House sold for less than my offer

Ray Palmer

fret_wimp2 wrote: »

Thats an awful lot of effort over a long held grudge that really didnt affect you in the long term. Maybe the time, effort and hassle caused to those you could see and those you couldn't was worth it. I cant help but think that simply not letting it into your head after it was gone would be a much healthier use of time and energy.

It really wasn't much effort. We could have easily made €300k if we had bought. We owned the property a long time and were waiting for the house to come on the market as a potential investment.

I had forgotten about the whole thing until the estate agent contacted me and tried to hide who was interested in the property while giving an insulting low bud of 1/5 of the market value while it was worth much more than market price to them. They were trying to cheat us again.

They wanted to buy our property to make a massive profit.

It was all thourally enjoyable. Got to listen to some old music as loud as liked while working on stuff I never got around to. Cost them a good €50k given the work they put into the house and sale price. I hadn't painted a pentogram since a teen so that was really fun. As was talking to the Gardai about religious freedom and my "gospel" music. I even made a complaint that the church bells interfered with my service to them.

antix80

My granny took a dislike to a neighbour of hers and when one of their relatives put in an offer, she didn't accept it and sold it for less. The person couldn't comprehend how they offered more but their offer wasn't accepted. There ya go.

random_banter

antix80 wrote: »

My granny took a dislike to a neighbour of hers and when one of their relatives put in an offer, she didn't accept it and sold it for less. The person couldn't comprehend how they offered more but their offer wasn't accepted. There ya go.

This. Similar to what I was suggesting, unfortunately the seller may have just decided they wanted to sell to another bidder for reasons other than the most money offered. Another poster mentioned the EA being obliged to report all bids - I don't doubt that, but it may have come down to the seller in the end. Sometimes they will just decide to sell to someone because they like them more.

However, some other posters have suggested that when it came to it, the price came down due to survey or other new information, negotiating price down due to additional work needed etc. My personal opinion is it's the most likely answer.

Tipsy McSwagger

Ray Palmer wrote: »

Had the same happen to me. Yes there are legitimate reasons for sales ending up cheaper. My personal experience was it was outright scheming.
Was bidding on a house that backed into another piece of property I already owned. It would have made for a good investment as it would have allowed better access to what I already owned giving a good option to build another property. As such the property had a higher value to us than the general public.

There was very little action on the property and we didn't want the estate agent to know what we owned as they would know we would pay more.

We put in a reasonable offer above the asking price. Suddenly there was a crazy bidding war. We put in a final offer about 15k above the real value to secure it but apparently there was a higher offer.

We declined and let it go. Then I saw the owner after sale agreed and said I was surprised they got so much. He was flabbergasted because the accepted and offer €25k less than ours. He was so far along he didn't want to pull out and we decided to do something else.

Anyway the buyer was the estate agents cousin.

So some years passed and I get a call from the agent asking about if I wanted to sell a piece of our property. A very large garage that butted against the garden of the house. This was why it was worth us buying. Anyway he had a client that was looking for the garage

Basically if they bought the garage and added it to their property it would be worth at least 25% more and more again if planning was applied for.

They were offering well below what the garage was worth and it was worth a lot more to them. So as I was talking to the agent, he didn't realise I was the person who had been bidding on the house before, I mention his cousins name. Suggesting I might contact them to see if they were interested. He gets all flustered and starts babbling. I then ask about how the house sold for less than we bid and wasn't he related to the buyer.

Then they put the house up for sale. With open viewings times. Still would be good for us to buy but we weren't going to let them make profit off us. So at viewing times I turn up with my motorbike and open my garage while loudly fixing it. Revving the engine, cursing very loudly when things weren't working. Bought rotting fish and left it in the garage so the smell was the any time I wasn't.of course they tried to talk to me and explain how this affected their sale and I had never used the garage before and it seemed strange and what was the smell. It went on and they were getting no offers so they offered to sell it to me at a discount. Agreed to buy it went through the motions and then pulled out after 6 months. They sold at a loss in the end. I sent the new buyers a bottle of wine and congratulated them on such a good deal telling them the garage would not be a problem and if they ever had an issue let me know.

Sorry very long but I did enjoy my time

Very believable up until the last paragraph.

mariaalice

Despite what people think of estate agents; They have years of experience and can generally tell what is going on with a buyer and will always go for the buyer in the best position which is not the same as the buyer offering the best price.

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" attributed to Sigmund Freud in other words everything is not a conspiracy.

Ray Palmer

Tipsy McSwagger wrote: »

Very believable up until the last paragraph.

Don't believe if you don't want to no skin off my nose. The reason why others believe it is they probably know people who have done similar.

Treat people fairly because you never know what they can do. Been dealing with property a long time and know plenty of tricks. You get to know people in the game and hear good methods that are legal. You also know small things that put sellers off.

All hail Satan!

BrokenArrows

Was sale agreed last year and the seller pulled out and sold to someone for £15k under our offer because they were a cash buyer.

I guess they needed the money asap.

Claw Hammer

BrokenArrows wrote: »

Was sale agreed last year and the seller pulled out and sold to someone for £15k under our offer because they were a cash buyer.

I guess they needed the money asap.

The cash buyer may have been willing to sign an unconditional contract. There may have been a problem with the title or a structural issue that may have caused trouble on a survey.
Cash is king!

amacca

Darc19 wrote: »

If it was 50k under, maybe a crony, but virtually at the price you offered, which you thought was full value, there's no advantage.

I've bought sold several times over the years and agents would advise on their opinion of the bidders.
"very genuine" was a phrase I liked.

One sale of a holiday home came with a "wants to complete quickly" and was 5k over another bidder.

I still effing rue the day I accepted the higher offer. It took 7 months to close.

Basically, you are selling yourself as well as making a bid.

I don't know, it sat on the market for about a year after my bid, There would have been no delay closing on my end. That wasn't necessarily my final bid but I wasn't going to start off like a house on fire and get driven to the sky, Never contacted me with a counter bid is what convinced me you would only be entertained further if it looked like you were prepared to pay a lot over the odds.......(which I wasn't)

Of course I could be wrong but my guesses are it was marked out for someone unless you were prepared to pay a hell of a lot more or a person ended up paying a lot more but just off the books. I found out a bit later the auctioneers daughter lived next door too so its my belief rightly or wrongly that it would have been unreasonably financially painful to buy the thing.......whats the pint of trying to ice skate uphill when they won't even respond to a bid and get back to see if you will go higher.

Its not a transparent market and you'll always have those kinds of doubts so I think its best to just move on and leave them with it if the price doesn't suit......

The Wordress

The scheming that goes on is shocking.

We live in quite a small town. We found a house for sale that we absolutely love that is being used as a holiday house by an elderly couple who don't use it anymore and live a good 4 hour drive away.

The neighbour is the caretaker of the house and is the only person outside of the owners who has the key.

We rang the EA to let us in for a viewing. Apparently he had wall to wall viewings of the house that week. Mmmmm. Grand, we went to view the house, loved it and left.

The next day we drove down by the house to scope out the area and neighbours etc.

By coincidence, we met the neighbour who has the key. He told us we were the only people up viewing the house ever. Literally the first to view the house since it came on the market.

The EA told us he had other offers in and wanted to start a bidding war with his phantom other bidders.

This was all pre Covid and we have since withdrawn our offer but now want to offer again as house is still on market.

I will read the agent the riot act when I have to speak EA again!!

Claw Hammer

The Wordress wrote: »

The scheming that goes on is shocking.


I will read the agent the riot act when I have to speak EA again!!

Reading Riot Acts does you not good. Better to pretend to believe his lies and tell him that your bid is your highest and he is welcome to deal with any other bidder he likes.
He is more likely to believe you and push your bid on the owners.

SozBbz

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Reading Riot Acts does you not good. Better to pretend to believe his lies and tell him that your bid is your highest and he is welcome to deal with any other bidder he likes.
He is more likely to believe you and push your bid on the owners.

Exactly, be cute. Don't give away that you know more than he thinks you know. Use the extra knowledge to your advantage.

It sounds like you potentially have a route to the owner via the caretaker. If you get very frustrated you could pass on your contact information to the owners and cut out the EA. I wouldnt waste my breath going mad, I'd just act in my own interest.

JimmyVik

A friend of mine bought his house for 50K less than other bidders.
His sister was the estate agent.
Nothing fishy going on there or anything.

saabsaab

I remember an occasion where a bid was made by myself on a property after it being left a along time unsold. Other bids came then and it went up and up. After a while at this the auctioneer said he would sell to the highest bid in a sealed bid offer.


I put mine in at my max price and sent it away.

A week later I was told that my bid was lower by 500 but if I raised it by 1,000 he would sell it to me!

Runninghard

Email sent and it was very polite - no reply yet. I don't mind if the EA blacklists me - I don't think I'd be bothered dealing with them again.

The EA did know we were cash buyers and that we knew the area well.

To be honest, I've found most EAs I've dealt with over the years okay to deal with - once you remember they are acting on behalf of the vendor.

Thanks again for all the advice and stories.

dave 27

Happened us we were out-bidded by 20k but the vender decided to take our offer as we didnt need to sell any property to move in so we closed much faster than if he accepted the other people

Graham

There's a good chance your counter-bidder is now wandering around mumbling about dodgy estate agents and brown envelopes.

dave 27

Graham wrote: »

There's a good chance your counter-bidder is now wandering around mumbling about dodgy estate agents and brown envelopes.

the vender was a recent widow and just wanted to get out of the house so maybe not in this instance but in any other case if i was the higher bidder id be questioning what happend if a lower bid won!

robo

Not sure if it was already mentioned but aren't the prices on the price reg net of tax/stamp duty?