Offering less than a current bid

tvc15

Just wondering if anyone sees the point in this. House in question was advertised first on Thursday night, rang Friday morning and there was already a bid of near asking price! I know there are plenty of legitimate ways this bid could have come in but it seemed strangely on the nose.

We looked at the house and based on the competition and the condition decided our max would be under the existing bid. Would anyone bother calling in a bid or just leave it and move on?

D3PO

no harm in doing so. You will either be ignored or when the other bid "falls through" assuming its not a real bid you will be in a strong position.

tvc15

D3PO wrote: »

no harm in doing so. You will either be ignored or when the other bid "falls through" assuming its not a real bid you will be in a strong position.

I rang the estate agent but he was absolutely incredulous, kind of funny but a bit awkward, he couldn't understand the concept and sounded massively insulted!

D3PO

tvc15 wrote: »

I rang the estate agent but he was absolutely incredulous, kind of funny but a bit awkward, he couldn't understand the concept and sounded massively insulted!

Its not his job to get insulted its his job to shift the property. Not your problem if you hurt his feelings. Business is business and buying a house surely is business.

keep looking your bid is there now. If the other bid really exists no harm done, if it doesn't he will be back groveling at some point with some BS excuse for the other falling through.

mathie

tvc15 wrote: »

I rang the estate agent but he was absolutely incredulous, kind of funny but a bit awkward, he couldn't understand the concept and sounded massively insulted!

You should probably offer asking plus 10% so to clear the air.

How do you know an EA is lying?
He's an EA.

"House in question was advertised first on Thursday night, rang Friday morning and there was already a bid of near asking price!"

I'd say EAs actually convince themselves of their own horse5hit.
A bid on a house within 12 hours?

Here's my thoughts and it's a longshot but bare with me.
The EA isn't being honest. He wants the house to go for a minimum amount and he's invented a fake bid to ensure bids over that.

If you can then find the owners.
Tell them what their EA is up to.
Give them your offer and walk away.

Santa Cruz

You have put in a bid. Either it is accepted or not. If there is a fake bid then the EA will be back to the under bidders to see if they are still interested.
There is a lot to be said for having some form of registration of bids to prevent this type of activity.
Of course you can always play him at that game and get a friend to start putting in bids and see the response

Corkbah

Santa Cruz wrote: »

You have put in a bid. Either it is accepted or not. If there is a fake bid then the EA will be back to the under bidders to see if they are still interested.
There is a lot to be said for having some form of registration of bids to prevent this type of activity.
Of course you can always play him at that game and get a friend to start putting in bids and see the response

and if this is the case you should say you are still interested but now your max price is €5-10K less than your previous offer, if the EA wants the sale he may try to get you back up to your original offer and if this is the case you should haggle between your "new" offer and your original offer and not go higher than your original.


* = all this is assuming you are still interested in the property and that the EA is trying to play tricks.

tvc15

Just to update, I had given Friday close of business as when the bid would be valid for. I got a call at lunch time, apparently someone bid €1,000 more and he wanted to know if I wanted to go any further with it. Again, plenty of ways this could have been genuine but the following things give me a stink from this estate agents office:

voice mail too full to leave messages
houses being left advertised which were sale agreed when enquired about
another agent with full voicemail who refused to answer his phone for days when we wanted to bid (different property), eventually found out that the owners no longer wanted to sell

so I may be shooting myself in the foot with this property but I have gained no more respect for estate agents in the process

Duckjob

Nothing wrong with a lower bid, depending on sellers circumstances, eg. if they want a quick sale they may be willing to take slightly less from someone with mortgage approval in hand

Having said that, it does seem to be quite an alien concept to EAs. I remember having this conversation with an EA on a townhouse where he told me current bid was €252,000

Me: We'll bid €245,000. FTB, mortage approval etc.
Him (confused): Well....uh... you see, it doesnt really work like that.
Me: Like what ?
Him: You have to bid higher than the current bid.
Me: Why ? Don't bids fall through ?
Him: How do you mean ?
Me: Well, bids are not binding, right?
Him: No.
Me: So I'd assume a number of them disappear due to no mortgage approval, buyer changing their mind etc etc. (wanted to add EA's lying their arses off )
Him: Well, yes.
Me: So, that's our bid. If the higher bids fall through you have ours to consider.

He took the bid in the end and promised to pass it on. He called back a few times after and tried to get us to up it as apparently the €252,000 bid had gone. We declined as we had seen other properties at that stage that interested us more.

Woodville56

Duckjob wrote: »

Nothing wrong with a lower bid, depending on sellers circumstances, eg. if they want a quick sale they may be willing to take slightly less from someone with mortgage approval in hand

Having said that, it does seem to be quite an alien concept to EAs. I remember having this conversation with an EA on a townhouse where he told me current bid was €252,000

Me: We'll bid €245,000. FTB, mortage approval etc.
Him (confused): Well....uh... you see, it doesnt really work like that.
Me: Like what ?
Him: You have to bid higher than the current bid.
Me: Why ? Don't bids fall through ?
Him: How do you mean ?
Me: Well, bids are not binding, right?
Him: No.
Me: So I'd assume a number of them disappear due to no mortgage approval, buyer changing their mind etc etc. (wanted to add EA's lying their arses off )
Him: Well, yes.
Me: So, that's our bid. If the higher bids fall through you have ours to consider.

He took the bid in the end and promised to pass it on. He called back a few times after and tried to get us to up it as apparently the €252,000 bid had gone. We declined as we had seen other properties at that stage that interested us more.

The negative experiences about EA's just go on and on !! Is there any solution to errant EA behaviour as outlined across so many postings in this forum!
Is there a "Rate my EA" website ? If not , there should be - dunno if that's allowed anymore ?? Alternatively, maybe a thread with positive outcomes of EA interactions ?

Gaillimh1976

Woodville56 wrote: »

maybe a thread with positive outcomes of EA interactions ?

Would be a very very short thread...........

imitation

Woodville56 wrote: »

The negative experiences about EA's just go on and on !! Is there any solution to errant EA behaviour as outlined across so many postings in this forum!
Is there a "Rate my EA" website ? If not , there should be - dunno if that's allowed anymore ?? Alternatively, maybe a thread with positive outcomes of EA interactions ?

What scares me is that if they use these tactics then maybe they actually work on some customers. Imagine paying 10k over the odds because you thought you had hurt the eas feelings !

Ken.

Woodville56 wrote: »

Alternatively, maybe a thread with positive outcomes of EA interactions ?

Post 1: Mod:This is a thread for positive experiences with EA's.
Post 2: User1: I had a good experience with XXX EA's.
Post 3-100*:Everyone: Shill,spammer, You work for xxx.
Post 101*:Mod:Well that was fun. Thread locked.


*= how quick the mods react

Woodville56

ken wrote: »

Post 1: Mod:This is a thread for positive experiences with EA's.
Post 2: User1: I had a good experience with XXX EA's.
Post 3-100*:Everyone: Shill,spammer, You work for xxx.
Post 101*:Mod:Well that was fun. Thread locked.

*= how quick the mods react

Well, my thinking was that there must be a few decent/up front EA's out there, maybe existing Boarders who had good experiences might like to share such positive experiences ..then again as a relative newbie to this scene..perhaps I'm still a bit naïve ..or havn't had my cynicism booster jab yet !

Duckjob

Woodville56 wrote: »

Well, my thinking was that there must be a few decent/up front EA's out there, maybe existing Boarders who had good experiences might like to share such positive experiences ..then again as a relative newbie to this scene..perhaps I'm still a bit naïve ..or havn't had my cynicism booster jab yet !

Well, just for balance, on the house that we finally bought , we found the EA pretty sound and straight-forward to deal with. Seemed genuinely interested in just brokering a deal between us and the seller and getting the sale done. That said, our next door neighbour bought their house through him as well and they described him "as a bit of a snake". I guess everybody has their own perception.