Negotiating a house price

lollyb85

hi all, just lookin to see if anyone is havin the same problem as me. my partner and me put a bid on a house, no1 has looked at this house in 2 yrs even though it in fab area and a lovely house. the man rang us back the other day to say some 1 else looked at the house and have put in bid of 1500 more, we went another 1000. then he rang to say a new couple have looked at it (bear in mind we called him at 7 yesterday eve) and have out in a bid of 12500 more than us. my partner told him immediately that we were out and wouldnt bid so high he seemed in shock. does any1 tink he is playing us for more money, i tink it is strange that 2 couples have looked at it in only a few short days and no1 had looked in 2 years!! advise needed ..

drunkmonkey

Sounds, like the agent in playing you, your partner is right to call their bluff. Sit tight it's not going to be sold any time soon. Retract all your offers from the estate agent, tell them your not interested any more.
Give it 6 weeks and get someone else to call and play the estate agent with a lowball offer.

lollyb85

exactly what everyone has been telling us. we went directly to the man selling not to the auctioneer, he said the auctioneer has some1 wit the higher bid in. wen my partner said we wud pull out he said o well mayb the auctioneer is talkin crap (strange thing to say)!!. we are in no rush to move and can wait for another house to come on the market.. def not gona contact him again but have a feling we wil have a fonecall by the end of the week

olcod

We had exactly the same and the place we put an offer in was on the market 3 years, we put in our offer then all of a sudden other people are bidding against us, we were advised to stand firm and that the estate agent was just playing us, as hard as it was we stood our ground with our one and only offer, low and behold after many weeks waiting we get a call from the estate agent saying its ours at the price we offered..... stand your ground, the agent is playing you and pushing for more money...its what they are paid and programmed to do.

Raspberry Ripple

I think you probably know already that this guy is trying to play you. Is it an estate agent you are dealing with?

Is the house owner occupied? If it were me, and the owner lives there, I'd put a note in the door saying I'd had a viewing, made an offer of x and if they were interested to call me within the next week.

Be prepared to walk away. If its been on the market that long, they are very foolish to mess potential purchasers about...but you never know what's going on behind the scenes.

lollyb85

we would walk away as i said no rush on us!! no we are dealing wit the man directly the house has no1 in it at all.. thanks for all the advice guys.. we will sit tight i have a strong feeling about this. I knew he would try get some extra money but didnt think that extreme.

A2LUE42

lollyb85 wrote: »

we would walk away as i said no rush on us!! no we are dealing wit the man directly the house has no1 in it at all.. thanks for all the advice guys.. we will sit tight i have a strong feeling about this. I knew he would try get some extra money but didnt think that extreme.

Make sure you go back to your lowest offer, or lower, and not the increased ones.

lollyb85

o yes we have discussed that and the offer we made yesterday is the offer we stick at. we wnt be gong any higher

The_Conductor

Put a time limit on the offer- and don't leave it open on the table.
Once the time limit passes- thank the auctioneer, thank the owner and walk.
Seriously- don't play their game. If your time limit expires- regardless of how nice a house it is, in how nice an area- another better property will come up sooner or later- walk.

Prices are still falling- and falls are accelerating again- the February figures were out during the week. If the owner and his auctioneer think they can sucker you- they certainly will sucker you. Don't play their game.

sunnydub123

honestly I dont see why Irish people cant sell house by themselves, as in any other country, people sell house by themselves, vendor has different situation, you may pick up house lower than market value if you the vendor is desparate to sell, and you save your agent fee. plus most people are working dont like during the week viewing, with agent, they are lazy, dont want work at the weekend, so they arrange during the week viewing, therefore buyers are in the negative situation from the get go, you are the one with money, buying the house, you have to make yourself more suitable to the seller, doesnt make sense.

johndaman66

sunnydub123 wrote: »

honestly I dont see why Irish people cant sell house by themselves, as in any other country, people sell house by themselves, vendor has different situation, you may pick up house lower than market value if you the vendor is desparate to sell, and you save your agent fee. plus most people are working dont like during the week viewing, with agent, they are lazy, dont want work at the weekend, so they arrange during the week viewing, therefore buyers are in the negative situation from the get go, you are the one with money, buying the house, you have to make yourself more suitable to the seller, doesnt make sense.

I agree with you and to another extent I disagree with you. My uncle put up a sight for sale about 6 or 7 years back, towards the end of the better times if you want to call them that.

He put it up for sale through an Estate agent. In my opinion he put too high an asking price on it, regardless of the fact that we were in better times then. Granted it was a nice large site of over 1 acre but €79k for an area where there are no serious amount of jobs or industry for at least 30 miles was in my opinion too much. Having said that he was willing to entertain much lower offers from people who were serious (which in itself didn't make too much sense to me)

Irrespective he did get some interest in the site or at least he thought he did and three people came directly to my uncle expressing interest. Two guys interested were neighbours. In retrospect one was genuine but the other guy simply was a timewaster who did not want somebody unknown to him buying the site and building next to his house. There was also a third guy from further afield who it would seem was also genuine.

Looking back it was the case that my uncle was totally unable to deal with three people interested. The timewaster guy pretty much put him past the sale. He didn't seem to have the experience or knowledge to play one bidder off against the other and sus out the timewaster. He left too much time elapse and pretty much was left with the site. I suppose the fact that two were neighbours and he didn't want to cause offense to them didn't help.

I've sold cars and bits and pieces of furniture and computers before myself but am unsure if I would have done much better than my uncle if I was in the same situation as him. I somehow feel that the Estate Agent might have done a better job, would have being more impartial and better able to root out the timewaster....and believe me I am by no means a massive fan of Estate Agents.

Also I feel a large number of people are unable to take constructive criticism about their houses which you certainly need to be able to do if you are selling it....sometimes you will need to bite your lip and get on with it.

sunnydub123

hi I do see your point.

however I still think agent is just a big of waste of time unless you are not in a hurry to sale.

the reason I have responded to the thread as originally someone said they had been played by the agency, I have put offers on the property too, as same situation happened to the other person, as soon as you put an offer down, you got a bidder almost second day. you have no choice but to accept there is a 'bidder', there is no transparent in the whole buying through agency mechanism, thats the most off putting part I feel.

To neighbour situation, that I think becasue Ireland is very small, people think they can control other peoples decision, like what your uncle have been through, neighbours must learn the hard way that they have no saying over your uncles property.

business is business, its a deal, vendors should be less gready, if you have a price in mind, and you meet a offer close enough, sell it. if you keep waiting for the bigger fish, you enventually get nothing. same as buying shares in stock market, you hanging around longer will lose the profit you already made.

maybe because I am Chinese, thats who we do business, deal is good , then sell, dont be greedy.

---

johndaman66 wrote: »

I agree with you and to another extent I disagree with you. My uncle put up a sight for sale about 6 or 7 years back, towards the end of the better times if you want to call them that.

He put it up for sale through an Estate agent. In my opinion he put too high an asking price on it, regardless of the fact that we were in better times then. Granted it was a nice large site of over 1 acre but €79k for an area where there are no serious amount of jobs or industry for at least 30 miles was in my opinion too much. Having said that he was willing to entertain much lower offers from people who were serious (which in itself didn't make too much sense to me)

Irrespective he did get some interest in the site or at least he thought he did and three people came directly to my uncle expressing interest. Two guys interested were neighbours. In retrospect one was genuine but the other guy simply was a timewaster who did not want somebody unknown to him buying the site and building next to his house. There was also a third guy from further afield who it would seem was also genuine.

Looking back it was the case that my uncle was totally unable to deal with three people interested. The timewaster guy pretty much put him past the sale. He didn't seem to have the experience or knowledge to play one bidder off against the other and sus out the timewaster. He left too much time elapse and pretty much was left with the site. I suppose the fact that two were neighbours and he didn't want to cause offense to them didn't help.

I've sold cars and bits and pieces of furniture and computers before myself but am unsure if I would have done much better than my uncle if I was in the same situation as him. I somehow feel that the Estate Agent might have done a better job, would have being more impartial and better able to root out the timewaster....and believe me I am by no means a massive fan of Estate Agents.

Also I feel a large number of people are unable to take constructive criticism about their houses which you certainly need to be able to do if you are selling it....sometimes you will need to bite your lip and get on with it.

Duckjob

lollyb85 wrote: »

hi all, just lookin to see if anyone is havin the same problem as me. my partner and me put a bid on a house, no1 has looked at this house in 2 yrs even though it in fab area and a lovely house. the man rang us back the other day to say some 1 else looked at the house and have put in bid of 1500 more, we went another 1000. then he rang to say a new couple have looked at it (bear in mind we called him at 7 yesterday eve) and have out in a bid of 12500 more than us. my partner told him immediately that we were out and wouldnt bid so high he seemed in shock. does any1 tink he is playing us for more money, i tink it is strange that 2 couples have looked at it in only a few short days and no1 had looked in 2 years!! advise needed ..

Here's my read of what happened:

- You put in an offer.

- Agent decided to tell you he had offer of (Your offer + €1500). This was a cursory test to gauge your reaction and therefore how much extra money he could de-fraud from you.

- Your increased offer back confirmed to him that you might be good for a good bit more, so he decided to really push his luck and give you a 2nd fake offer (Your offer + €12500 ). His thinking would be if he pushed you too far, he could back-track, tell you the offer fell through and accept your last offer.


What I think you should do:

- Tell EA all previous offers are off the table. You've seen another house that ticks as many, if not more boxes for you, you've put in an offer and that EA seems positive that you're not far from what seller wants.
You still like this house, but your highest offer now is Original Offer - €10K, and if they're interested the seller realistically probably has about a week to accept before you close on the other.

I live for the day in which EAs telling buyers about bids that don't exist is recognised for what it is: FRAUD

jython98

Duckjob wrote: »

Here's my read of what happened:

- You put in an offer.

- Agent decided to tell you he had offer of (Your offer + €1500). This was a cursory test to gauge your reaction and therefore how much extra money he could de-fraud from you.

- Your increased offer back confirmed to him that you might be good for a good bit more, so he decided to really push his luck and give you a 2nd fake offer (Your offer + €12500 ). His thinking would be if he pushed you too far, he could back-track, tell you the offer fell through and accept your last offer.


What I think you should do:

- Tell EA all previous offers are off the table. You've seen another house that ticks as many, if not more boxes for you, you've put in an offer and that EA seems positive that you're not far from what seller wants.
You still like this house, but your highest offer now is Original Offer - €10K, and if they're interested the seller realistically probably has about a week to accept before you close on the other.

I live for the day in which EAs telling buyers about bids that don't exist is recognised for what it is: FRAUD

Well said, so it's all 'Game of FRAUD' :D

AlanG

Remember – The agent works for the seller, It is the seller that pays them to get as much money for the property as they can.
While I don’t like these ghost bidders it’s not really fraud. It’s no different than someone saying they won’t sell a 2nd hand car for less than 1500 even if their base is actually 1000. Same way as a buyer may say they won’t go above a price if they really will.
This is the business. Tell them you have put a bid on a second property that is better value and reduce your offer if you like. Don’t get emotionally attached to the property. Set yourself a max price and be happy to go up to that if need be. Don’t go above it.

NinjaTruncs

AlanG wrote: »

Remember – The agent works for the seller, It is the seller that pays them to get as much money for the property as they can.
While I don’t like these ghost bidders it’s not really fraud. It’s no different than someone saying they won’t sell a 2nd hand car for less than 1500 even if their base is actually 1000. Same way as a buyer may say they won’t go above a price if they really will.
This is the business. Tell them you have put a bid on a second property that is better value and reduce your offer if you like. Don’t get emotionally attached to the property. Set yourself a max price and be happy to go up to that if need be. Don’t go above it.

Hold on a second, fraud is exactly what it is if there is no bidder and the agent says they have received another bid.

It's one thing to reject a bid as it is two low, it's an entirely different thing to tell the interested party that there is a second party interested and bidding on the property.