first house purchase

Hi,

My partner and I are currently looking at purchasing a property in Dublin. We put a bid in last week on Wednesday, and no-one has bid above our bid so far. There were 2 other bidders last week, but they haven't come back with new bids.

We've been advised by a friend that we should approach the EA and ask them is there a minimum price in mind with the seller. She said ask "What price will it take to close the sale", as then we will know either way without a bidding war, whether it's in our budget or not.

Has anyone been in this situation, or can anyone offer any advice.

Given the current strength of buyers, I'd be more inclined to put pressure on the EA and seller by asking if the offer is being accepted, adding that until it is you're viewing / offering on other similar properties.
The way you've outlined, they may think they can squeeze you for another few thousand...

hope it all goes well for you

Put a time bound to your offer.
"Bidding wars" is the thing of the past.. But don't be surprised if EA pulls a bidder out of a hat, now that there is an offer in.

BTW, going "sale agreed" and paying a "deposit" do not give you any guarantee that the seller will not try to get more by selling to somebody else. These 2 terms means nothing IMO. Deposits are simply paid to provide cash flows to EAs, and are fully refundable.

Deposits are to try and minimise the time wasters and the sale is only safe once both parties sign contracts if either decides to pull out its the EA who loses out in reality.

In this situation i would go with what resident has said because asking for a closing price is opening the door to bid against yourself.

if no one has bid above you, definately don't go pushing the EA - that will give them more power, they will know you are keen and talk you up - as Mr Man says - bidding against yrself.

They won't want to lose the highest bidder, but will try and play you off one another - so if you just state that you will leave the "Current" offer on the table FOR NOW but are currently viewing other properties as already mentioned and would appreciate an answer - That way you are not giving an ultimatum on the timing or amount that you may back down on later but at the same time are giving the EA some pressure to respond.

watch the ECB this week - a meeting is scheduled for Thursday and its possible rates could rise again - Which will restrict what people can afford. - all good unless this also affects you also...

let us know how you get on.

Paddy

well, it's been 6 days now since our bid, and we're still on top (so to speak). went to see the house last night again, had another look around, and we're still happy with it.

the EA was very pushy saying that the sellers won't settle for less than X, even though the asking price is €30k below that (and the bids have now surpassed the asking price by €13k). the house was already on the market once (i'm not sure when but i'd guess it was earlier this year), and it had gotten to the stage of the contracts going out. the buyer was apparently having a bit of trouble getting € together, and after 5 weeks the sellers pulled out. at this stage they had agreed on "just below the asking price", but when the house was relisted, they dropped the value.

so.... the EA says the sellers are in no rush, they don't need the money for another purchase, and there's no-one living in the house at the moment.

there were some new people viewing the house last night, and apparently they were going to get back to the EA today with an offer, if they are interested. they had a builder with them, taking notes etc... and giving them prices for doing this, that and the other.

does anyone have any advice as to what we should do? well i guess we wait and see if those other people put in an offer today.

to summarize

- house listed @ €X
- bid put in (bidder #1) @ €X + €10k
- we view
- someone else bids (bidder #2) the next day €X + €13k
- we bid after them €X + €13,500

apparently bidder #1 is still in the game, although they haven't done anything since. bidder #2 hasn't been mentioned at all. we're bidder #3, and according to the EA, bidder #4 is due to come into it today.

we're in slightly above our heads, as we're FTBs, but i reckon we're still in with a good chance of getting the house as we're still within budget with a little headroom. so is it a question of sitting tight, not pressuring the EA, and waiting to see what happens?

thanks for the info btw, you've all been very helpful.

d.

djr said:

...
apparently bidder #1 is still in the game, although they haven't done anything since. bidder #2 hasn't been mentioned at all. we're bidder #3, and according to the EA, bidder #4 is due to come into it today.

we're in slightly above our heads, as we're FTBs, but i reckon we're still in with a good chance of getting the house as we're still within budget with a little headroom. so is it a question of sitting tight, not pressuring the EA, and waiting to see what happens?

thanks for the info btw, you've all been very helpful.

d.

Click to expand...

Have you looked at any other properties, I suggest you short list properties you are intersted in and play hardball. Do not get emotionally attached until you get the key in the door.

I personally find it hard to believe that there are 4 bidders on a house these day! I think that the EA knows you are very keen!

Play hard ball - what would be the worst thing that happended if you lost out on this house, there are plenty of other houses about.

Bidder 4 and his "builder" might just be mates of the seller

djr said:

the EA was very pushy saying that the sellers won't settle for less than X, even though the asking price is €30k below that
........
there were some new people viewing the house last night, and apparently they were going to get back to the EA today with an offer

Click to expand...

What did i tell you yesterday? EA playing EA's game...

Nothing sells today at €30k above asking price, unless asking price is very very low or house is very particular e.g. period house may be.

What type of house are you looking at?
Which area it is in?
And how much is the asking price?

sorry, but i'd rather not give out details of location and pricing, let's just say that the asking is quite a bit below what i would have considered to be market value. i don't know whether they've done this to bring in interested parties, and then raise the stakes, or whether they are actually trying to sell the house at some reasonably soon stage.

anyway, at the moment there are only 2 bidders (apparently). me, and the person who first bid, who said they want to be kept informed of bids. it really depends on what happens over the next few days, and whether the vendor is going to be happy.

it looks like the vendor wants to hold out and see if they can get close to what the last sale was going for (the one that fell through), but we're leaving our offer as-is, and if someone outbids us we'll rethink our stance.

djr, If I were you I'd try to find out what other houses are for sale in the area and their prices ( I find the my home site, with the map and all the houses for sale marked on it handy for this )
Maybe the asking price was set low, maybe it wasnt, this should at least give you an idea of the general area asking price should you proceed.
I'd try not to get too fixated on one house, especially if there's an EA or vendor that's playing hardball and isn't under sales pressure (ie not in a chain, financial duress, whatever..)
When you search, If you can find other houses that interest you even within +20% of your budget I'd enquire, you may luck out and find a motivated seller, and get a house you didn't think you could afford.
We all want to get a great first house and are used to stretching to get to it, just be careful, do your homework don't over pay and keep within your comfort level, even after checking repayments with a stress test of + a couple of percent.
At the end of the day be prepared to walk away from it, even if you end up having to rent for a while.
In a market where rents are less than interest only payments and house prices aren't so energetic, I think it could suit many people to hold on for a while if they aren't getting a good deal on a purchase.

@resident

unfortunately there's no other houses either in the same area, or in our budget, only apartments. we're trying not to be fixated on this property, as we know it'll probably not work out in the end (either through out-bidding, or us getting fed up). the only option is to stay where we are for a while and see how things pan out. we looked at the only other house in the area (which is priced well above market value), and it was a bit of a dump

there's no similar properties around to compare it to.

---

there's only ever 1 or 2 other viewers there when we are, is this unusual or does the EA just not want too many people trapseing around the house?

also, the first time we were told about the previous sale we were told the buyer pulled out. the next time it was mentioned, we were told the seller axed the sale because the buyer was "messing about".

the really unfortunate thing is that this house ticks all our boxes, and we're not letting ourselves get too excited about it, obviuosly in case we lose the sale.

so we're going to keep an eye out for other properties that we like, and bide our time. the problem is that because this is the only one on our shortlist at the moment, it's getting all our focus.

d.

forgot to add that the house itself isn't actually in bad condition or anything, so i would have thought there's no good reason to advertise a low starting price if they want a high final offer, other than to get people in the door.

At the current state of the market I think anyone is mad buying now. I'd wait and take my chances to see what gonna happen.

djr said:

sorry, but i'd rather not give out details of location and pricing,

Click to expand...

OK... I was just trying to assess what "€30k above asking price" really meant in the context?
If house is €2m, then this is negligeable.
If house is €150k, then it is a lot.

Check this thread

it's at the mid-range:

the list price is 370k.

you could try googling this specific address and the general area address with " for sale " , the search should pick up cached pages of older sales and asking prices.

this may give you an indication of what price properties in the area were in the past, and also an idea of the frequency with which they come to market.

This could calm/reassure you if you knew this one was not overpriced, or if you saw properties in the area came up fairly regularly.

It may also hightlight if another agent has the property, if so, ring them and ask about current offers.
Co-Agents are supposed to relay all current offers to each other, so checking what one says with the other can cut down on some of the silly business some EA's get up to.

R.

we were in your postition recently, as it's your first house purchase it can be daunting but it's like poker, don't believe a word the EA says, they are always going to pull a bidder out of the hat the minute you show an interest or place a bid.
it's common for people to put down a few booking desposits if they like several houses then pull out as nobody looses anything until contracts are signed so it can be frustrating for sellers too, i can't blame people for pulling out due to being messed around and greed.

as for a market slowdown and nobody buying, people are still buying but just being alot choosier, of course there's loads of for sale signs up in estates that aren't particularly nice anyway, which were built without thought, facilities and badly finished off.

if you don't want to go into a bidding war and messing the easiest thing to do is ask what price will take it off the market as you were advised or else sit tight and wait and call the EA's bluff, you obviously know your limit pricewise, there's absolutely no point in having a big mortgage and no quality of life.
keep looking at other houses and ensure the estate agent knows you're doing this.

good luck!

cheers for the info resident, that's gas, i work in IT and i didn't think of checking google's cache. i'll have a looksee around and try what you said.

turns out it wasn't that long ago, sale was agreed in late june, and fell through (for whatever reason) a few weeks later. they didn't hang around before re-listing the house, and it was re-listed for exactly the same asking price.

it looks to me that contrary to what the EA said, the current owners would quite like to sell the house quickly, or else why would it have gone straight back onto the market?

anyhoo, no word yet on being outbid so fingers crossed.

does it put the vendor in a weaker position if they have to list the house with an EA twice? i presume they have to effectively pay the various listing fees twice, or would i be wrong in thinking this? this would imply that they definately want to go through with the sale this time, rather than pull out again, and have to pay to re-list.

am i being silly?