Full & Final Bids or 'Sealed Bids'

Askthe EA

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Again lets look at it. Say a €100k phantom bid @ 1.5% €100,000 / 100 *1.5 = €1500 / 20% = €300 before tax = €180 approx Am I going to risk my career for €180? No.

As I pointed out above, on million plus houses the fee is generally smaller but we'll go for the higher 1%. €100,000/100*1= €1000 / 20% = €200 before tax €130 approx. No again.

For it to be worth the risk, you'd need to be doing it wholesale and your career wont last long. Look, Im not going to convince you to change your mind so we'll leave it at that.

On your second point, I'll take that as a compliment thanks! ;-)

antoinolachtnai

What exactly has the EA done wrong (a) to his client and (b) to you. Really, unless he has done something to cause his client loss, I don't see that there will be much they can or will want to do. It is up to you obviously. But I just don't know what benefit this will be.

Estate agents do operate under tremendous pressure. They have a lot of pressure to make sales, and they are under a mix of pressure, uncooperativeness, indecision and lethargy from their clients, the vendors. Also, prospective purchasers are very unpredictable and do odd things all the time. This in itself isn't something you can really complain about.

I think what could have happened was that the other prospective purchaser got upset when he heard about the sealed bids idea and decided that he would walk away. To your mind and my mind this is an odd thing to have done, but people do funny things when they are making the biggest purchase of their lives.

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Conrad83

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

What exactly has the EA done wrong (a) to his client and (b) to you. Really, unless he has done something to cause his client loss, I don't see that there will be much they can or will want to do. It is up to you obviously. But I just don't know what benefit this will be.

Estate agents do operate under tremendous pressure. They have a lot of pressure to make sales, and they are under a mix of pressure, uncooperativeness, indecision and lethargy from their clients, the vendors. Also, prospective purchasers are very unpredictable and do odd things all the time. This in itself isn't something you can really complain about.

I think what could have happened was that the other prospective purchaser got upset when he heard about the sealed bids idea and decided that he would walk away. To your mind and my mind this is an odd thing to have done, but people do funny things when they are making the biggest purchase of their lives.

Yes the other bidder could have walked away but should the EA not have told me this rather than telling me he was still in it in a view to squeeze more money out of me? If the other person walked away surely there wouldn't be a request for sealed bids and the property just goes to the next bidder (me)? Why would someone be upset by it going to sealed bids. Surely we both want this over with as it has dragged on so long.

What the EA has done wrong is possibly lie about the a bid, which I suspect, and if he has lied about one bid how many others have been lied about? Thus driving up the price of the property.

ted1

[Deleted User] wrote: »

If you have been going for seven weeks at 500 Eur increments, its no wonder the EA and vendor have moved to sealed bids. If the increments had been in 5k you would have been at this stage in 10 days or less and heading to close the deal.

I got my house from a 500 increment. A 5k bid would have resulted in me over paying by 4.5k.

pwurple

I got our current house by going up in 5k increments, the other bidder was going in 500 euro increments, after 2 of those, the EA told the 500 euro bidder to make a decent bid or shag off (in different words). We were still under asking price, but the vendor wanted it wrapped up fast as it was a marriage breakdown, and they wanted to go their separate ways sharpish.

ted1

So quite possibly you over paid by 4.5K

Moomintroll99

They do sell some houses this way in Australia where I'm from, although I've never bought anything that way. Also in Scotland it is often done this way I think. Generally a feature of super hot markets - is the market on the boil where you are?

I think it's massively to the advantage of the vendor because the buyer makes their best offer. Even an auction is just the 'next best' offer than someone else is prepared to pay - if you're happy to go to x + 20 but the next auction or private sale bidder only offers x + 5 then you can get it for x + 6, but the vendor has thus missed out on the x + 20 you would have paid via sealed bid. So I can see the attraction for vendors definitely.

I reckon if you're at all dodgy about it just put in a bid that's a fraction higher than your current one, maybe 50 euro, and leave it at that. The advantage of participating is that at least it's sorted once and for all, you can stop playing increment tennis, and if the other bidder is real enough to beat you then you can walk away in the knowledge you offered a decent price and it wasn't to be.

Houses are like people: some of them just ain't worth the hassle.

antoinolachtnai

Conrad83 wrote: »

Yes the other bidder could have walked away but should the EA not have told me this rather than telling me he was still in it in a view to squeeze more money out of me? If the other person walked away surely there wouldn't be a request for sealed bids and the property just goes to the next bidder (me)? Why would someone be upset by it going to sealed bids. Surely we both want this over with as it has dragged on so long.

What the EA has done wrong is possibly lie about the a bid, which I suspect, and if he has lied about one bid how many others have been lied about? Thus driving up the price of the property.

But I thought he did tell you that the other person has walked away, or something?

The estate agent is entitled to ask you for a bid and to ask that it be your final bid. The 'sealed bid' is an assurance to you that there can't be an inside bidder.

I do not see that he is required to tell you that other people have fallen out of the race.

The vendor is not at any prospect of being at a loss at all as far as I can see. I can see the process is unpleasant, but I can't see that the agent has done anything particularly bad.

Conrad83

antoinolachtnai wrote: »

But I thought he did tell you that the other person has walked away, or something?

The estate agent is entitled to ask you for a bid and to ask that it be your final bid. The 'sealed bid' is an assurance to you that there can't be an inside bidder.

I do not see that he is required to tell you that other people have fallen out of the race.

The vendor is not at any prospect of being at a loss at all as far as I can see. I can see the process is unpleasant, but I can't see that the agent has done anything particularly bad.

No he told me that the other party had withdrawn their last bid of €500 when they found out it might be going to sealed bids but they were still in it cos they wanted to wait and see how things panned out. When I first started bidding 5h343

If it is just 2 parties bidding for 2 months and one pulls out does telling me that the other person is still in it and it's going to full and final bids not look like he is trying to squeeze more money out of me? Leading me to believe another party exists when they don't? That's how it appears to me anyway, especially when he had heard nothing from the other party for over a week before his last withdrawn bid. When I started bidding I asked how many were bidding I was told 5 then next time I asked I was told 2. Who knows really! All guessing with them as I wouldn't trust them as far as I could throw them.

antoinolachtnai

It must be a very frustrating process for you. I don't fully understand what you are telling me about the bids and where you started and so on. It might be better not to go into specifics anyway.

In broad general terms, he is perfectly entitled (and maybe even contractually bound) to squeeze money out of you. That is his job. He is not an honest broker, he is the seller's agent. It is not his fault if bidders fall out. Bidders do strange things. They change their minds, or they go ahead with a different property which they are interested in. Vendors also do strange things. Not trusting estate agents is very common, and it really is true that you can't believe anything an estate agent tells you. But that's not necessarily because a particular agent is dishonest.

Conrad83

Conrad83 wrote: »

No he told me that the other party had withdrawn their last bid of €500 when they found out it might be going to sealed bids but they were still in it cos they wanted to wait and see how things panned out

The whole point of a "sealed bid" is that the other competitors do not know what you are bidding.

So firstly they ask for sealed bids, the other competitor drops out, no need now for sealed bids!

If they're now back in, either they participate in the sealed bid or you just make your full and final offer and see what happens, i.e. normal bid.

Whatever about phantom bids, this business of asking one party to proceed with a sealed bid is at best absurd, at worst a (totally legal) ruse to push your bid up a bit more.