Lead bidder, suspicious new bid against us

limericklad87

We were the highest bid on a house for the last two weeks having beaten off the competition. We were 8 grand off what seller was looking for but 15,000 above what was listed daft.

So let's just say for argument sake the we were bid at 192,000... Seller wants 200,000... We were at 192,000 for 2 weeks.

I ring EA agent and say we'll go 195,000 and get the ball rolling.. . Suddenly out of no where there's a bid for 196,000...

I Am The Law

Just wondering how you know the seller wanted 200k if it was on Daft at 167k?
Also how did your offer get driven up to 192K and why are you now offering 195k?

limericklad87

This EA is known for listed properties 10-15k under on daft and had told me during bidding what the seller is looking for....

godtabh

You can either play the game or walk away. Only you can decide

limericklad87

I think I'll be calling their bluff on this one...

athtrasna

Mod note:

Please use meaningful thread titles. Have renamed the thread to reflect content.

BettePorter

You jumped 3k without being prompted ? EA told you what sellers want and knows you're interested given your upping of offer so is chancing ull go to wire.
I agree u should call is bluff but then why did u offer the extra 3 in first place rather than just giving a deadline on your 192 offer? ( if as I understand it there were no counter offers at that point )

Atlantic Dawn

Tell them that's the offer, it stands for 7 days, put the phone down.

drunkmonkey

limericklad87 wrote: »

I think I'll be calling their bluff on this one...

You seem to be going the wrong way about it, tell them your not comfortable at the 195 and always blame the Mrs, say she wasn't happy when you went over 190, tell him your tapped out now at 195 and will only leave it on the table for 24hrs.
If you've outbid nearly everyone except this last late entrant your probably overpaying for the property.
You went looking at a 167k house now your at 195, maybe let this go at 196k and start making some offers on house that are priced at 200 to 225k, who knows one of them might take 195 and you'd probably be in a different league of a house. It's easy get carried away in the moment, that 196k might be a lifeline.

biketard

I agree you should put a time limit on your 195 offer. Even if you agreed to increase to 197, who's to say they won't come back and say, "Oh, the other bidder has increased to 198 now", whether there's really another bidder or not.

davo10

biketard wrote: »

I agree you should put a time limit on your 195 offer. Even if you agreed to increase to 197, who's to say they won't come back and say, "Oh, the other bidder has increased to 198 now", whether there's really another bidder or not.

Don't put a time limit on it unless you have reached your max, you will "paint yourself into a corner" if you do, any future bids will not be taken seriously/will be ignored. Also if there are other bidders, the seller would be a fool to accept any bid based on a time limit, the chances of a higher bid being submitted after that time would be very high if there are others looking at the property so it would be worth the risk for the seller to wait. Even if they went back to the underbidder it might only be a thousand or two less so again it is worth the risk to ignore time limits.

I just cannot understand why people keep advising posters to put time limits on bids, there are a shortage of houses and loads of cash buyers, even with new lending rules houses are selling quickly if not rising in price quite as much as they were. Putting time limits on bids just tells the EA and seller that either you are out of the bidding/tapped out or clueless, none of which will help you now or in the future if another property comes up with the same EA.

Op just wait, consider what you are willing to pay for that property and stick to that figure. Get a letter from your bank stating that you have mortgage approval in place (blank out the amount on the letter) and confirm with the EA that the finance is already in position, this however will be of no benefit if you are bidding against a cash buyer. Then it is just a waiting game, if you suspect there are "phantom bidders", just think to yourself, if I want it, is it possible someone else might as well?. There are no set rules or guidelines to winning a property bid, money usually wins the day and instead of focusing on not paying to much, focus on what you are prepared to pay.

dubrov

That's crazy advice. Without a time limit a seller can sit on a bid waiting for better offer indefinitely. There is no need to say that it is your final offer, just that you are looking at other properties and the bud is only valid for x days.

No seller would ignore a later higher offer unless they have a desire to sell their house cheaply

Dr Strange

I don't see why a time limit would change/force the seller's attitude at all.

What's to keep the EA from telling other interested parties that an offer of X amount had been recently rejected by the vendor? He/she doesn't have to tell them that the offer was only valid for 24 hrs/a week/etc. In the end he can still use the last offer to reel in higher bids.

As was said it comes down to money. What are you willing to pay and stick with that. Take the emotional part out of buying and just think with your head and you should be fine.

davo10

dubrov wrote: »

That's crazy advice. Without a time limit a seller can sit on a bid waiting for better offer indefinitely. There is no need to say that it is your final offer

Exactly, and that's what happens until the seller gets what they want or will accept. What's the point of putting a time limit on it if it isn't your final bid? "So EA, here's my bid and it's only on the table for X amount of time, but let me know if someone else bids higher in the future cause I might come back with another bid" . The whole point of a time limit is that you are effectively saying, " either accept my bid now or I'm off", what's the logic in taking your approach?

dubrov

The point is to show the seller you may not be around forever. You could walk at any time and they might be left with no bidder.

Even if the time limit expires, it is likely the seller will come back to you if no other bids materialise

davo10

dubrov wrote: »

The point is to show the seller you may not be around forever. You could walk at any time and they might be left with no bidder.

Even if the time limit expires, it is likely the seller will come back to you if no other bids materialise

It's a trump card you only get to play once and should be reserved as a last through of the dice along with your final bid, even then the odds at the moment favour another bid if the seller waits. Using your logic, you put a bid down today with a time limit "or else we walk" then another one next week "or else we walk", it just looks amateurish and the seller/EA will just ignore it.

Sellers know you won't be around forever, but the chances are that another bidder will come along and replace you. Buying or selling a property is among he biggest emotional and financial decisions most of us will ever make, no one is going to make a decision based on a time limit particularly when there is a high probability of another bidder coming along.

dubrov

Well, you don't say "or else we walk". You just set a time limit on the bid, after which the bid is not firm.

The key is to let the seller know that you have other options and are not committed to the one property.

Of course, there can be other bidders but the longer the bidding process drags on the more chance there is for this to happen.

limericklad87

I've tried the time limit thing before and it has backfired....

Rang the EA office and said we weren't increasing our bid.

Also the suspicious bid that was 196,000 was now quoted as 198,000

davo10

dubrov wrote: »

Well, you don't say "or else we walk". You just set a time limit on the bid, after which the bid is not firm.

The key is to let the seller know that you have other options and are not committed to the one property.

n.

What? That's what a time limit is, a limit after which the bid expires, what's the point of putting a limit on it, if there is no effect after that time?

You can let the bidder know you have other options without putting a time limit on the offer.

johnp001

dubrov wrote: »

Well, you don't say "or else we walk". You just set a time limit on the bid, after which the bid is not firm.

The key is to let the seller know that you have other options and are not committed to the one property.

Of course, there can be other bidders but the longer the bidding process drags on the more chance there is for this to happen.

A bid puts absolutely no obligation on the buyer. Even if it is accepted immediately they haven't committed to anything until much, much later in the process. A booking deposit is there only to show good faith because it is completely refundable.
No agent or seller would ever expect a buyer to stand over previous bids in perpetuity. Putting a time-limit on the bid only serves to tell the agent that you are in more of a hurry than they are which is a bad position for the buyer to start negotiations from.

drunkmonkey

Stick a time limit on your 195, if, your mortgage approved and deposit ready.
These other bidders might not be financed approved, may be trying to sell their own home, may have a deposit even on their own home. God only knows anyone can put in a bid, the fact their only going up in 1's says their shakey bids I think.
I've lost out a few times.
Be 100% this house ticks all the boxes, if your not within walking distance of, pub, shops and school maybe reconsider even buying, might not be an issue now but could become a pain in the ass in years to come.
Also go talk to the local valuers for the bank your going with and get their opinion on the current price and future Vale. Also talk to your solicitor and ask their opinion considering the new price, location etc. Would they buy it?

gaius c

limericklad87 wrote: »

We were the highest bid on a house for the last two weeks having beaten off the competition. We were 8 grand off what seller was looking for but 15,000 above what was listed daft.

So let's just say for argument sake the we were bid at 192,000... Seller wants 200,000... We were at 192,000 for 2 weeks.

I ring EA agent and say we'll go 195,000 and get the ball rolling.. . Suddenly out of no where there's a bid for 196,000...

That was your mistake. EA sees that you've bid against yourself with only a bit of cajoling and will try their tricks to get you up that last bit to get the sale over the line.

gaius c

limericklad87 wrote: »

I've tried the time limit thing before and it has backfired....

Rang the EA office and said we weren't increasing our bid.

Also the suspicious bid that was 196,000 was now quoted as 198,000

Of course it did. The average Joe Soap would be "playing" against an experienced and skilled negotiator. No matter how good you think are at "the game", 99% of EA's will be better at it than you and throwing down a challenge to them is not the best way to get a deal. They might be a pest but trying to "game" them will backfire most of the time because wanting to "play" means you're getting emotional and they love it when bidders get emotional.

That doesn't mean to let them walk all over you but the best position to take with EA's is to be business-like and to the point. KISS.
Likewise, if they play games with you, keep a clear head and don't get caught up. Vent elsewhere if it helps but stay business-like with them.

limericklad87

Well we'll wait and see for the time being.

As previous posters have said this may be a blessing in disguise. Regardless of whether this bid is fictional or not we won't be increasing our bid.... Ha might even revert back....

Seems very coincidental on the timeline giving there was no activity for two weeks

April 73

We had something similar last year with an offer on a house. A second buyer mysteriously appeared & even upped their own bid at one point. I think they were actually bidding on a couple of properties in the area & thought upping their own bid might secure the house.
It just set the bar higher though as the owner didn't bite & even though I strongly suspect that that figure was their limit for that house but it still left us having to trump it.
The advice to treat it as a business not as a heart decision is a good one. We made a bid we were happy with for that house & told the estate agent that it was our top bid for that house. If the owners weren't interested then we were happy enough to walk away & look elsewhere. It's not about a time limit - it's about setting a monetary limit on what the house is worth to you.
You viewed a house on the market at €167k and you've been nudged up to €195k & they want more? Time to draw the line I think.

scrimshanker

You went from 192 to 195 to speed things up... It didn't work. So call the agent and tell them that seeing as the extra 3 grand hasn't moved things forward at all, you're reverting to the 192, you aren't prepared to pay more but that the offer still stands if anything happens with the higher bidder.

limericklad87

Hey guys just to give an update on this. This house has come back to us this week and offered to us at our bid that we pulled out at.

We went sale agreed a couple of days ago.

limericklad87

And to add to this... Just got the keys yesterday.....

leelee77

Congratulations. Very exciting times for you!

Deer

Congratulations! Enjoy your new home. In ours a week and so happy

Re the other bid you initially posted about, you never know. We went sale agreed in September to the only bidder for 205,000. The next day a bid came from someone else for 206,000. Because we had sale agreed the day before we said feck it and stuck with the original. We didn't communicate this to our buyer. We also did not communicate a week before contracts were signed that the higher bidder came back again with an offer of 210,000, which we declined because it just wouldn't be fair and we had a bad feeling. So sometimes you just don't know what's going on in the background.

April 73

Congrats Limericklad87 - hope you are very happy there.

Deer - you did the honorable thing. Not always easy when extra cash is on the table but sometimes you have to go with your gut & what you think is right.