Any gazumping in Clonee/Clonsilla these days?!

Twizzler

Just caught up on last Monday's 'The Frontline' on the RTE Player. A man in the audience mentioned that he and his fiancée had been 'gazumped' three times on 3 and 4 bed houses in Lucan. (When they put bids in on houses, other couples kept outbidding them.) Has anyone had any experience of this happening to them in the Clonee/Clonsilla/Dunboyne area?
We are hoping to buy a three or four-bed semi-d house in one of these areas over the next year or so if we can get the finances sorted. (I'm aware that Dunboyne is not in D15, but as it is close and we are now settled in the D15 area from a lifestyle/schools perspective, we're considering all nearby areas for the right house. Properties in Dunboyne do seem to be going sale agreed quite fast though...and expensive properties at that!) Up to now, I assumed that houses around here were going sale agreed for significantly under the asking price. We have nothing concrete in place at the moment with regard to being in a position to buy, but we're keeping an eye on the market in the run up to something that we hope will happen. If you have any experience of putting in a bid around these parts and finding yourself gazumped, having your offer rejected because it wasn't high enough, etc., I would love to hear your story if you'd like to share it - either publicly or by PM. Or if you'd like to tell me a lovely tale about how you put in an offer that was 20% below the asking price and it was accepted, I'd love to hear that even more! :-) Thanks!
PS I did a search on gazumping and found a discussion about 'The Frontline' already (the general consensus seemed to be that any possibility that gazumping is going on again is a load of sxxt, which does seem to be the most logical line of thought), but I'm looking for info specific to Clonee and its surrounding areas, so I hope it's okay from a mod perspective to start this thread. (New here! Go easy, please!)

hidinginthebush

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is gazumping not when you agree the sale, then the price is jacked up? Nothing wrong with others outbidding you if nothing's signed yet? Also, fwiw, there's actually reverse-gazumping going on. My mother and her sister were left my grandparents house and sold it. The buyers agreed the sale after a bit of a bid battle, then came back a few months of inactivity later saying they'd take it at 30K or so less, as the market had deflated further. Cheeky bastards, though my man and aunt were so eager to get it over with that they agreed to it.

Twizzler

Hidinginthebush, as far as I am concerned, you are 100% right in your understanding of gazumping. That was my understanding too - that the seller or estate agent would have agreed a price with a buyer and then they'd come back before contracts are signed saying they have another offer. However, on the Frontline, the conversation literally went as follows: the man interviewed says "When we go to put a bid in, there seems to be a swarm of similar couples coming in and bidding against us" and Pat Kenny answers "So you get gazumped!" and the man agrees.
Now, I'm not saying that the definition of gazumping has changed just because PK defined a particular situation as that - just outlining the discussion that took place, that's all. It sounds like a simple case of outbidding more so than anything else. So for the sake of clarity, I will amend my query to this: has anyone come across cases of either gazumping OR outbidding in Clonee/Clonsilla/Dunboyne on 3 or 4 bed semi-ds recently?
Thanks for that info re your grandparents' house. Sorry it didn't work out in your family's favour.

hidinginthebush

Ha no problem, I'm sorry for jumping in like that, it sounds like Pat was off in his definition alright! You hear of estate agents putting in phantom bids, though i don't know how real these occurrences really are though!

Regarding the grandparents place, yeah it was a bit of an annoyance alright, though I believe the buyers had to get a lot of work done to the place upon moving in, would have cost a fair packet, so you reap what you sow Now, that settled, I'll stop hijacking your thread

On topic, knowing little that I do of the property market, I believe it's still a buyers market, but the estate agents are still living in la-la land, you've to remember a lot of them learned their trade selling properties at crazy prices in the biggest property boom this country's ever seen. I can't really offer you any advice or experience on this, but best of luck with it, I hope you find the right place.

chucknorris

Excellent thread.

I am sale agreed in Clonsilla. I put my deposit down just over three weeks ago.

I have paid for a valuation and structural test on the house, confirmed to my bank that this is the house I'm buying and I have the remainder of my deposit on hand.

This morning (after a call yesterday from the bank) I will receive my two copies of my mortgage loan agreement. One for my solicitor and one for myself.

Sorry for the rant but i started off this reply with these details above specifically to make the following point. If I was gazumped, I would simply have no way at this stage to match it or even consider matching it. I would be extremely disappointed if an estate agent would accept another offer as the house is now 'sale agreed'. In fact I was categorically told that my deposit would enable the house to be taken off the market.

I too watched that conversation with Pat Kenny mentioned the term Gazumping and I was worried.

But thinking now, a friend of mine bought a few weeks ago in the Way, Hunters run and he got a 30k reduction on the asking price. Surely to god Gazumping is not occurring, to answer your question when I know of this sale and my own sale has a decent reduction too.

Some estate agents are nasty pieces of work however the estate agent I am dealing with it straight up with no messing and has been excellent to deal with.

So in my opinion I do not believe Gazumping is occurring in the areas you say, and prices are being negotiated down. I am sure from time to time there might be more than one buyer interested in a property but it is STILL buyers market and will be for some time.

Twizzler

Chucknorris, good luck with closing and moving into your new home! Yes, I'd be inclined to agree that it's more than likely that gazumping isn't happening around these parts...but as Lucan isn't a million miles away, I couldn't help but wonder after seeing the Frontline discussion. Seems to be a very specific case though.

Interesting re the 30K reduction on the Hunter's Run property. A lot depends on the individual property's location, specifics within the area, how many similar properties are for sale nearby and how long the house has been on the market. But minus 30K is minus 30K and I wouldn't say no to it if that was the norm around here!

Thanks for your replies and good luck to anyone else in the area who's thinking of buying, or in the process of buying at the moment!

JupiterKid

Looking at this thread title I though for a minute I was in a time warp back to 2005 and the property bubble days.:eek:

Gazumping should not be happening - if anything, it's the opposite - gazundering - that's taking place today, where a potential buyer comes back to the vendor and tells them that the've reduced the amount they will offer for the house. In a falling market, this practice is quite common, especially with lenders reducing the amounts available to homebuyers in mortgages.

The house price collapse has not reached the bottom yet. Don't let any estate agent or so-called "economist" tell you otherwise.

And don't forget that during the property bubble it was known that a number of unscrupulous estate agents were inventing fictional "other interested parties" in a house sale just to get the buyer to offer an even higher price to buy - meaning more commission for the EA. People were so desperate to buy at any cost and that was taken advantage of by some EAs.:mad: