Bidding on a house - next move?

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vjoc

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I'm currently bidding on a new house:

Auctioneer listed it at a price region of €265k.
(But told me the builder was looking for €285k - €290k)

I told him I was interested, but was not prepared to start a bidding war. Received a call last week saying he wanted to finalise the sale. His highest bid stood at €285k.

I put in a bid of €289.5k to try and scrae off the competition, but was later informed a bidder had come back with €291k

Obviously I'm concerned that no other bidder exists!

Any advice on what my next move should be?
 
You will never know if another bidder really exists, you need to figure out what is the house worth to you. If you really want it & it's worth more than 291 to you then go in with another bid.
If it's not the house of your dreams, you're happy to keep looking, think they're might be another bidder, then walk away.

Whether there is another bidder or not, and you do walk away, you could find the estate coming back to you again in the near future. Through no fault of his own, the other bidder might not have been genuine, been bidding on multiple properties, have had a change of mind, or may not have got mortgage approval. Of course, they may not have existed either ;-)
You would not be obliged to repeat your offer of 289.5 & could go lower, but of course, at this stage you have now shown your hand.

Good luck!
 
Just been through that myself. The problem is, you don't know and you never can know.

Do you know what prices other houses in the area have made recently?

Is the house you're bidding on in as good condition as those other houses?

Is its situation within the location as good? i.e. Does 'your' house have a better aspect? As in, does it face between south and west? Is it in a cul-de-sac? Nearer to the public transport? Further away from traffic? Good garden(s)? etc...etc....

If you know the answer to all of the above, you can arrive at a reasonably objective valuation of the house you're bidding on.

Now comes the crunch......

Is the bidding near, at or above that level at €290k?

Are you willing to pay that price?

You could tell the auctioneer that you will offer, say, €292 if the vendor will accept the price. The auctioneer will have to decide whether or not to make the obvious comment that they will have to go back to the other bidder first. But, it can sometimes be worth trying. If there's a phantom bidder in the backgroud, they risk losing you and the sale.

But, first off you must inform yourself as to what the house is worth relative to its peers and what you're willing to pay.

D.
 
from my experiance and I have bid on a lot of houses in my time ,there usually allways is another bidder, at the begining i used to believe i was being strung along and often as result lost the house,its a sellers market,if you believe this is the house for you really go for it.otherwise stop.
 
You might want to get a friend or colleague to ring the estate agent and ask if the house is under offer and see what price he/she is told......
 
That is why I would never buy a property in Ireland as you can be sure that you would be conned by agents, solicitors and all the others involved in the market. It is outrageous that agents can make up fathom bidder in order to make a highest commission. There should be some control of agents in Ireland.
 
Made another bid of €292k yesterday.

Got a call to say a new offer had been made - now at €296k.

Told the auctioneer to sell it to them, as I wasn't going any further!

Hope there isn't another bidder, cause I love to tell him where to go if he comes back to me!!

Feel sorry for the other bidder if they exist, as I've just cost them another €11k.

This whole process needs some form of transparancy, as estate agents have a serious credability issue.
 
I totally agree that agents in this country should be regulated (I’ve made various posts on a proposed solution) but I wouldn’t base my entire decision on whether or not to buy in this country on the fact that I may be conned by an estate agent. I dealt with many agents during my search for a property and found many that were dodgy and fewer that appeared decent – however I didn’t meet one that I would bet on as being decent.

Vjoc – at a guess I’d say you are actually up against a real bidder in this case – my experience of phantom bids was along the lines of ‘you’ve been outbid by a grand but I reckon if you up that by another grand the seller will close with you on that’ so it’d be risky from their side to maybe lose a buyer by coming back with a phantom bid 4k higher.

When I was looking in Dublin 12 between November – February most houses were selling at an average of 30k over the asking price so that in itself is not unusual. Ask yourself is the house worth it and pay it if it is – don’t let your ego get in the way with a ‘I’m not gonna let them do me’ attitude unless you have good reason to believe you are being done. And if you do believe you are being done (defo get a friend to make enquiries – just one as any more will make the agent think there is plenty more interest in the property) go on the counter-offensive with things like ‘good luck trying to sell that house cos I’m gonna have mates down there at every viewing letting people know you’re a con artist so you’re gonna have to sell it without viewings buddy’ and ‘I’m just gonna let my buddy Joe Duffy know about this (take care of libel of course)’….also try putting a letter in the seller’s letterbox letting them know the situation from your side – they may not advocate the slimeball’s behaviour and may sell directly to you…and hey if you’re sure you’re being done and don’t wanna do business with them well what have you got to lose? The more people that just passively sit back and take this stuff the worse it’ll get…until the state regulates it all of course but that’s another day’s debate!
 
OhPinchy said:
I totally agree that agents in this country should be regulated
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And should buyers be regulated too - so all bids will be binding once the bid is made?
 
And should buyers be regulated too - so all bids will be binding once the bid is made - No but I do not see why auctioneers should be allowed to lie in order to get a higher prices and doing it by making up that another bidder exists when clearly there is no one else is involved in the bidding.
 
No doubt about it, Auctioneers / Estage Agents should be regulated more strictly than they are at presenet. AFAIK, the IAVI has a code of conduct the estate agents / auctioneers (who are members of the IAVI) are supposed to abide by, but I doubt all do.

I had to go through this about a year ago, horrible experience & no doubt about it, I was taken for a ride by a couple of auctioneers along the way.

A few things I learnt:

- HOK residential keep a written copy of all offers they receive, you can go to the branch and view the offers if you like (top marks to HOK for this one !)

- You can mess with an estate agents head, almost as much as they can mess with yours, if you want to... give it some thought, its a strategy game. If your serious about buying the house, insist on going to the agents office & getting the agent to put the owner on the phone, while you make an offer on the house.

- be sure you have bank / building society funding in place before you ever make an offer on a new property

- If you have a very bad experienec with an auctioneers / estate agent, write to their offices to complain, also the professional body they are associated with (usually the IAVA although there is a second body, can't recall the exact letters for it - MIAPI or something like this) & finally, tell all your friends, family, local journalists & everyone else you can ... what comes around, goes around for dodgy estate agents !

- Remember, there are more properties, so dont be too upset if you dont get the first one you go for !

Regards

G>
 
I am just going through all of this, lost the war on bidding on two houses. Its great for selling my house but not great for me buying another house, it did allow me to up the bid though. The auctioneers are generally putting the Guide price about €40k below the sale price to get you interested.

One worrying thing is why it takes so long for contracts to be signed as neither the buyer of my house has signed, or I have signed for the house that I am buying, because I cannot commit myself until I am sure. there's only five weeks left and it could all go wrong.
 
royrogers said:
And should buyers be regulated too - so all bids will be binding once the bid is made - No but I do not see why auctioneers should be allowed to lie in order to get a higher prices and doing it by making up that another bidder exists when clearly there is no one else is involved in the bidding.
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Unless buyers are regulated too, it would be quite easy for an unscrupulous estate agent simply to get his brother or buddy to place offers at higher prices if they wished. In Scotland, I understand that bids by buyers are binding, just like a bid at an auction here.
 
I agree that it would be good to have it like Scotland but the vendor should provide an up to date survery of the property that is being sold and have all the necessary documents available for the buyer solicitors to look at before it becomes binding. Indeed this make the whole process much easier for all concern.
 
royrogers said:
the vendor should provide an up to date survery of the property that is being sold and have all the necessary documents available for the buyer solicitors to look at before it becomes binding. Indeed this make the whole process much easier for all concern.
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Easier for all concerned or easier for buyers and more complicated for sellers? There is nothing to stop any seller doing this today.
 
2 points to add

I recently bought in Eastern Europe. Had to place a 10% deposit which was non refundable if they property was as described in brochure i.e. freehold, structurally sound etc. Seemed fair to me. From offer to deposit 2 weeks. Balance paid in 4 more.

Also auctioneers now ask if offers are conditional or unconditional, conditioal meaning you will buy on condition you sell your own property. Auctioneers might be less likely tp treat offer favourably if chance you might not complete the sale.
 
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