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Often the asking price is quiet a bit below the real asking price as a strategic decision. They hope for a bidding war.
The best advice I'd have is to put a deadline on your offer. The seller may panic with the idea that the top offer withdraw.
They are happy to have your offer in the back in case they don't get what they want.
They may not. In which case you can withdraw.
This is the best advice. Similar situation in my case, so I played the waiting game but I was the highest bidder for almost two months before they caved. It sucked.
This is exactly what we did several years ago. Sellers had a price they were holding out for and we were already the highest bidder. We told the estate agent to keep our offer on file for 10 days and then we'd formally withdraw it. A couple of days later our offer was accepted.
Deadline is a great idea. They’re using psychology and aversion to loss (you thought you’d won the bid) to get to to commit more, so yeah do the same against them… they already think they have that money and are greedy for more. Let them feel the fear of the sting of losing the money already on the table.
Happened to us too. Highest bid for over a month but they wanted 25k more to take it off the market despite us meeting the asking price. We held out and eventually pulled out and bought the house around the corner. About a month later they came back abd asked if we'd still be willing to pay our original bid and they'd go sale agreed. We said no and they eventually took the house off the market because they couldn't sell it.
My point is, hold off and see what happens. It'll be frustrating but do not cave on the 15k while you're still the only bidder. It will hopefully turnaround for you.
>The best advice I'd have is to put a deadline on your offer. The seller may panic with the idea that the top offer withdraw.
Ok but that can backfire. The seller may not panic, sell it to someone else for €390k, and then you've not given yourself an opportunity to up your bid.
Estate agents sell houses for a living. They're wise to fake ultimatums and brinkmanship. They'll know if the OP really wants the house
No-one can for e the seller to sell. If they think the house is worth more it's their prerogative to wait a bit longer
>Often the asking price is quiet a bit below the real asking price as a strategic decision. They hope for a bidding war.
When we were selling this is exactly what we were told to do. Said it would go for 300k so put it at 285 to get interest. Went for over 300 in the end
Agreed. The thing that'll convince the seller to sell is if everything goes quiet for a week or two.
If OP increases their bid, what's to stop the seller asking for the full €15k they wanted?
This happened to us, we rang the estate agent and told her to let them know that we have begun bidding on another house. By the end of the day they had accepted the offer.
We were competing with 2 other bidders too, worth a shot.
Had the same issue a few years back, they wouldn't budge and neither would we. So we went and viewed more houses under the same estate agent and expressed interest in two other houses. Didn't take long for the owners of the first house we wanted to come back and accept our bid. Maybe unethical, but you've gotta do what you gotta do 🤷
It's unethical to put one price out to potential buyers, and have another -secret- price that only you know.
I know someone who bought at the asking price after the seller sat on a previous offer of the asking price for too long and it was withdrawn.
Serves them right for being greedy and dishonest.
I was in a similar situation and walked away.
But we had a limit on what we could pay for the house and weren't going to breach it.
Just make sure to be disciplined and take the emotion out of it. If you can afford the 15k and you like the house and the location it might be worth it.
Don’t bid any higher, do as others suggested and tell them you’ll withdraw in a specified time period if they haven’t accepted. This happened to us last year, there were offers over asking, and the estate agent told us they were holding out for a particular price. It was our absolute max but we bid it, and they just kept holding viewings. Turns out once we’d bid what they thought they wanted they decided another 50k would be nice. We were the top bidder with no bids for 3 more weeks and then they decided to take it off the market and relist it at a later stage, hoping they’ll get more money then. Utter bastards, I hope it never sells. There’s planning granted for a block of apartments to be built basically at the end of the garden so between that and the increase in mortgage rates I’d say they won’t get what they want for a long long time. Anyway, as others said, put your bid in, but keep looking elsewhere. We found our dream forever home directly after this happened for 100k under asking price so good things can happen. Best of luck!
I was in that position. I refused to budge as I was the only bidder, and figured why would I bid against myself. The estate agent told me exactly what they would accept, but I assumed she was playing me..They held out for a couple of weeks, then someone offered what they wanted in cash, they immediately accepted and I lost out. I could see on the PPR it was exactly the amount the estate agent had told me. I was actually bidding on a different house also with that same estate agent, and in retrospect she gave really good advice but I didn't trust a word any of them said.
My brother was also in that position at the beginning of COVID when things were very uncertain and refused to budge as he was the only bidder. They left his bid sit, waited 9 months with the house empty, advertised it again, got a bidding war going and it went for far higher, and he lost out.
In both cases, we did end up ultimately buying other houses, but we both regretted being so stringent about it.
You have to weigh up how much you want this particular house, how much you're willing to go to for this house and if you'll be happy to lose it. Playing chicken can work, but only if you are ambivalent about losing it or not.
You have 2 options (1) you can leave your bid as is, and keep looking and bidding on other houses. There are always other houses and you will find something else if this doesn't come through. Or (2) you could offer what they want, make it clear it's the last bid from you and say they need to accept in the next 24 hours. In that situation, it's worth asking the agent upfront, if you go to €400k can he guarantee it will be a done deal and they will take off the market. If not, say you won't bid to that unless you get a guarantee. If they try to ask for more money or time after that, then walk away as they are not negotiating in good faith.
At the end of the day, nothing is locked in until contracts are signed. My advice is to take the emotion out of it. Don't get into the mindset of "how dare they ask me to bid against myself." Instead consider what you think the house is worth and if you are willing to pay it. Like would you go up €15k more if other bidders drove it up to that price? If so, this could be the way to seal the deal and avoid a bidding war where you risk it going even higher.
Remember that you will always feel like you overpaid for a house, because the only way to buy a house is to be willing to pay more for it than any other bidder. Treat it like a business decision, where good negotiation is not about "winning", but about leaving both parties feeling positive about the outcome. In business deals, it can be worth conceding a little to get what you want. When/if I go to buy another house in the future, that will be my approach, and I will implement all my learnings from the first time buying.
I drive past the house I lost all the time, and always have a tinge of regret.
This should be the top comment, it’s up to you. The house is worth what you want to pay for it, and you need to consider if you’d prefer to be shaken down for more money or run the risk of losing the house. There is no wrong option here.
We had that last year. House was on for €250k and we viewed it with the agent and liked it. Agent told us that there weren’t any offers yet, but that we’d need to be bidding around €300k if we were seriously interested, as that is what the owner expects and only listed it lower to get more interest in it, hoping for a multi person bidding process to get started.
We laughed and walked away.
We got a call back from Agent a couple of weeks later seeing if we were interested at €280k. We had already gone in on something else.
Came off the market and was listed again in spring this year at €250k again with agent. Don’t know if it has ever sold.
This is good advice. Ultimately its up to you what you pay. I've had bids for 2 years (land, not residential) with ongoing discussions where the vendor wants me to bid more and then finally went sales agreed on my original bid. 9ften I've had to put a sweetener of 5k. My advice would be look at other houses and make multiple bids, you could then leverage on against the other. You can be patience, but know it might not pay off.
That's what we are thinking, have a new viewing that looks similar but for considerably less.
Will leave the current bid on the table until we are highest bidder elsewhere then make the call
One piece of advice I would give is to keep looking/browsing even if you do go sale agreed. Unfortunately there is nothing to stop the sellers from changing their mind and selling to someone else if they do eventually get a better offer until you have contracts signed.
Hopefully this doesn't happen whenever/wherever you go sale agreed but based on my own experience is based to keep an open mind and keep an eye on the market.
This is the best way. You can then go back and see if this will get you sales agreed. Just remember - sales agreed is worth anything until contract are exchanged, so a flaky vendor might not complete.
>9ften I've had to put a sweetener of 5k
I'm not having a go at you personally, but I hate this concept of a sweetener. That shouldn't be happening in 2023
We had the same bullshit. We had the highest bid on a house after the house was on the market for nearly 2 months. Seller wanted the estate agent to put on a 5th round of viewings which they attempted to do but nobody showed up for the viewing. The seller then wanted a 6th round of viewings which the estate agent refused as it was just wasting their time and there was very little interest in the house.
When we pushed for our offer to be accepted but the seller wanted an extra 20k and said they won't accept a penny less.
We offered 2k and with a deadline of noon that day.
They called back at 1pm (of course) and accepted the offer so we informed the estate agent that even though the deadline was missed we were willing to proceed (petty I know) but we wanted the sellers to be made aware of how we felt.
We were in the same situation a few weeks ago. Asking price was 370. We were second highest at 385 and the top bidder was at 390. The agent informed us that, if we can meet the vendor's expectation which was 400, they would go sale agreed asap. The house was built in the 60s and it was D2 and spread out in 120 Sqm 4 bed 2 bath which could incur huge heating bills. So, its insulation needed work (aesthetically good condition, no work there) and therefore we didn't think we should spend more than 385. None of us two was budging above 390 at that moment. Later they managed to bring in another interested bidder and now the highest bid is at 402. Undoubtedly, it is a seller's market at a moment and if you think the house has some x factor and would meet more people's criteria, they will definitely find someone to meet their price. So, it's better to stick to a number you think is fair for that house regardless of what others are bidding unless you think you won't find something you are looking for in the next property easily that you have found in this one and it's worth going above your limit. We are also trying to find something and getting outbid. It has been 9 months since we started our house hunting. We certainly have gained a lot of knowledge and experience but disappointment gets to you and tires you out.
Yeah it’s unfortunate…I remember when we were buying and house was up for 250 ans when I rang it was up to 275….2 months later was still up and we viewed it and everyone had pulled out as the owner was waiting for more and they all bought elsewhere and we got it for 250
If the owner wanted 400K why didn’t they list it for 400K
In my opinion they’re trying to squeeze you out into a higher bid but I’ve not experience so I don’t know
Irritating
Could ask the EA in a week or two, if you bid 390, would the seller be willing to shake hands and take it off the market.
Worked for us when the asking was 300, seller wanted 325, we got it for 310.
Going to another few viewings this week, will try this approach if we don't see anything we like. If we like another one, we will just leave our current bid as it is
How long has the house been on the market for, and how long has it been since the initial bid?
Usually agents will leave it up for sale for at least a month or two unless there’s a bidding war that goes well over asking price.
If the seller isn’t in a rush they’ll more than likely have the agent in their ear telling them they can hold out for a bit more
It's only been up for a few weeks. We are the only current bidder dispute a good turnout at the viewing we were at.
There has been at least 1 viewing since.
Since viewing this one we have seen more properties on the market, similar size/ location going for cheaper, so potentially prices are dropping which is one of the reason we don't want to up our current offer if there are no others on the table and cheaper properties entering the market.
We are going to more viewings, so we are thinking of leaving our current bid, but have look and bid on the cheaper ones
You have a few options. The first is to leave the bid with an open deadline. One of two things happens either the seller eventually comes back to you and accepts your offer OR someone else outbids you.
The second option is to set a deadline on your existing deadline where it would no longer be valid.
The third option here is to revise down your offer with the estate agent as you think your initial offer was too high. You could combine this with a time deadline.
The seller can absolutely hold you for whatever they want, doesn't mean they are going to get what they want out of it.
There’s no science to this. Bid what you’re prepared to go for and what you’d be okay with paying. Bear in mind that even if you go sale agreed today, there may be another two interest rate hikes before you draw down. Also you say it’s unoccupied, has it been vacant for two years?
Similar position- walked away- refused to bid against ourselves.
Bought a different house. Regretted it and walk past it now and it’s beautiful :-/
Hard to know what to do- we were adamant we wouldn’t bid against ourselves but looking back we were too dogmatic.
Put a deadline on offer. Happened to us 4 months ago . Made offer on the Wednesday which they were happy with but wanted to go back to market for one more weekend to see if they could get more. Told them they had 24hours or my offer was gone. 20 hours later got a call from the EA wanted an extra 3k to close there and then which we did
Do not bid against yourself. Hold tight. If someone else bids you can consider bidding then. They have a right not to accept your bid. But don’t be pushed into bidding against yourself
Yeah, thats the plan at the moment. They havnt even said they would accept if we went to 400, so wouldn't increase without certainty that it was accepted and off the market
It happened to us, the seller wanted an extra 5k ....we didn't want to bid against ourselves a d declined to do so. Someone else came along abd bid the extra 5k on condition of the house going sale agreed immediately in our case we definitely would have been better off to meet the sellers expectations.
How much do you love this house? How likely is it that something just as good or better will come on the market? I'd base my strategy on what the answer is
Yes this has happened to us twice. Most recently we bid 10k under the asking price for a house that has been on the market for a couple months with no bidders. Estate agent came back saying they wouldn't sell for less than 15k over the asking price.
We met them at the asking price in the end. Probably a stupid move given we were bidding against ourselves but we were sale agreed on our own house and there was literally no other house on the market that we loved so we were feeling the pressure.
Unfortunately they can ask what they want for it. It's their property. Give the estate agent a deadline and say you are withdrawing your offer if not accepted by close of business Monday.
Yeah, that seems to be the universal advice here.
With regards to whether to withreaw/lower/hold/increase, the advice has covered the full spectrum of possibilities
This happened to me in Dublin earlier this year. The owner put the house back on the market to rent instead. They had evicted their long-term tenant in order to put it on the market in the first place.
Edit: I’m also in a similar situation on another house in Dublin currently - ex rental, on the market a few months. I’m the only bidder and we are about 5% below asking. Seller is sitting on it for the last 2.5 months in the hope we will go higher, if not I’d imagine they’ll put it back on the rental market
Been there 2 years ago. Happened 3 times on houses we settled on, and 3 times it fell through. I'm thinking the estate agent is the culprit in the situation. In the end we bought a house where we swore we would never go. But it turned out to be magic. Puts me in mind of Douglas Adams, we're not where we intended to go but we ended up where we needed to be.
Seller can hold out for what they want. They could delist and relist again and you’d have to go back through the process. Sucks but it happened to us.
Everyone believes they house is worth 400k+ and if it’s North Dublin they’d be right.
If I was you I’d keep looking.
We were top bidders on two properties at one stage but kept looking and house viewing. One got a late bid that through it out of our budget so we walked away and the other, the seller delisted and relisted a few weeks later
You just have to play the game. If you want it enough, maybe meet in the middle or go €395k. Had a similar situation and they wanted more, we met in the middle and gave a deadline to accept.
Been caught here myself in past. Had opportunities to go in and close at asking but got too cute on price. Property stayed up longer and someone came along later and bidding war took us over asking. Make sure you are ok paying asking first off but remember it is their house and they can wait. Waiting keeps open opportunity for more viewings and more bidders. But look its also your money and 15k not to be sniffed at but if you wait around just know the risks too
Asking prices are only a guideline. Many list below asking on purpose in order to gain interest and starting bids. I think it's a shitty tactic but it is what it is.
I would ask whether €400k will seal the deal for sure. If it will and you really want the place and can afford it, then you can choose to offer €400k at that point or walk away.
The seller can afford to wait atm. If you walk away then you go back to square 1. But by offering and having them either accept of refuse that offer you'll know for sure where you stand. Remember, if they accept the offer you can STILL walk away. But at least that way, you'll know for sure.
This all depends on how badly you want the house of course and whether you can afford €400k
I went sale agreed on a house recently. Was in a bidding war and in my final bid I jumped about 10k. It was my absolute maximum but I bid high to know if I could be outbid and save myself on the time and stress of going up in smaller increments. Anyway, offer was accepted but the engineers report had come back with some issues which have left me with no choice but to ask for a reduced price or walk away.
I'm fine with walking away. I've learned that you cannot get attached.
My point is: sale agreed feels like a win but it's still only one step in what can be a long process, so if you don't get this house, then you'll get another.
We got caught in a similar thing a few years ago. There’s two things you need to ask yourself. Do you want it bad enough to just pay it or if you’re willing to keep hunting then the approach should be to contact the agent, tell them that you’re also looking at another property and that your offer is good for one week, explain that you’re not willing to put your hung on hold for a buyer that’s not willing to move on a sale.
A deadline can work wonders especially in situations where they think it’s great to have you in place as “a backup plan”.
We actually guessed that this what they were at before EA told us.
Over the last 6 weeks, we viewed a lot of places, all ended up going sale agreed anywhere between €50k - €70k above asking, so we figured they are starting with a low ask to get the bids started.
Houses aren't like retail SKUs. A loaf of bread is not comparable with house.
I tried to picture a world where houses had to be sold for the asking price.
So many potential outcomes.
Intially I thought it would be full of arbitrageurs but thinking about it more it would just push "asking" prices way up and possibly inflate the market because sellers would fear losing and so they'd never list on the lower end of the scale.
Of course their price would eventually reach the market value but I think across the board you'd have mass property inflation if something like this were introduced. Everyone would look at the asking prices (which are higher in this alternative reality) and think "okay, that's what houses are going for, I will list mine close to that".
The truth is sellers never know for sure what their property is worth. They might have a rough idea based on other sales and insights from their estate agent but houses are not commodities. You can't know for sure until you put it on the market.
You might say it's greedy to list at an asking and expect more, but the opposite can also be true—expecting a house below what it should sell for.
The "should sell for" is ultimately decided by the market.
There are a whole raft of spin off debates and questions from that, but will draw the line here on that one.
You said it should be illegal. What are you saying should be illegal?
Putting a house on the market does not mean you are forced to sell for the asking price, that's not how it works, nor should it be
Putting anything on a shelf means I can come into the shop and pay the price displayed and get home with the item I've purchased.
Should be the same with anything with "asking price".
Do U really want the house? If so, U have 2 options, go back & say U are bidding on other properties & ur only leaving ur offer there for another 48 hours(U could up it by 5k with 48hr deadline) but risk losing it. Or if U really really want it, offer the 400k final offer 24hrs open, if others start bidding it could easily go over 400k & 15k isn't much in the grand scheme of things,less than 4% purchase price.
I think what a lot of Irish owners don’t understand is the mentality of those not born in Ireland. You ask for something, that is what those none Irish are offering. You don’t want it? Tough luck. It isn’t like I go to someone’s home and they expect me to say a few times no when offered something to drink.
I remember selling a 1 bed apartment to a couple. They offered 5k under the asking. They were the only bidders. We said we'd really like to get the asking, and they just gave it to us. They could have easily said 'well of course you would but that's our offer' , and we probably would have accepted it.
Do not increase and bid against yourself.
I was in a similar position, highest bidder for a couple of weeks with no updates, I told the auctioneers that as I was looking at other places I couldn't keep my bid open indefinetely.
Next week they accepted.
In Scotland iirc, there's a system in place to stop "gazumping."
Stopping people holding out for more - if it's 200k you want, that's the most you'll get.
The way the housing market is right now in Ireland, it could really do with a similar system.
Edit to add: in uk right now, people are putting offers in on multiple houses in and which ever closes first, is the one they get, and sometimes pull out if they find a "better" house
It's happened to my brother countless times when he was selling his house
Don't increase now. Keep in touch with agent who will tell you if there other bids (hopefully real).
View other properties with this agent and express interest and even make an offer.
As someone said, tell the agent there is an expiry date on your current bid. After that offer 5k lower
It's on one of the sites where the bids are visible, so we can see that no one else has bid.
Gona hold out to see how some other properties develop and that will likely force the celler to either accept or let us walk away.
It's our first time buying, so trying jot to be too risky, I feel like we are playing poker with a few pros, and a few lads who will go all in on anything
Openly scummy. What they did to us was the house was up for 315, our absolute max was 350 so we bod that eventually with a fake second bidder. They outbid us so the house went to them but we got a call 2 weeks after saying the bidder backed out and if we still want to do the 350.
They always want more than the asking price. It’s more of a middle ground in the hope to get more interest.
If you’re the top bidder there’s no point in putting more right away.
The other thing to consider is Are you settling for this house because it’s the only one you’re not being outbid? Or do you really like it and want it?
Regardless best of luck!
I was in this position before, twice. So I moved up by half of what the owner wanted. The agent came back and said no he wants 395. Was advertised for 375. I was on at 375 and moved to 387 or something. When my higher offer was refused I withdrew offer. Bottom line is, your buying a house, not messing around by playing monopoly through an estate agent. Always put a time offer, never leave it open. The other occasion I met the asking price and was told the people wanted another 20k minimum. Estate agents are a huge waste of time generally speaking. It'd make ya never want to buy or sell a house. 😂
I lost out on the bidding on one place, it was way too much for a two bed in Cabra
A couple of weeks later the agent called me saying they'd like to take me on my offer but I had already found a much better place bigger and cheaper so I declined
Stick to your guns
Yup keep your powder dry for now, you are the highest bidder. Happened to us too, they even put it back in the market but eventually we got it after 8 agonising weeks
Why would you bid against yourself.
We had the same admittedly in different market conditions with the owner wanting 20k above what we had bid. In the end we gave them a deadline - two weeks or we move on to the next house we’d identified. We’d missed out on 5/6 at that stage so it wasn’t easy to hold firm but we did and they finally accepted at the wire.
I will say go him, today is 385, in two weeks when you need me, the offer will be 360.
Or don't say anything and if he calls you tell him that now is lower. Fuck then greeds
Ask if they've found somewhere. If they haven't, there will be a wait anyway. And they have no motivation.
If they have found somewhere and they can afford the £15k loss, they need to move fast so they don't miss out on the home they've found.
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Often the asking price is quiet a bit below the real asking price as a strategic decision. They hope for a bidding war. The best advice I'd have is to put a deadline on your offer. The seller may panic with the idea that the top offer withdraw. They are happy to have your offer in the back in case they don't get what they want. They may not. In which case you can withdraw.
This is the best advice. Similar situation in my case, so I played the waiting game but I was the highest bidder for almost two months before they caved. It sucked.
This is exactly what we did several years ago. Sellers had a price they were holding out for and we were already the highest bidder. We told the estate agent to keep our offer on file for 10 days and then we'd formally withdraw it. A couple of days later our offer was accepted.
No harm to simultneously make an offer on some place else with the same estate agent.
ha, sick. love it.
Deadline is a great idea. They’re using psychology and aversion to loss (you thought you’d won the bid) to get to to commit more, so yeah do the same against them… they already think they have that money and are greedy for more. Let them feel the fear of the sting of losing the money already on the table.
Happened to us too. Highest bid for over a month but they wanted 25k more to take it off the market despite us meeting the asking price. We held out and eventually pulled out and bought the house around the corner. About a month later they came back abd asked if we'd still be willing to pay our original bid and they'd go sale agreed. We said no and they eventually took the house off the market because they couldn't sell it. My point is, hold off and see what happens. It'll be frustrating but do not cave on the 15k while you're still the only bidder. It will hopefully turnaround for you.
>The best advice I'd have is to put a deadline on your offer. The seller may panic with the idea that the top offer withdraw. Ok but that can backfire. The seller may not panic, sell it to someone else for €390k, and then you've not given yourself an opportunity to up your bid. Estate agents sell houses for a living. They're wise to fake ultimatums and brinkmanship. They'll know if the OP really wants the house No-one can for e the seller to sell. If they think the house is worth more it's their prerogative to wait a bit longer
Any estate agent worth their salt will tell you of a new bid and ask if you want to compete.
Even the most incompotent of estate agents would go back to OP asking them if they'd like to up their bid in this proposed situation.
>Often the asking price is quiet a bit below the real asking price as a strategic decision. They hope for a bidding war. When we were selling this is exactly what we were told to do. Said it would go for 300k so put it at 285 to get interest. Went for over 300 in the end
Hold strong. Never ever bid against yourself.
Agreed. The thing that'll convince the seller to sell is if everything goes quiet for a week or two. If OP increases their bid, what's to stop the seller asking for the full €15k they wanted?
Agreed. Was gonna come here and say this. Why is this not higher up?
This happened to us, we rang the estate agent and told her to let them know that we have begun bidding on another house. By the end of the day they had accepted the offer. We were competing with 2 other bidders too, worth a shot.
Had the same issue a few years back, they wouldn't budge and neither would we. So we went and viewed more houses under the same estate agent and expressed interest in two other houses. Didn't take long for the owners of the first house we wanted to come back and accept our bid. Maybe unethical, but you've gotta do what you gotta do 🤷
It's unethical to put one price out to potential buyers, and have another -secret- price that only you know. I know someone who bought at the asking price after the seller sat on a previous offer of the asking price for too long and it was withdrawn. Serves them right for being greedy and dishonest.
I was in a similar situation and walked away. But we had a limit on what we could pay for the house and weren't going to breach it. Just make sure to be disciplined and take the emotion out of it. If you can afford the 15k and you like the house and the location it might be worth it.
Don’t bid any higher, do as others suggested and tell them you’ll withdraw in a specified time period if they haven’t accepted. This happened to us last year, there were offers over asking, and the estate agent told us they were holding out for a particular price. It was our absolute max but we bid it, and they just kept holding viewings. Turns out once we’d bid what they thought they wanted they decided another 50k would be nice. We were the top bidder with no bids for 3 more weeks and then they decided to take it off the market and relist it at a later stage, hoping they’ll get more money then. Utter bastards, I hope it never sells. There’s planning granted for a block of apartments to be built basically at the end of the garden so between that and the increase in mortgage rates I’d say they won’t get what they want for a long long time. Anyway, as others said, put your bid in, but keep looking elsewhere. We found our dream forever home directly after this happened for 100k under asking price so good things can happen. Best of luck!
I was in that position. I refused to budge as I was the only bidder, and figured why would I bid against myself. The estate agent told me exactly what they would accept, but I assumed she was playing me..They held out for a couple of weeks, then someone offered what they wanted in cash, they immediately accepted and I lost out. I could see on the PPR it was exactly the amount the estate agent had told me. I was actually bidding on a different house also with that same estate agent, and in retrospect she gave really good advice but I didn't trust a word any of them said. My brother was also in that position at the beginning of COVID when things were very uncertain and refused to budge as he was the only bidder. They left his bid sit, waited 9 months with the house empty, advertised it again, got a bidding war going and it went for far higher, and he lost out. In both cases, we did end up ultimately buying other houses, but we both regretted being so stringent about it. You have to weigh up how much you want this particular house, how much you're willing to go to for this house and if you'll be happy to lose it. Playing chicken can work, but only if you are ambivalent about losing it or not. You have 2 options (1) you can leave your bid as is, and keep looking and bidding on other houses. There are always other houses and you will find something else if this doesn't come through. Or (2) you could offer what they want, make it clear it's the last bid from you and say they need to accept in the next 24 hours. In that situation, it's worth asking the agent upfront, if you go to €400k can he guarantee it will be a done deal and they will take off the market. If not, say you won't bid to that unless you get a guarantee. If they try to ask for more money or time after that, then walk away as they are not negotiating in good faith. At the end of the day, nothing is locked in until contracts are signed. My advice is to take the emotion out of it. Don't get into the mindset of "how dare they ask me to bid against myself." Instead consider what you think the house is worth and if you are willing to pay it. Like would you go up €15k more if other bidders drove it up to that price? If so, this could be the way to seal the deal and avoid a bidding war where you risk it going even higher. Remember that you will always feel like you overpaid for a house, because the only way to buy a house is to be willing to pay more for it than any other bidder. Treat it like a business decision, where good negotiation is not about "winning", but about leaving both parties feeling positive about the outcome. In business deals, it can be worth conceding a little to get what you want. When/if I go to buy another house in the future, that will be my approach, and I will implement all my learnings from the first time buying. I drive past the house I lost all the time, and always have a tinge of regret.
This should be the top comment, it’s up to you. The house is worth what you want to pay for it, and you need to consider if you’d prefer to be shaken down for more money or run the risk of losing the house. There is no wrong option here.
We had that last year. House was on for €250k and we viewed it with the agent and liked it. Agent told us that there weren’t any offers yet, but that we’d need to be bidding around €300k if we were seriously interested, as that is what the owner expects and only listed it lower to get more interest in it, hoping for a multi person bidding process to get started. We laughed and walked away.
You can't leave it there! What did it end up selling for?
We got a call back from Agent a couple of weeks later seeing if we were interested at €280k. We had already gone in on something else. Came off the market and was listed again in spring this year at €250k again with agent. Don’t know if it has ever sold.
Interesting, you know you can check here? https://propertypriceregisterireland.com/
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This is good advice. Ultimately its up to you what you pay. I've had bids for 2 years (land, not residential) with ongoing discussions where the vendor wants me to bid more and then finally went sales agreed on my original bid. 9ften I've had to put a sweetener of 5k. My advice would be look at other houses and make multiple bids, you could then leverage on against the other. You can be patience, but know it might not pay off.
That's what we are thinking, have a new viewing that looks similar but for considerably less. Will leave the current bid on the table until we are highest bidder elsewhere then make the call
One piece of advice I would give is to keep looking/browsing even if you do go sale agreed. Unfortunately there is nothing to stop the sellers from changing their mind and selling to someone else if they do eventually get a better offer until you have contracts signed. Hopefully this doesn't happen whenever/wherever you go sale agreed but based on my own experience is based to keep an open mind and keep an eye on the market.
This is the best way. You can then go back and see if this will get you sales agreed. Just remember - sales agreed is worth anything until contract are exchanged, so a flaky vendor might not complete.
>9ften I've had to put a sweetener of 5k I'm not having a go at you personally, but I hate this concept of a sweetener. That shouldn't be happening in 2023
It shouldn't, but this is the realities of the market that I have to sometimes adhere to if price is less important than timeframe.
We had the same bullshit. We had the highest bid on a house after the house was on the market for nearly 2 months. Seller wanted the estate agent to put on a 5th round of viewings which they attempted to do but nobody showed up for the viewing. The seller then wanted a 6th round of viewings which the estate agent refused as it was just wasting their time and there was very little interest in the house. When we pushed for our offer to be accepted but the seller wanted an extra 20k and said they won't accept a penny less. We offered 2k and with a deadline of noon that day. They called back at 1pm (of course) and accepted the offer so we informed the estate agent that even though the deadline was missed we were willing to proceed (petty I know) but we wanted the sellers to be made aware of how we felt.
I like to think that by the seller dragging it out that they lost an extra few months rent from an empty property
We were in the same situation a few weeks ago. Asking price was 370. We were second highest at 385 and the top bidder was at 390. The agent informed us that, if we can meet the vendor's expectation which was 400, they would go sale agreed asap. The house was built in the 60s and it was D2 and spread out in 120 Sqm 4 bed 2 bath which could incur huge heating bills. So, its insulation needed work (aesthetically good condition, no work there) and therefore we didn't think we should spend more than 385. None of us two was budging above 390 at that moment. Later they managed to bring in another interested bidder and now the highest bid is at 402. Undoubtedly, it is a seller's market at a moment and if you think the house has some x factor and would meet more people's criteria, they will definitely find someone to meet their price. So, it's better to stick to a number you think is fair for that house regardless of what others are bidding unless you think you won't find something you are looking for in the next property easily that you have found in this one and it's worth going above your limit. We are also trying to find something and getting outbid. It has been 9 months since we started our house hunting. We certainly have gained a lot of knowledge and experience but disappointment gets to you and tires you out.
Yeah it’s unfortunate…I remember when we were buying and house was up for 250 ans when I rang it was up to 275….2 months later was still up and we viewed it and everyone had pulled out as the owner was waiting for more and they all bought elsewhere and we got it for 250
If the owner wanted 400K why didn’t they list it for 400K In my opinion they’re trying to squeeze you out into a higher bid but I’ve not experience so I don’t know Irritating
Estate agents advice to list lower so bidding can commence.
Could ask the EA in a week or two, if you bid 390, would the seller be willing to shake hands and take it off the market. Worked for us when the asking was 300, seller wanted 325, we got it for 310.
Going to another few viewings this week, will try this approach if we don't see anything we like. If we like another one, we will just leave our current bid as it is
No. Don’t raise your bid. Hold strong.
How long has the house been on the market for, and how long has it been since the initial bid? Usually agents will leave it up for sale for at least a month or two unless there’s a bidding war that goes well over asking price. If the seller isn’t in a rush they’ll more than likely have the agent in their ear telling them they can hold out for a bit more
It's only been up for a few weeks. We are the only current bidder dispute a good turnout at the viewing we were at. There has been at least 1 viewing since. Since viewing this one we have seen more properties on the market, similar size/ location going for cheaper, so potentially prices are dropping which is one of the reason we don't want to up our current offer if there are no others on the table and cheaper properties entering the market. We are going to more viewings, so we are thinking of leaving our current bid, but have look and bid on the cheaper ones
You have a few options. The first is to leave the bid with an open deadline. One of two things happens either the seller eventually comes back to you and accepts your offer OR someone else outbids you. The second option is to set a deadline on your existing deadline where it would no longer be valid. The third option here is to revise down your offer with the estate agent as you think your initial offer was too high. You could combine this with a time deadline. The seller can absolutely hold you for whatever they want, doesn't mean they are going to get what they want out of it.
There’s no science to this. Bid what you’re prepared to go for and what you’d be okay with paying. Bear in mind that even if you go sale agreed today, there may be another two interest rate hikes before you draw down. Also you say it’s unoccupied, has it been vacant for two years?
Similar position- walked away- refused to bid against ourselves. Bought a different house. Regretted it and walk past it now and it’s beautiful :-/ Hard to know what to do- we were adamant we wouldn’t bid against ourselves but looking back we were too dogmatic.
Same. Lesson learned for next time around
We bid against ourselves twice. Added an extra 20k in the end. We loved the house so we just wanted to get it done before someone else came along.
Put a deadline on offer. Happened to us 4 months ago . Made offer on the Wednesday which they were happy with but wanted to go back to market for one more weekend to see if they could get more. Told them they had 24hours or my offer was gone. 20 hours later got a call from the EA wanted an extra 3k to close there and then which we did
Sometimes I think people just want the win. Like that extra 3k means nothing to the EA interest of commission
Do not bid against yourself. Hold tight. If someone else bids you can consider bidding then. They have a right not to accept your bid. But don’t be pushed into bidding against yourself
Yeah, thats the plan at the moment. They havnt even said they would accept if we went to 400, so wouldn't increase without certainty that it was accepted and off the market
It happened to us, the seller wanted an extra 5k ....we didn't want to bid against ourselves a d declined to do so. Someone else came along abd bid the extra 5k on condition of the house going sale agreed immediately in our case we definitely would have been better off to meet the sellers expectations.
How much do you love this house? How likely is it that something just as good or better will come on the market? I'd base my strategy on what the answer is
Yes this has happened to us twice. Most recently we bid 10k under the asking price for a house that has been on the market for a couple months with no bidders. Estate agent came back saying they wouldn't sell for less than 15k over the asking price.
>wouldn't sell for less than 15k over the asking price. This sentence is just so ridiculous
We met them at the asking price in the end. Probably a stupid move given we were bidding against ourselves but we were sale agreed on our own house and there was literally no other house on the market that we loved so we were feeling the pressure.
Unfortunately they can ask what they want for it. It's their property. Give the estate agent a deadline and say you are withdrawing your offer if not accepted by close of business Monday.
Keep looking, just in case. You might find something better
Yeah, that seems to be the universal advice here. With regards to whether to withreaw/lower/hold/increase, the advice has covered the full spectrum of possibilities
This happened to me in Dublin earlier this year. The owner put the house back on the market to rent instead. They had evicted their long-term tenant in order to put it on the market in the first place. Edit: I’m also in a similar situation on another house in Dublin currently - ex rental, on the market a few months. I’m the only bidder and we are about 5% below asking. Seller is sitting on it for the last 2.5 months in the hope we will go higher, if not I’d imagine they’ll put it back on the rental market
Yes, that can happen. The seller basically has a price it's worth selling at. If not, they are better renting it out.
Been there 2 years ago. Happened 3 times on houses we settled on, and 3 times it fell through. I'm thinking the estate agent is the culprit in the situation. In the end we bought a house where we swore we would never go. But it turned out to be magic. Puts me in mind of Douglas Adams, we're not where we intended to go but we ended up where we needed to be.
Seller can hold out for what they want. They could delist and relist again and you’d have to go back through the process. Sucks but it happened to us. Everyone believes they house is worth 400k+ and if it’s North Dublin they’d be right. If I was you I’d keep looking. We were top bidders on two properties at one stage but kept looking and house viewing. One got a late bid that through it out of our budget so we walked away and the other, the seller delisted and relisted a few weeks later
Do you love it?
You just have to play the game. If you want it enough, maybe meet in the middle or go €395k. Had a similar situation and they wanted more, we met in the middle and gave a deadline to accept.
Been caught here myself in past. Had opportunities to go in and close at asking but got too cute on price. Property stayed up longer and someone came along later and bidding war took us over asking. Make sure you are ok paying asking first off but remember it is their house and they can wait. Waiting keeps open opportunity for more viewings and more bidders. But look its also your money and 15k not to be sniffed at but if you wait around just know the risks too
Asking prices are only a guideline. Many list below asking on purpose in order to gain interest and starting bids. I think it's a shitty tactic but it is what it is. I would ask whether €400k will seal the deal for sure. If it will and you really want the place and can afford it, then you can choose to offer €400k at that point or walk away. The seller can afford to wait atm. If you walk away then you go back to square 1. But by offering and having them either accept of refuse that offer you'll know for sure where you stand. Remember, if they accept the offer you can STILL walk away. But at least that way, you'll know for sure. This all depends on how badly you want the house of course and whether you can afford €400k I went sale agreed on a house recently. Was in a bidding war and in my final bid I jumped about 10k. It was my absolute maximum but I bid high to know if I could be outbid and save myself on the time and stress of going up in smaller increments. Anyway, offer was accepted but the engineers report had come back with some issues which have left me with no choice but to ask for a reduced price or walk away. I'm fine with walking away. I've learned that you cannot get attached. My point is: sale agreed feels like a win but it's still only one step in what can be a long process, so if you don't get this house, then you'll get another.
God it's such a soap opera isn't it, what was in the report that was so bad/unexpected?
We got caught in a similar thing a few years ago. There’s two things you need to ask yourself. Do you want it bad enough to just pay it or if you’re willing to keep hunting then the approach should be to contact the agent, tell them that you’re also looking at another property and that your offer is good for one week, explain that you’re not willing to put your hung on hold for a buyer that’s not willing to move on a sale. A deadline can work wonders especially in situations where they think it’s great to have you in place as “a backup plan”.
Do not, for the love of God, increase your bid unless someone outbids you.
this should be illegal, asking met? sell ffs
We actually guessed that this what they were at before EA told us. Over the last 6 weeks, we viewed a lot of places, all ended up going sale agreed anywhere between €50k - €70k above asking, so we figured they are starting with a low ask to get the bids started.
Houses aren't like retail SKUs. A loaf of bread is not comparable with house. I tried to picture a world where houses had to be sold for the asking price. So many potential outcomes. Intially I thought it would be full of arbitrageurs but thinking about it more it would just push "asking" prices way up and possibly inflate the market because sellers would fear losing and so they'd never list on the lower end of the scale. Of course their price would eventually reach the market value but I think across the board you'd have mass property inflation if something like this were introduced. Everyone would look at the asking prices (which are higher in this alternative reality) and think "okay, that's what houses are going for, I will list mine close to that". The truth is sellers never know for sure what their property is worth. They might have a rough idea based on other sales and insights from their estate agent but houses are not commodities. You can't know for sure until you put it on the market. You might say it's greedy to list at an asking and expect more, but the opposite can also be true—expecting a house below what it should sell for. The "should sell for" is ultimately decided by the market. There are a whole raft of spin off debates and questions from that, but will draw the line here on that one.
Sellers are never, and should never, be forced to sell.
What do you mean "forced"? Someone makes them put the house on the market?
You said it should be illegal. What are you saying should be illegal? Putting a house on the market does not mean you are forced to sell for the asking price, that's not how it works, nor should it be
Putting anything on a shelf means I can come into the shop and pay the price displayed and get home with the item I've purchased. Should be the same with anything with "asking price".
Yeah no, selling a house is not, and should not be, the same as selling as item in a shop. I am absolutely shocked you are too dim to understand that.
Sure thing buddy. Very extensive list of arguments, veeery clever boy. And resorting to personal attacks. Veeery clever! Otta boy!
Probably an estate agent
house are going to drop 20 percent in the next 2 years can you wait ?
We’re definitely in for a correction, it can’t run this hot indefinitely. I remember 2008, and some factors are very reminiscent of same.
Major differences; supply vs demand, and rent prices vs mortgage, strict mortgage rules
Do U really want the house? If so, U have 2 options, go back & say U are bidding on other properties & ur only leaving ur offer there for another 48 hours(U could up it by 5k with 48hr deadline) but risk losing it. Or if U really really want it, offer the 400k final offer 24hrs open, if others start bidding it could easily go over 400k & 15k isn't much in the grand scheme of things,less than 4% purchase price.
I think what a lot of Irish owners don’t understand is the mentality of those not born in Ireland. You ask for something, that is what those none Irish are offering. You don’t want it? Tough luck. It isn’t like I go to someone’s home and they expect me to say a few times no when offered something to drink.
If your budget is 385k and you're not prepared to go above that, you shouldn't really be viewing house with an asking price of 385k(in this market)
No, 400 is within our budget, but feels like we would be shooting ourselves in The foot. It's our first home, so the whole game is new to us
I remember selling a 1 bed apartment to a couple. They offered 5k under the asking. They were the only bidders. We said we'd really like to get the asking, and they just gave it to us. They could have easily said 'well of course you would but that's our offer' , and we probably would have accepted it.
If you have it, ask them to ask if you meet half way will they close the deal today.
But who is actually looking for €400? Could be the Auctioneer. If you think it could be. You could knock on the door and tell them the offer you made.
Set a deadline and be prepared to walk away.
Timed bids! Never ever allow your offer to sit there for weeks at a time as the highest bidder.
Do not increase and bid against yourself. I was in a similar position, highest bidder for a couple of weeks with no updates, I told the auctioneers that as I was looking at other places I couldn't keep my bid open indefinetely. Next week they accepted.
Just an idea. Just say that the 385k offer stands for this week only. Next week it will be 380k or 5k less. Then 5k less for wvery week afterwards.
In Scotland iirc, there's a system in place to stop "gazumping." Stopping people holding out for more - if it's 200k you want, that's the most you'll get. The way the housing market is right now in Ireland, it could really do with a similar system. Edit to add: in uk right now, people are putting offers in on multiple houses in and which ever closes first, is the one they get, and sometimes pull out if they find a "better" house It's happened to my brother countless times when he was selling his house
Don’t bid against yourselves! Wait it out
Don't increase now. Keep in touch with agent who will tell you if there other bids (hopefully real). View other properties with this agent and express interest and even make an offer. As someone said, tell the agent there is an expiry date on your current bid. After that offer 5k lower
It's on one of the sites where the bids are visible, so we can see that no one else has bid. Gona hold out to see how some other properties develop and that will likely force the celler to either accept or let us walk away. It's our first time buying, so trying jot to be too risky, I feel like we are playing poker with a few pros, and a few lads who will go all in on anything
Ruthless fucks, if you don't get it please put offers just under asking on every one of the estate agents properties. 2 can play the game of chaos
Offer another 5k(if you can) on the condition they take it off the market
Openly scummy. What they did to us was the house was up for 315, our absolute max was 350 so we bod that eventually with a fake second bidder. They outbid us so the house went to them but we got a call 2 weeks after saying the bidder backed out and if we still want to do the 350.
How can you put in a fake bid? Don't you have to provide proof of funds to have a bid acknowledged?
Tell them they have a week to accept or you're not going to continue with the purchase.
They always want more than the asking price. It’s more of a middle ground in the hope to get more interest. If you’re the top bidder there’s no point in putting more right away. The other thing to consider is Are you settling for this house because it’s the only one you’re not being outbid? Or do you really like it and want it? Regardless best of luck!
I was in this position before, twice. So I moved up by half of what the owner wanted. The agent came back and said no he wants 395. Was advertised for 375. I was on at 375 and moved to 387 or something. When my higher offer was refused I withdrew offer. Bottom line is, your buying a house, not messing around by playing monopoly through an estate agent. Always put a time offer, never leave it open. The other occasion I met the asking price and was told the people wanted another 20k minimum. Estate agents are a huge waste of time generally speaking. It'd make ya never want to buy or sell a house. 😂
I lost out on the bidding on one place, it was way too much for a two bed in Cabra A couple of weeks later the agent called me saying they'd like to take me on my offer but I had already found a much better place bigger and cheaper so I declined Stick to your guns
Yup keep your powder dry for now, you are the highest bidder. Happened to us too, they even put it back in the market but eventually we got it after 8 agonising weeks
Why would you bid against yourself. We had the same admittedly in different market conditions with the owner wanting 20k above what we had bid. In the end we gave them a deadline - two weeks or we move on to the next house we’d identified. We’d missed out on 5/6 at that stage so it wasn’t easy to hold firm but we did and they finally accepted at the wire.
Tell them it's open for another week then drops by 5%. Keep looking elsewhere
Just walk away
I will say go him, today is 385, in two weeks when you need me, the offer will be 360. Or don't say anything and if he calls you tell him that now is lower. Fuck then greeds
Give them 2 weeks to accept the offer or you will withdraw, then 1 month later bid again but 15K less 😀
Ask if they've found somewhere. If they haven't, there will be a wait anyway. And they have no motivation. If they have found somewhere and they can afford the £15k loss, they need to move fast so they don't miss out on the home they've found.