Offer on two properties ?

Lola Juliet

I'm wondering if anyone could tell me whether it's ok/ lawful to put an offer on two properties at once?

We are buying our first home and there's two we are interested in. Given that there are others interested in both houses we know what once we put an offer in the realtor will most likely go back and forward with the other interested parties and we may not have our offer accepted on one or both.

We don't want to wait the process out on one only to find that the other one is gone in the meantime.

Any advice appreciated !

Boards.ie: Mark

Moved to Accommodation & Property where people may be better equipped to help you out.

awec

If both properties are the same estate agent it could get awkward and end up costing you.

Alkers

By all means bid on both, in the off chance you are successful with both, I would only go sale agreed on one!

davo10

No law against doing it and it doubles your chances of getting a property you want. The downside is that it most likely pushed the price up on the property you didn't get and as said above, if EAs get wind of it they/vendor may not be keen to accept bids from you.

The_Conductor

You can put offers on as many properties as you like- nothing is binding, and your deposit is refundable, up until contracts are signed.
A downside is you are advertising to local estate agents your buying capacity- by virtue of your bids on different properties- aka- a bid on Property A will advertise to an estate agent, that you have the potential to bid at least this amount on Property B.

Most people like to play their cards close to their chest- possibly by using a friend/colleague/family member to bid on the second property on their behalf- to try and divorce themselves from advertising they are bidding on two properties.

As for legalities- it doesn't enter the equation- nothing is binding on anyone until contracts are signed- however, if you are buying- the estate agent may try to get you to pay the booking deposit at as early a stage as possible (aside from any other reason- their fee tends to be paid from it- though it is wholly refundable to you up until contracts are actually signed).

It sounds like you want to progress on two properties- until such a stage as you are 100% certain you have at least one- at which point you'd walk away from the second one.

If you're looking at second hand properties- getting a good surveyor to assess the properties- is vital. Its also a cost you will have to bear. Typically it'll be a couple of hundred per property. Its a cost- but it is very prudent to just accept that its part of the proces in buying a property- and get it done.

Bob24

Lola Juliet wrote: »

I'm wondering if anyone could tell me whether it's ok/ lawful to put an offer on two properties at once?

We are buying our first home and there's two we are interested in. Given that there are others interested in both houses we know what once we put an offer in the realtor will most likely go back and forward with the other interested parties and we may not have our offer accepted on one or both.

We don't want to wait the process out on one only to find that the other one is gone in the meantime.

Any advice appreciated !

I'm uneasy about doing it as when I make an offer I am serious about it and intend to at on it. But the way EAs work is kind of forcing you to behave in a dodgy way was well. Since they might take ages to accept or refuse your offer either because there is a bidding war or they are still showing the property to attract other bidders, you are kind of forced to double bid if you see something else you like and on of your previous offers is in limbo with an agent. I've avoided to it date though but I wouldn't completely rule it out (and as said by someone else, don't do it on 2 properties sold by the same agent).

Also keep one thing in mind: if everyone is bidding on several properties they won't end-up buying, it will artificially inflate the final selling price. This is very bad for buyers as a group (including for you as you might be competing with people who have no intention of buying), but as I said sometimes it can make sense from a "selfish" point of view.

beertons

I think you're in a good position here. EA goes back to vendor's and somewhat he has a person interested, but also looking at another. Ball is in your court. Pressure is on them, which one will get sold first.

awec

beertons wrote: »

I think you're in a good position here. EA goes back to vendor's and somewhat he has a person interested, but also looking at another. Ball is in your court. Pressure is on them, which one will get sold first.

Yea, but the EA can also go back to one vendor and tell them that the current bidder has bid 20 grand more on another property so there's room to hold out for more.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it and in fact I would positively encourage it. Why on earth would you NOT do it would be a better question. If there's two properties you are interested in why would you only bid on one, only to potentially lose it and then discover the other has sold?

Almost everything is stacked against the buyer in the Irish property market, don't make things any harder for yourself.

super_furry

You absolutely should. Just make sure to keep everything straight in your head, to have one person deal with the estate agent of one and one of the other and don’t let them know you’re bidding on both.l

awec

Deleted User wrote: »

There's absolutely nothing wrong with it and in fact I would positively encourage it. Why on earth would you NOT do it would be a better question. If there's two properties you are interested in why would you only bid on one, only to potentially lose it and then discover the other has sold?

Almost everything is stacked against the buyer in the Irish property market, don't make things any harder for yourself.

There's a good chance you will end up bidding against yourself on both properties.

awec

awec wrote: »

There's a good chance you will end up bidding against yourself on both properties.

Why?

Bob24

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Why?

Let's take a simple exemple: two broadly similar properties with an asking price of 400k and two people interested in buying one of them.

Scenario 1 is both bidders decide to make offers on both at the same time. There is a bidding war on both properties happening in parallel (but fuelled by the same 2 people) and they might end up selling for let's say 480k each which was the maximum for one of the bidders. People were not technically bidding against themselves but the very reason they kept getting counter-offers on these properties is that they decided to bid on both so in that way they were indeed bedding against themselves.

Scenario 2 is each bidder decides they will only make offers on one property a a time. Then there can be no bidding war and both properties will sell for close to asking price. Buyers are happier as there discipline saved each of them 80k.

Of course real life is a bit more complex but that logic scales and can be applied to the whole market. So the overall interest of buyers would be to only make offers on one property at a time. But since as a buyer you don't have an overall view of the market and can't coordinate with others, you sometimes have to act in a selfish way.

mloc123

The_Conductor wrote: »

You can put offers on as many properties as you like- nothing is binding, and your deposit is refundable, up until contracts are signed.
A downside is you are advertising to local estate agents your buying capacity- by virtue of your bids on different properties- aka- a bid on Property A will advertise to an estate agent, that you have the potential to bid at least this amount on Property B.

Most people like to play their cards close to their chest- possibly by using a friend/colleague/family member to bid on the second property on their behalf- to try and divorce themselves from advertising they are bidding on two properties.

As for legalities- it doesn't enter the equation- nothing is binding on anyone until contracts are signed- however, if you are buying- the estate agent may try to get you to pay the booking deposit at as early a stage as possible (aside from any other reason- their fee tends to be paid from it- though it is wholly refundable to you up until contracts are actually signed).

It sounds like you want to progress on two properties- until such a stage as you are 100% certain you have at least one- at which point you'd walk away from the second one.

If you're looking at second hand properties- getting a good surveyor to assess the properties- is vital. Its also a cost you will have to bear. Typically it'll be a couple of hundred per property. Its a cost- but it is very prudent to just accept that its part of the proces in buying a property- and get it done.

Are agents not looking for proof of funds before accepting a bid? or do they look for this when you are about to go sale agreed.

Bob24

mloc123 wrote: »

Are agents not looking for proof of funds before accepting a bid? or do they look for this when you are about to go sale agreed.

They are (more or less seriously depending on the agent), but you can show the same mortgage approval in principal to two agents related to different properties.

awec

Bob24 wrote: »

They are (more or less seriously depending on the agent), but you can show the same mortgage approval in principal to two agents related to different properties.

Yea but that won't work if it doesn't have the bidders name on it.

Bob24

awec wrote: »

Yea but that won't work if it doesn't have the bidders name on it.

Ah yeah my bad I assumed we were talking about the same person placing multiple bids in their name.

BigAl81

mloc123 wrote:

Are agents not looking for proof of funds before accepting a bid? or do they look for this when you are about to go sale agreed.

Nope! I've been in a few bidding wars and never asked yet!