Bidding against others

doylerkelly

Any advice on bidding against someone else for a house, i'm in a bidding war at the moment.
how can you tell if the auctioneer is genuine.
the asking price of the house is gone up 32k since we start bidding. the bidding started with up 2k on either side, now it's up 1k on either side. it's very frustrating.

xpletiv

Set yourself a limit of absolute most you'll pay. Continue bidding to there; then when you go past it, just bow out. It happens; cant win them all.

However, the auctioneer may very well come back to you and say the others that bidded above you have bowed out and would take your last offer; if that happens DO NOT let them take your last offer. Low ball them then, cause its possible they were faking the jumps to get you to go up. If its gone up 32k and its just between you and another, then offer the 32k less and tell them you'll go from there!

CreativeSen

Our house went 10.5% over the asking so don't be surprised by that fact that its still going up!

I am sure that there are some real estate agents that take advantage of bidding wars but its a dangerous game for them, if they got caught then they are f****d for career opportunities and the monetary gain is minimal, every 1k extra only nets them c 15 to 20 EUR.

The tactics you should go for depend entirely on how much you want this house, how much time you have and most importantly how much can you afford.

DO NOT GET CAUGHT UP IN THE MOMENT and over extend yourself.

We were cash buyers but were bidding against someone who needed to sell their home to be able to purchase. We only matched bids, never bid more than the other person but we could move faster than them if our bid was accepted. I was tempted to go 5k over just to end the process but was glad to have that 5k in the bank to help with the fees. If you are happy to wait and you can afford it, why not change the bidding to increase by 500 EUR. If there are only 2 of you left, why not slow it down and reduce the increments and save yourself some money?

Samuel T. Cogley

Excellent advice so far, some less excellent advice but something that helps, make one offer a day max and don't get drawn into frantic bidding. You may have already tipped your hand in regard to really wanting the property but let the EA sweat a little between bids.

Another option is a blow them out of the water bid but frankly you need to do that from the get go rather than now.

123Katie

I agree why not do increments of 500 euro and slow it down, if you feel your are bidding against the estate agent

doylerkelly

All very good advise thank you.
I just don't understand why would you slow it down by increments of 500 euro, surely the other bidders will think 'it's only 500' and keep bidding 500's too it just drags on and is stressful for all involved.
We were offered a large mortgage plus we have a lump of equity however obviously we don't want to go too high as obviously we don't want a large mortgage debt.
we have our hearts set on this particular house though and are willing to keep bidding. but then surely there is only so much the house value is worth.

Bushmanpm

Just a thought but are you bidding verbally or via email or text, ie traceable? If bids are traceable it would be very stupid of the EA to be falsifying bids especially as the net worth to them would only be a few extra euros, as previously mentioned.
As also mentioned the bidding can sometimes feel never ending so stick to your limit and in the meantime keep looking elsewhere in case you don't get this property.

CreativeSen

Check to see if the specific EA is showing any other houses that are similar is size around the same area and go along to an open viewing. Let the EA know that all though you are interested in the house, you are not committed. A good EA will inform the seller that you are ready to move on to something else and that they should make their mind up sooner rather than later about accepting an offer.

Why I think changing the increments to 500 might be a good idea? You are informing the seller that although you are interested, the house is already well above asking and that it is hitting the max sellable price. You will be encouraging them to accept an offer. Just my thought.

doylerkelly

The estate agent told us that unfortunately its not up to them or up to the buyer to accept an offer, he said it's down to the bidders who comes up with the last and final offer.

stargazer 68

doylerkelly wrote: »

The estate agent told us that unfortunately its not up to them or up to the buyer to accept an offer, he said it's down to the bidders who comes up with the last and final offer.

The buyers can accept any offer. Doesn't have to be the highest

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This post has been deleted.

April 73

doylerkelly wrote: »

The estate agent told us that unfortunately its not up to them or up to the buyer to accept an offer, he said it's down to the bidders who comes up with the last and final offer.

I think what he meant was the buyer isn’t going to accept an offer while two people are still actively bidding.

Samuel T. Cogley

doylerkelly wrote: »

The estate agent told us that unfortunately its not up to them or up to the buyer to accept an offer, he said it's down to the bidders who comes up with the last and final offer.

If ye keep going at it, especially at low increments, you'll eventually go to sealed 'best and final' bids.

doylerkelly

Latest update on this....the bidding went up to 37k above asking price , we stopped there, The estate agent that is selling that house is also the estate agent selling our house. As soon as we told him that we are withdrawing our bid as we feel there is better value in the area, we have not heard from him since that day, his colleague start dealing with us regarding our house from the day we pulled out. We found this quite strange, was as if he was annoyed with us.
Anyway, we thought 'that house will go sale agreed now with the couple that was bidding against us', but no it stayed on the market and had more 'open viewings', 2 months on it was taken off the market the other day. I really do believe that we may have been bidding against ourselves.

Wildly Boaring

doylerkelly wrote: »

Latest update on this....the bidding went up to 37k above asking price , we stopped there, The estate agent that is selling that house is also the estate agent selling our house. As soon as we told him that we are withdrawing our bid as we feel there is better value in the area, we have not heard from him since that day, his colleague start dealing with us regarding our house from the day we pulled out. We found this quite strange, was as if he was annoyed with us.
Anyway, we thought 'that house will go sale agreed now with the couple that was bidding against us', but no it stayed on the market and had more 'open viewings', 2 months on it was taken off the market the other day. I really do believe that we may have been bidding against ourselves.

You see you just don't know and it's easy to sceptical.

A load of reasons for the above
Seller reckoned they could get more
Other bidder got caught in moment and over extended
Other bidder in a chain that failed
Other bidder had life insurance problems at drawdown
Property had issues at inspection
Property had boundary issues
Seller v slow and bidder withdrew (did this myself)
....
....

The estate agent has very little to gain by falsifying bids.
The seller would lose their **** and could go public if they found out.
That 37k at 2% is what? €700?
Worth the time, hastle and risk that you'll pull out? Hardly

liquoriceall

I am doubtful of the estate agent doing the bidding, the seller though has a lot to gain from getting a family member to bid up for them and in my humble opinion this is the most likely source of false bids