Dealing with auctioneer

Norrie Cork

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I am bidding on a house in waterford. I am also an underbidder on another property. I am the highest bidder for the last 2 weeks. My bid is 30k higher than asking price. Under bidder hasn't countered offer. The auctioneer is now avoiding my calls! Not sure if he holding out for late entry into picture. Any advice or opinions?
 
Had a very similar experience to you recently, made an offer on a property, which I knew was pitched low to gain interest in it. Made an offer, never got back to me, called each morning and afternoon looking to speak to the agent, made a note of all the times i called and the promises made to call me back. This was for a complaint I was adamant to make for what I saw as totally unprofessional in dealing with potential purchasers.

I dont expect them to become our friends, but a little courtesy goes a long way. It seemed like it was returning to the bad ould days a few years ago when all you needed was a suit, clip board, mobile phone and bad attitude to sell a property.

Any way, it got to the stage the receptionist recognized me by by number since I had called so often, greeting me with, hi there LS, dont tell me **** still hasn't called you back yet.

Bottom line, I sale agreed the property a few week ago. Dont shy away from calling them again and again. The property is only worth so much, I knew if they tried to ramp it up on price, I was happy to walk away. But it will sell for market value.

Oh, and the call times sheet, it has been filed away under .B. since I succeeded in getting the property.
 
A bad auctioneer is the purchaser's friend.

His behaviour will put off other interested parties.

I wouldn't ring twice a day. After 3 calls not returned, I would try to contact the seller directly.

Brendan
 
Have you thought about the seller. May not actually want to sell. Could be just for some alterior motive that property is 'for sale'
 
Tell the auctioneer your offer is valid until 5pm Monday or some other such date, after which time, you move on. Alternatively tell him you've an offer accepted on another house but that this first house is your preferred choice if only he'd tell you the status. I spent two years seriously trying to buy a house and encountered this a couple of times. Some houses I believe are not actually for sale, or the seller is holding out for some mythical price. I walked away on a house in east wall at 235k last year after being top bidder for a month, seller was adamant he wanted 250k, it sold last November for 210k. I had a lucky escape! And there's plenty of choice (and value) in Waterford, 30K above offer sounds too much unless it's a 250k+ house.
 
Estate agents are the most frustrating "professionals" to deal with. I'm currently house-hunting and its causing my blood-pressure to rise. I inquired on 5 properties by email over the weekend (which included my phone number for reply) and I got a reply from 1 agent.

Brendan is right, try to get in touch with the owner directly. There was one property recently that I was very interested in but the agent wouldnt return my calls. I know the offer that was in the property and I would have been prepared to bid more for it, but it has now gone sale agreed without me even getting a chance to view it. I'm very tempted to drop a note to the owner. I'm sure I'm not the only one who didnt get a chance to view or bid on it.
 
Just to put the other side into this discussion. I'm a seller and currently loving my auctioneer. 5 bidders in play with up to 4 bids coming in each day...

I'm thanking my stars each day that I hired my auctioneer and looking forward to my one call afternoon update.

If you rang me directly I would put you on the do not sell to list.

I'm not greedy... I'm ranking the buyers by order of preference.

1. Cash buyer
2. County council
3. Sale agreed buyer
4. Buyer in chain
5. A bidder with no detail
6. ....
7. Brendan burgess after he rings me.
 
By the way... when I first listed the house I got a local person to do some work cleaning up. I got contacted directly by a friend of this person who said they were keen to buy my house. They asked me for my bottom line before I had even got advice from my auctioneer... I insisted they contact auctioneer. When they found out my price they told me my house was not worth it and quoted other houses locally as evidence.

I put this person on my personal do not sell to list... I waited patiently for 5 weeks while no higher offer came in....and then.... 5 bidders in one week.

I will be doing a very public happy dance in front of my sale agreed sign.
 
I will be doing a very public happy dance in front of my sale agreed sign.

Best of luck with the house sale, great position to be in with a number of bidders, but personally, I'd wait to do the "happy dance" until the money is transferred into your account :)
 
You are very right. As I said I'm not greedy... bids are all in the right neighborhood as it is so I will plan a beauty contest now... highest bid that can actually complete fast wins.

I'm glad I read this thread and the other one... puts it all in perspective. You assume buyers are genuine and never consider they have bids in on more than one house at same time. ... having an auctioneer to deal with all this saves a lot of stress and worry!
 
I'm not greedy... I'm ranking the buyers by order of preference.

1. Cash buyer
2. County council
3. Sale agreed buyer
4. Buyer in chain
5. A bidder with no detail
6. ....
7. Brendan burgess after he rings me.

I have experience of selling to the county council. They were an absolute nightmare and took about 10 months to complete. My solicitor was dealing with another client who was also selling to the council, his auctioneer had received an offer from the same person in the council and he had the same experience. It turned out this guy was basically putting offers in all over the place and never following up on any of them. My solicitor eventually got a meeting with this guy's superiors where he bald-faced denied he had even put in offers but my solicitor had plenty of evidence. My sale and the other client's went through reasonably quickly after that, but it was 2008 and the most nerve-wracking time!

I have no idea what the guy in the council was playing at, may just have been utterly incompetent.
 
I agree with Mrs. Vimes above regarding the County Council. Cluid Housing agency bought our house with funding from the County Council. They didn't pay any deposit and had a clause written into the contract stating that if they did not receive funding from the County Council they could pull out with no penalties. It dragged on for 5 months with the house sitting empty and we had no way of knowing whether it was going to go through.
 
Noted with thanks. Not all CC departments are the same of course. The one bidding on mine deals with helping disabled people get accommodation. I understand they are pretty good to deal with. Versus a social housing scheme department, that would fall much lower down my ranking. Why? Not because I am against selling to social housing, but because my neighbors are! I have a neighbor that works for a well known politician that will actively block any social coming into her neighborhood. Pointless for me to include them in the bidding process.

Currently the high bidder is the one I dont want, the one in a chain. I will be accepting the lower cash offer - but I will be watching carefully of any stalling tactic. (i learned from the other AAM thread to watch out for bidders putting bids in on multiple properties.)

Pity the genuine buyer will possibly lose out because her chain will not complete - but not much i can do about that.
 
Update.
My ranking ended up very different than I expected...
1. Buyer in chain
2. Sale agreed
3. Cash buyer
4. Cc
5. Overbidder with cash

The winner was not the highest but was there from the start and made 8+ bids. Eventually they secured a cash bid for their own house and took a lower offer to speed up transfer of our sale.

Both the sale agreed buyer and cash buyer seemed to have too much power and refused to equal my purchaser. I was also afraid the cash buyer who had loads to spend would fancy something else before contracts signed and leave me high and dry.

Cc never got going... too slow and risk's of cancel or being blocked too high.

Very strange cash bid last minute for 10k more than highest bid but no proof of funds... be careful out there kids.
 
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