Bidding on a House

I swear this was 100% how it happened, the EA called me the day he knew I would be going sale agreed and spent the first 5 minute trying to see if I would add another 3K to my offer and after I told him No, then said well I told the vendor these people are genuine and lived in the area when they grew up, hence want to move back etc..

But I will agree it was the vendor that would have wanted more, multiple times the EA told me just last year houses in the estate were going well above asking price. To which I told him, 10 years ago houses will have been going 120K ~ 150k below asking price. Times change, we went sale agree right around the time Tech Giants were laying off people globally. It was a gamble on both sites!

Just to add the EA we dealt with was one of the most nicest one I have meet on our home buying journey.

EAs like to get the best price. They will want the neighbour to come to them. Every sale must make another sale or they are out of business. An agent who lets propeoerty go cheap soon doesn't get any to sell.

Again just saying my experience. Not sure what your situation is, but we spent over a year and a half looking for a house with multiple EA. This guy was nice and a bit decent I thought. But at the end of the day, he is no different to any other sale person.

Yeah you do have to trust them unfortunately. The only thing in your favour is that if they were lying about a bid, and then you said oh that's too much i drop out, then they are left with nothing for their client. So if the auctioneer is going to do that they better be sure it works.

I'd say its more likely they use fake bids at the start to get the ball rolling, rather than towards the end.

As a person who recently bought, I am going to add my opinion.

But I believe a lot of EA are terrible sales people and a lot of them have forgotten how to sell! For the last few years, a house sells itself an EA just had to put his/her feet up and see the offers come in.

As long as there is scarcity and the market is stable an EA agent doesn't have to worry about "house of cards tumbling down" as there will always be someone to buy the property. Sure in my case I still have my doubts someone put an offer of €5K more than mine, which went away 3 weeks later, but I still bought the house at the end as I liked it.

They will usually ask for approval in principle evidence or proof of funds. Though if your friend has either, could be an intriguing outcome.

Very often they don't bother. Online bidding platforms usually do, but what qualifies as proof is fast and loose. I gave Auctionera an AIP document with the loan amount blocked out. They approved it, and I was free to drive up the price on every house on the site :D.

Just an FYI to everyone here. Never, ever tell an EA what your budget is.

I helped someone buy an apartment property around 2015- prices had yet to take off and bidders weren’t in such big supply as they are now- I made an offer of something like 8k under asking price -while the apartment needed updating location was spot on for various reasons so we really wanted this property- no other bidders- a few days later EA phoned asking if we could go up 3k to a roundy number - I “protested” strongly given the fact no other bidders but I was acutely aware that time wasn’t on our side and give it another month or so, there may well be others in a bidding war- I said I wanted sale agreed if I went up 3k- bid accepted and now proud owners of a property that’s since gone up 62% in value.

Sometimes swallowing your pride is the best way if you know the property is for you- had another bidder entered the “race” I would have had to pay a lot more than 3k to buy that property and there was every likelihood they would, given time.

Im not saying this is the best or only way to go but even had I left it 6 more months to buy a property, prices had risen nearly 20% by then so it made total sense

It's FOMO, pure and simple.

FOMO is a very powerful force that drives just about every market. Humans as a whole aren't that rational, and the emotional drive to "not miss out" can be extremely powerful. For example, how many people bought things like Bitcoin without really know what it is?

However, not to throw the baby out with the bathwater, one must eventually take a leap if they wish to get anywhere. Waiting constantly for the "right house" is probably unwise. I passed up opportunities to buy because they were less than ideal in years gone by, and with hindsight, that was a mistake. It's all about finding the balance between risk and potential reward. My advice to anyone trying to buy a house is that if you afford the payments, if the location is right and if you have a repayment plan, then buy it.

I would get a friend to ring up or email and enquire about the house. Don't get them to bid, there could be a 3rd bidder you don't know of and all of a sudden you've proved to yourself that the EA is making up bids that actually do exist.

Keep it simple, bid what you can afford.

One thing you could do is pick an area where there are alot of new builds happening. Second hand homes in those areas that might need work are hard to sell as it's hard to gauge the final cost v buying a new build.

I never said “wait for things to happen”- I don’t think you appreciate what that saying means- anyway off topic