answering machines at office, mobile etc. She eventually rang me back and told me house was sale agreed!!! When i asked her why she didnt ring me as i had specifically asked her 2 days before she told me that wasnt her job. If so wtf was she ringing me to say it was sale agreed????

Either something fishy going on or else the estate agent is lazy/incompetent and cannot perform the most simple aspect of her job - get the best price. House was well within my budget and i had decided to get this place no matter what.

Am gutted now - cant believe i have to go back to the drawing board again......so frustrating. Though myhome.ie is very useful by now i hate the sight of the thing!!

BTW Am not blaming you at all OhPinchy (or any other poster) - I still think the tactics described in this thread are sound and should help you get the lowest price. But i think my point is, no matter what advice you follow, how you try to play the process, you can still end up losing out!

[Sorry if this sounds like a rant!]
 
Sorry to hear that you lost it warren but this story just further proves that there's many incompetent EAs out there.

From reading your account of it it seems like you were planning on waiting to the end before making a bid. My advice was to get a bid in early - one that will be seen as a serious offer but also one that you know is sure to be beaten. When EA rings you back say you think its too pricey and have other interests but would definitely like to be kept in the loop.

I dont know the official rules, but all the EAs for the 13 houses we bid on before getting our own did ring us back to say our bid had been bettered....after that you can't reasonably expect them to ring back a second time to say its finishing up. None of the EAs for houses we expressed an interest in, but did not actually bid on rang us back and I wouldn't if I were them as I'd only regard those who have put their money where their mouth is as seriously interested.

Again, sorry to hear you missed out but I stand over this approach, though obviously each situation may differ, but the key is timing and you do need a bit of luck. Hope you find a place even better again that makes this one a distant memory.
 
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