Auctioneer Loses Bid

Mark_Quinn

Hope this is the right forum for this.

I have a house on the market for 2 months now. I have not got one bid on the house. I talked to my auctioneer about this and he said that it is down to the slowing market and to reduce my asking price and have patience.

That was ok, but yesterday I was talking to an old friend. He said that he saw my hose in the paper 3 weeks ago and that his sister put in a bid but was told that a sale was agreed and that there was a number of similar properties down the road in a new housing development. I challanged my auctioneer about this and he said after going very red and mumbling a little that he "lost" the bid details. This doesn't make sense at all as my friend's sister is still in touch with him and he could just have asked her for the bid.

Why did he withhold the bid on my hosse? It doesn't make sense to me at all.?

Tails142

maybe he was getting more commission for selling the other house

or

maybe the other house was being sold by a personal friend of his and he wanted to shift their house quicker...

seems bad either way I would be going mad if I was you and switch auctioneer or kick up a huge fuss

miju

has tails says it seems very obviously that the auctioneer is getting a higher commision / some sort of backhander if he's trying to direct potential bidders on your house towards a new development instead

wba88

kick up a fuss with the manager, and switch auctioneer straight away!

patrickolee

...or he/a relation/a friend, want to buy your house at a reduced rate in the future. I'd change agents fairly sharpish if I were you.

Glenbhoy

tell the auctioneer you are cancelling their contract and want a refund of all charges, if they refuse inform the IAVI of their conduct. Then sell the property to your friend's sister directly, whilst giving her a reduction of part of the commission you would have had to pay the agent. That's if you feel her offer was acceptable of course. If not, perhaps you could stay with the original agent and tell them you want a significant reduction in fee or you'll be informing the IAVI etc.

Jamie76

Mark_Quinn wrote:

Why did he withhold the bid on my house? It doesn't make sense to me at all.?

It makes sense to me Mark, something similar happened to me. Your house is not that important to him as he needs to shift the developers' properties faster before the market slumps further. He may also be on more commission as mentioned here for those and backhanders/bonuses which is quite often the case. If there are any sellers out there who have not got any bids or few bids on their house then I would start to ask questions especially now with the slowing market.

Mark, I used www.apti.ie which shows the bidding process online. You the seller can login to see the details and the bidder can login to see if the property is still on the market and whether or not their bid has been added.

Good luck, and move to a better agent that will get more bids for your house.

jdivision

In general, people who sell second hand properties do not sell new homes. You should initially contact the National Property Services Regulatory Authority, Third Floor, Block 2, the Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2
Phone: + 353 1 408-6120 and make a complaint about the agent. If they lost the bid or were hoping to buy it at a cheaper price for themselves or others they should lose their licence or by censured to be honest.

Patrickof

jdivision wrote:

In general, people who sell second hand properties do not sell new homes. You should initially contact the National Property Services Regulatory Authority, Third Floor, Block 2, the Harcourt Centre, Harcourt Street, Dublin 2
Phone: + 353 1 408-6120 and make a complaint about the agent. If they lost the bid or were hoping to buy it at a cheaper price for themselves or others they should lose their licence or by censured to be honest.

Most estate agents sell both new and second hand (if not all), only some of the larger agencies have spun off "new homes" divisions.

The NPSRA has no in fluence over individual agents, it's not yet a body with "teeth".

And in response to comments above, generally commission on second hand homes (selling on behalf of an individual) is higher than that received from a developer (bulk discount etc.)

Patrickof

Jamie76 wrote:

... If there are any sellers out there who have not got any bids or few bids on their house then I would start to ask questions especially now with the slowing market....

Surely that's the definition of a slowing market?????

eth0_

I know it's the Daily Mail but this sort of thing has been documented on investigative TV shows in the UK and i'd bet money on it happening in Ireland too

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=484219&in_page_id=1770