Buying a House: Asking price online was not the real price

Krombopulos Michael

So I am dealing with a specific estate agent, and they seem to have a habit of advertising a property for a specific asking price.

We made an offer under, then of the asking price of a property, to be eventually told the owners actually wanted more than 15k more from the outset, but the estate agent listed it lower to garner interest.

Is this normal practice as it's infuriating to find a property that you like, offer asking to then be rejected and told to fork out thousands more.

Ineski

I have made similar experience, plenty of times!!
House was advertised with a certain amount but it turned out the vendor is actually not willing to sell under about asking price + 10-15k.

MAJJ

Price lower, multiple parties interested, hopefully leads to bidding war. It's a common selling approach for houses

davo10

Advertised price is a guide, nothing more. The actual price is the highest price a buyer is willing to pay for it.

TheShow

Welcome to Greedy Ireland.

lawred2

Would have thought that was a fairly routine practice. Not something I'd have been surprised or upset about.

Krombopulos Michael

Well we offered a slight increase over asking. From what I gather, there is no other offers on the house, but if this is not successful, I will happily go elsewhere.

Sleeper12

Krombopulos Michael wrote:

Is this normal practice as it's infuriating to find a property that you like, offer asking to then be rejected and told to fork out thousands more.

This is very normal. Very few properties sell for the original asking price.

Krombopulos Michael

I have never bought a house before so this is a new experience for me.

Alanstrainor

Saw this all the time. I mean you can't blame the estate agent trying to get a buzz about a property. The tactic was putting a house up under 400K where the real value was a good amount higher. Everyone with alerts on daft gets a ping at a property under their max value, meaning the open viewing was full of people.

I went to one viewing in north Dublin for a 3 bed house, up for 395 online and it ended up selling for 495. Both viewings were heaving with people. Crazy, but the estate agent certainly did their job in selling.

davo10

TheShow wrote: »

Welcome to Greedy Ireland.

Remember that when you sell a property. I'm sure you would refuse a bid of €20k above asking if a bidder was willing to pay it.

TheShow

davo10 wrote: »

Remember that when you sell a property. I'm sure you would refuse a bid of €20k above asking if a bidder was willing to pay it.

of course,
the way the market operates is wrong though.
a house is valued by a professional valuer and the price should not be a penny more than that.

diggerdigger

TheShow wrote: »

of course,
the way the market operates is wrong though.
a house is valued by a professional valuer and the price should not be a penny more than that.

Because professional valuers are infallible. Good one. :eek:

Claw Hammer

TheShow wrote: »

of course,
the way the market operates is wrong though.
a house is valued by a professional valuer and the price should not be a penny more than that.

You are not buying goods in a supermarket. There was a time when houses asked more than they expected to achieve. Intending buyers had to try and negotiate the price down. At the end of the day, it is a matter for each buyer to decide how much they're willing to pay and then bid up to that price.

q85dw7osi4lebg

Krombopulos Michael wrote: »

So I am dealing with a specific estate agent, and they seem to have a habit of advertising a property for a specific asking price.

We made an offer under, then of the asking price of a property, to be eventually told the owners actually wanted more than 15k more from the outset, but the estate agent listed it lower to garner interest.

Is this normal practice as it's infuriating to find a property that you like, offer asking to then be rejected and told to fork out thousands more.

You give out about the owners wanting more than the asking price, yet you offer less than the asking price? :pac:

BronsonTB

OP - Yes this seems to be normal practice to me by EA. The idea behind it, is to gather interest in the hope it will drive the offers up, hoping to reach the sellers real price. Very misleading for buyers in my opinion.

lawred2

TheShow wrote: »

of course,
the way the market operates is wrong though.
a house is valued by a professional valuer and the price should not be a penny more than that.

lol

That is a rather fundamental misunderstanding of how any 'market' operates.

A 'professional' valuer is just giving an opinion as to possible market price not setting a fixed price.

Sleeper12

TheShow wrote:

of course, the way the market operates is wrong though. a house is valued by a professional valuer and the price should not be a penny more than that.

Maybe it works that way in communist Russia but in the rest of the world the market dictates the price.

I assume you don't have a problem with property that sells below the asking price?

If it's OK for someone to try negotiate the price then it has to be OK for someone to negotiate the price up

handlemaster

TheShow wrote: »

davo10 wrote: »

Remember that when you sell a property. I'm sure you would refuse a bid of €20k above asking if a bidder was willing to pay it.

of course,
the way the market operates is wrong though.
a house is valued by a professional valuer and the price should not be a penny more than that.

Why ? Who.says that ?

Frilly Knickers

You can download the entirety of the property price register if you want (an ever so slightly out of date) idea of what a house is worth. You can also find the (cached) ads showing what the asking prices were.

Like others, I'm surprised OP is surprised.

I tracked asking versus selling prices on about 100 houses in the part of Dublin I was interested in - on average houses went 7% over asking

That varied greatly when you broke it down by agent. The ones you'd expect to be reputable often sold at or just over asking. The ones you know are chancers consistently sell for 12% or even 15% over asking - indicating their asking price was a total joke.

I suggest tracking asking versus selling by agent. At least then you're armed with knowledge

davo10

TheShow wrote: »

of course,
the way the market operates is wrong though.
a house is valued by a professional valuer and the price should not be a penny more than that.

No two properties are the same, so the valuer's opinion would be subjective rather than objective. You are effectively saying that you are willing to be bound by the opinion of another as to what value should be assigned to your property. On an open market your property could be worth €500k, but a valuer might deem it worth €300k based on previous selling prices of similar but not identical properties. I'm not sure many other people would be willing to forego a €200k sum for the benefit of the buyer.

Krombopulos Michael

Kara Magnificent Lamp wrote: »

You give out about the owners wanting more than the asking price, yet you offer less than the asking price? :pac:

I offered 5k less as there is work to do on the property that was not in the pictures with the site and discussing with the EA, she didnt go to the owner with the lesser offer, we agreed to just go with asking.

Krombopulos Michael

Frilly Knickers wrote: »

You can download the entirety of the property price register if you want (an ever so slightly out of date) idea of what a house is worth. You can also find the (cached) ads showing what the asking prices were.

Like others, I'm surprised OP is surprised.

I tracked asking versus selling prices on about 100 houses in the part of Dublin I was interested in - on average houses went 7% over asking

That varied greatly when you broke it down by agent. The ones you'd expect to be reputable often sold at or just over asking. The ones you know are chancers consistently sell for 12% or even 15% over asking - indicating their asking price was a total joke.

I suggest tracking asking versus selling by agent. At least then you're armed with knowledge

Like I said, its all new to me. The most expensive thing I bought before this was a car which you can always haggle down.

I like the idea about tracking Asking Vs Selling by agent. I'll have to do just that.

davo10

Frilly Knickers wrote: »

The ones you know are chancers consistently sell for 12% or even 15% over asking - indicating their asking price was a total joke.

I find that line strange.

How does an EA know for certain how much bidders are willing to pay in advance of a house being advertised, surely that depends on the bidders?

Placing a property on the market at a price lower than it might be worth is a tried and trusted way of peaking potential buyers interest in it. The ideal scenario for a seller is for at least two bidders to try and outbid each other, the EA works for the seller so the EA can hardly be accused of being a "chancer" if they achieve maximum value for their client.

Lastly, as a seller, and the person paying the EA, you want that property to go as far above asking as possible. I doubt a seller ever complained that an EA valued their property too low, after the sale closes 15% above asking, I'd say they thank the EA for doing a good job.

TallGlass

Kara Magnificent Lamp wrote: »

You give out about the owners wanting more than the asking price, yet you offer less than the asking price? :pac:

Adverts.ie :pac:

amcalester

Krombopulos Michael wrote: »

Like I said, its all new to me. The most expensive thing I bought before this was a car which you can always haggle down.

I like the idea about tracking Asking Vs Selling by agent. I'll have to do just that.

Too many variables to make that worth while (not to mention the accuracy of the data i.e. selling price).

Agents might have different selling strategies for different houses.

1 house the owner might want a quick sale and so may accept a lower price, others might only sell if a certain price is achieved and is happy to wait for that to happen so may advertise at exactly that price.

At the end of the day, even if you offer a price the seller is happy with, if someone offers higher the seller will accept that price.

How will you account for that?

dk1982

Just sold my house in the last few weeks in D12. estate agent valued it at 335/340k. He suggested we'd put it up at 310k to get the interest going. Sold for 355k. Job done!

filbert the fox

There was a terrible crash involving a minibus with a driver, 2 Hitler youth supporters and 2 Estate Agents. Five people died - 3 with a perfect right to live .......and 2 Estate Agents.:rolleyes:

granddesigner

Krombopulos Michael wrote: »

So I am dealing with a specific estate agent, and they seem to have a habit of advertising a property for a specific asking price.

We made an offer under, then of the asking price of a property, to be eventually told the owners actually wanted more than 15k more from the outset, but the estate agent listed it lower to garner interest.

Is this normal practice as it's infuriating to find a property that you like, offer asking to then be rejected and told to fork out thousands more.

Happens with almost all sales now. I have recently went after a property, advertised at €150k, I new it was undervalued at that, went in with bidding at €130k.. Within two weeks it had reached €170k, I nipped in with €175k and now sale agreed. I believe the market value was 170k so i have given 5k more because the house meets my needs.

"A property is worth what a person is willing to pay"

belfe

Wait for 1 month and offer 5k less, then another month and offer 10k less. If the owner didn't sell the property will have the feeling of devaluation and may accept your last offer.

Frilly Knickers

davo10 wrote: »

I find that line strange.

How does an EA know for certain how much bidders are willing to pay in advance of a house being advertised, surely that depends on the bidders?

Placing a property on the market at a price lower than it might be worth is a tried and trusted way of peaking potential buyers interest in it. The ideal scenario for a seller is for at least two bidders to try and outbid each other, the EA works for the seller so the EA can hardly be accused of being a "chancer" if they achieve maximum value for their client.

Lastly, as a seller, and the person paying the EA, you want that property to go as far above asking as possible. I doubt a seller ever complained that an EA valued their property too low, after the sale closes 15% above asking, I'd say they thank the EA for doing a good job.

Groan.