Tips on bidding for a property (as its now a buyers market)???

B

bamboozle

Registered User
Messages
536
I know there’s a key post on tips for bidding, however as the market has since swung in the buyers favour I wonder if anyone can advise accordingly,

I made a bid recently on a property, the property has been on the market for over 3 months with no bids, the bid I made was 88% of the guide price which I thought was reasonable, this was scoffed at by the EA who suggested the Sellers would be disgusted by such a pitiful offer and if anything would ‘have the opposite effect on them’

I’ve no interest in increasing that bid but would like to bid on another 2 property’s, neither of which has any current bids. Any recommendations on how best to approach this bidding would be greatly received!
 
I came across this advice recently relating to the US housing market.

"If you are not embarrassed about what you are offering, you probably are paying too much ! "

Tell the EA you are not interested in his smart ass comments. If he hasn't been able to sell the house in 3 months he has probably overvalued it in the first place.

His job is to pass your offer to the vendors, not to decide what they might or might not accept.

Better still if the present owners are still living in the house, put the offer directly to them. If they are no longer living there they may have their mail forwarded to their new address. The post office would know. If they won't give you the new address send them an offer at the old address and it will be forwarded on.




Murt
 
I agree that you are entitled to bid on more than one property, and I would not be shy to tell the EA this either.

But I don't agree that you should bid embarrassingly low [using the word embarrassing in reference to Murt10's quote above, which I take to mean ridiculously low].

Assuming you are serious about a property:

If you bid too low, and its laughably/embarrassingly low, then the chances are that you will have to go up.

If you go up a big amount, they might think/realise you are a chancer and will prob look for more again.

If you go up a small amount, it will prob still not be enough, and you can find yourself creeping upwards, being perceived to be a messer, with no backbone and they will prob hold out for more and more. You may prefer not to drag things out for months / years. In the meantime, others may join the fray.

If you are a chancer then go for it, as long as you don't mind losing out on the house, you might get a bargain, good for you.

If you are a serious buyer, then do your research, figure out the market value, and also whether you would pay a bit above that as its worth it to you for some reason (or not!). EIther way you can figure out your limit.

Then come in with a low but realistic offer.

You have more chance of being taken seriously, more chance they will propose a counter amount, you have scope for negotiation, and more chance of everyone saving face, and striking a deal that will stick.

Having said all that, I don't think 88% is a pitiful offer (but dont knwo the details), and I believe the EA is prob secretly pleased to get any offer for a kick off. He will prob tell the vendors its a FANTASTIC offer in the current market.
 
Last edited:
eamonn123456 said:
IBut I don't agree that you should bid embarrassingly low.
Click to expand...

I'm completely baffled why there's any mention of the word embarrassing when it comes to bidding. Why is any bid embarrassing?

Bid what you think it's worth and what you can afford to pay. If they reject, ask them what price they would sell for. If they won't budge or only by a small amount tell them it's a serious offer you made, thank them and move on. You can always go back in a month or two and see have they see the light.

If there's a big gap in price, there's little point in going up by a small amount, and it makes no sense to go up by a big amount (if you do, you are messing them around, as you're just confirming your original offer didn't reflect what you thought it was worth).

The pressure is all on sellers at the moment, and there's plenty of choice out there, so don't worry too much.
 
bamboozle said:
I know there’s a key post on tips for bidding, however as the market has since swung in the buyers favour I wonder if anyone can advise accordingly,

I made a bid recently on a property, the property has been on the market for over 3 months with no bids, the bid I made was 88% of the guide price which I thought was reasonable, this was scoffed at by the EA who suggested the Sellers would be disgusted by such a pitiful offer and if anything would ‘have the opposite effect on them’

I’ve no interest in increasing that bid but would like to bid on another 2 property’s, neither of which has any current bids. Any recommendations on how best to approach this bidding would be greatly received!
Click to expand...

I'm looking to get market in the market in the next 3 months and won't be offering anything over 75% of the asking price.

The EA's may not like it but eventually someone will accept my offer.
 
ang1170 said:
Bid what you think it's worth and what you can afford to pay.
Click to expand...

IMO it's better to bid under what you are prepared to pay. It's also the most common thing to do, so whatever your first bid, they will look for and indeed expect at least a bit more.
If you underbid a little, you can always go up. This wiggle room helps a deal to be made within your limit without anyone having to lose face, get uptight or feel they have lost the negotiation. And ultimately, if there's no deal, no one gets what they want.

ang1170 said:
If they reject, ask them what price they would sell for.
Click to expand...

I assume your limit = the lesser of [what you think it's worth] and [what you can afford to pay].

If you have already bid to your limit, and they rejected it, why would you then ask them that?
 
Thomas22 said:
I'm looking to get market in the market in the next 3 months and won't be offering anything over 75% of the asking price.

The EA's may not like it but eventually someone will accept my offer.
Click to expand...


I have to say that I think that is a matter of opinion, and not guaranteed to happen.

The market may stabilise before someone bites, properties may begin to sell again at prices which mean that no suitable house will go for 75% of asking price in your target area.

IF you are in no rush and believe you know which way things will go, then by all means put in low offers all round, wait it out and hope that *eventually* someone bites.

But if you want to get sorted and are happy to get a house for 88% of asking price, then by all means put your offers in at that level - or whatever level you want.

Playing hardball may or may not work. All depends what price you are comfortable to pay for any given property.

Probably gone slightly off-topic now but just wanted to point out that you can not guarantee that playing hard-ball to an extreme degree may not work. And I am not saying that offering 75% of asking price is extreme in all cases, but it certainly would be in some areas / properties, and it could be counterproductive, IMO, as explained above.

[And finally, whether the EA *says* that he 'likes' an offer or not is a minor consideration if at all.]
 
Thomas22 said:
I'm looking to get market in the market in the next 3 months and won't be offering anything over 75% of the asking price.

The EA's may not like it but eventually someone will accept my offer.
Click to expand...

Can't see how anyone will bite to be honest but you will see I suppose.

Keeping a passing eye out myself recently for a nice apartment around the 350-370k mark but cannot see myself when the time comes to bid for instance 272-278K (75% mark).

Anyway if you manage to get someone to bite fair play to you then.
 
Bargaining 101;

Figure out what you are prepared to pay
Offer a lowball price, they think it's low and decline
You ask them to put something on the table
Don't make another move till the produce something
This may or may not take some time, but they will feel obliged to do something
You increase your offer, and get their feedback.
At this stage you will have a very good idea whether a deal will happen or not.
Bargain in a way that makes it seem to you a deal will not happen, i.e. try to make them give away more
 
badabing, I think that is a good method, and well described.

Just one thing - when you say lowball offer - what do you mean?

Do you mean 'low but in the ball-park'? or 'way lower' ?

Hmm, just realised that those terms are not any clearer...!

Can you help us by defining / describing roughly what you mean by 'lowball' please?
 
Thanks for the tips, just to clarify matters, the property I had bidded on was an apt in a very nice Dublin suburb, 505k was the guide, 445k was my bid, I explained to EA that I was basing my bid on 2 factors, firstly there were 2 other (very similar) apartments in the complex guided at 465k and secondly if I was going to spend more than 445k I would only be interested in buying a house. I was very clear I didn’t see any value above 445k & I was also clear that I had the money ready and was ready to close immediately, while the EA was very clear it was an insulting offer.

However as there are 2 other houses i'm interestedin in the area & these are with the same EA so I’ll have to deal with him again, I now have a good idea how he operates and hopefully he has a good idea that I wont be fobbed off by EA talk.
 
From the EA's perspective, I'd find it strange that you are bidding on both an apartment and houses, unless you're in investor. Surely you know whether you want to live in a house or an apartment? They're pretty different, for most people it's one or the other, not both. He probably sees you as a time waster or will when you bid on the houses.
 
rmelly said:
From the EA's perspective, I'd find it strange that you are bidding on both an apartment and houses, unless you're in investor. Surely you know whether you want to live in a house or an apartment? They're pretty different, for most people it's one or the other, not both. He probably sees you as a time waster or will when you bid on the houses.
Click to expand...

But surely as the poster said it is a question of price.

They are willing to pay up €445k for an apartment but for anything more than that they would buy a house.
 
rmelly said:
From the EA's perspective, I'd find it strange that you are bidding on both an apartment and houses, unless you're in investor. Surely you know whether you want to live in a house or an apartment? They're pretty different, for most people it's one or the other, not both. He probably sees you as a time waster or will when you bid on the houses.
Click to expand...


I’m purchasing an investment property so I’m more focused on exploiting what I consider to be potential value in a property rather than focusing on apartments or houses.
 
You ask them to put something on the table
Don't make another move till the produce something
Click to expand...

I wouldn't come back with something on the table, I would put it back to you that the offer is too low, come back with something more reasonable.

Bid very low and very often and move on fast.
Click to expand...

You'll be moving fast alright but going nowhere.
 
I am reading this thread with great interest - having backed out of the purchase of a house in the last week we have already seen a house we are interested in bidding on.

We are sold and ready to go, and have a place to live in the interim. House newly on the market in the last 3 weeks, 2 viewings, another this friday, house looking for 550K. Unsure as to what to offer.
 
bamboozle said:
I made was 88% of the guide price which I thought was reasonable, this was scoffed at by the EA who suggested the Sellers would be disgusted by such a pitiful offer and if anything would ‘have the opposite effect on them’
Click to expand...

This is a standard negotiation tactic. It's called revulsion or surprise or shock. It throws the ball back in you court giving the EA the upper hand as you now have to make the next move. The very fact that you're left wondering what to do now, proves that the tactic is quite successful from the EA's perspective. The trick to deal with this situation, is to stick to your guns. Say you feel that it's a fare offer (without being insulting) in the current market and that you are unable to up it due to restrictions on what you can borrow. State your positives, such as you don't have a house to sell (i.e. not in a chain), you're mortgage approved etc. Request that offer be put to client and leave it at that. If the EA still doesn't play ball then there's not much you can do, other than trying to drop a note in the door directly to the seller.
 
Thomas22 said:
I'm looking to get market in the market in the next 3 months and won't be offering anything over 75% of the asking price.

The EA's may not like it but eventually someone will accept my offer.
Click to expand...

My sentiments entirely, im a FTB offering a quick buy, my brother who's in the business reckons 70% is a good figure.
 
slaphead - id be interested if he thinks this is just in relation to first time buyer properties, or if he also thinks this would be appropriate for trade-up homes (which I would be looking at)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top