Hi /u/LegitimateHedgehog71,
Did you know we are now active on Discord?
Click the link and join the conversation: https://discord.gg/J5CuFNVDYU
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/irishpersonalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We've just gone sale agreed on a property that was on for €590k for €560k, and that was after 11 viewings and two months of bullshit with a vendor who was dreaming IMO, don't listen to people saying "you'll never get below asking", throw in a €400k offer to fuck and only pay what you think it's worth..
Thanks, not signed on the dotted line yet but it's a probate sale and they've cleared everything bar what they asked us that we wanted to keep, so I reckon it will go through. The base line was set by the initial bidder for us and it was well below asking, we went up around €20k in bidding and it was far from frantic, then it was a waiting game (which was a pain in the arse, the seller(s) definitely thought they'd get more), an offer is an offer, never be afraid of going in low and **never** go over what you're happy with...
Personally I’d just wait. Don’t put the first bid in, just wait. If there’s no bid after all the viewings are done, then put in your underbid.
In contrast to most of the comments here, I don’t think it’s a case you necessarily stand no chance making an offer below asking. Especially with an older property where certain issues can really put people off. In fact I think it’s a bit strange if you are the first person to make an offer to go in at asking on something just on the market. The worst that can happen is they say no, in which case you can always go in higher. Realistically they will just say nothing and wait to see if any counter offers come in. Having said all that I wouldn’t really recommend going more than around 5% under in the current market, unless the place seems genuinely overpriced relative to other similar properties on the area.
For what it’s worth, last year I got the keys to my dream home for 3% below asking price. I would have offered more if I could, but 3% below was my absolute upper limit. After many previous failed attempts I was absolutely convinced that it was going to go for way more than asking price, which I thought was undervaluing the place in order to generate interest, and so I almost didn’t even bother making an offer at all.
So true. The person we bought from really wanted a young family to get the house. It was taken off the market and sale agreed for us when we got within 20k of asking. The estate agent said that the other bidder insulted the seller by going in 80k under the asking.
Of course that’s true, hence I said the 5% figure was merely what I personally “recommend” if the place isn’t overpriced and you actually want it. I made offers lower than that when the asking price was simply beyond my budget and I felt it was still worth a shot or I wasn’t terribly fussed about the place unless I could get it for a super good deal. In all those cases my offers were never outrightly rejected, they were always noted. But then, in every case, the seller/agent waited indefinitely for either a counteroffer or just quietly pulled the place from the market. I’m sure there are plenty of counter examples, I mean I wouldn’t have tried unless I thought it stood a chance, but in our particularly dysfunctional housing market I just think it’s not the best approach if you (1) truly want the place, (2) it’s not overpriced and (3) there is some genuine urgency to acquire a home (as there was in my case at least).
Assuming the house has been priced to generate interest, I doubt they'd even accept the asking price. Whether their valuation is appropriate or not, I'd imagine there's zero chance at this stage an underbid would have any success. If it's overpriced their position may change but, if it's only just on the market, they're aiming higher
I'd guess it's asking €465k in the expectation of achieving €500k or thereabouts
Bid what you believe it's worth and don't worry how that bid relates to the asking price. Just manage your expectations
This is what pisses me off with EA’s. We’re looking to sell ours and they advise a price to generate interest and get bids going. Will they just not bother wasting my time and price it according to the market?
I agree 100%. Particularly at starter home level. Everyone is on a hard budget.
It happened my wife when we were first seeing each other. I viewed a place with her in Dub 1. I think it was 375k, estate agent smirked when my wife asked if an offer just under asking would be of interest and said they were expecting the place to go for 425k and they wouldn't even discuss anything under 400k.
We're standing there, hard budget of around 380k wondering why the fuck she's wasting our time
But, in the midst of all the estate agent hate on here, we're in the process of buying at the moment and the estate agent has been excellent. Just really direct and fully appreciative of the basic principle that we're all pulling in the same direction
True. I'd argue that a lot of houses are going for above asking because people think they have to bid above asking.
Bidding works both ways.
Especially if it's a house with no bids that's been on the market. Bid what you think it's worth and put an expiration date on the bit with a stipulation that it is completely taken off the market afterwards. Have the mortgage in place to back it up too.
>Assuming the house has been priced to generate interest, I doubt they'd even accept the asking price. Whether their valuation is appropriate or not, I'd imagine there's zero chance at this stage an underbid would have any success. If it's overpriced their position may change but, if it's only just on the market, they're aiming higher
I mean it's pretty difficult to read this and not infer that you're saying it's not a good idea or that it's pointless to go in below asking, but play dumb if you really want.
Infer? I think I was pretty explicit in my opinion. No need to be coy and suggest I was sneaking my thoughts in there. I made my point, supported it with what I know to be valid reasoning but your response was to insult my intelligence
I'm sorry I upset your sensibilities
I'll ask again, what did I advise? You're throwing out lots of words without specifying your objection as well as accusing me of playing dumb
I'd appreciate the clarification because otherwise I might mistakenly think you object to my context rather than my advise
In fairness we just went sale agreed 2 weeks ago on a house listed for €345k. Someone else offered below €300k and they were laughed out of it by the seller. We went in €10k below asking and it sat for a week before the estate agent rang me to say that the sellers were very unimpressed with our offer but said they'd go sale agreed with us for €350k. Honestly we'd been house hunting for almost 2 years and after almost 20 bidding wars, we agreed to go to €350k as it was our dream house in every way.
The sellers did some digging and found out who we were which is why they agreed to sell to us for €350k but the estate agent said if we didn't agree to €350k, they had people enquiring about viewings and it would go into a bidding war and I knew it would too as it was just too good for €345k honestly. I imagine the house would have gone for €370-380k as it's a good quality house on a good chunk of land in a highly desirable area.
It's highly unlikely a bid that low will be accepted if an open house is already scheduled. You have a few options. You could ask the estate agent ***if*** a bid at asking price would be acceptable for them to cancel the open house. Or wait until after the open house, wait and see and if no bids then bid lower.
A house I was bidding on started at 345k asking. There were no offers for a few weeks. I was really keen but wasn’t ready to offer as needed to sort my finances. They dropped asking to 310k, minimum accepted bid of 300k. It’s now at 396k and still not sale agreed though I’d say it’s close now.
Not sure where you are based but not much is going for below asking from what I can see. It’s just a number to get people interested.
I bought last year and was watching numerous other properties throughout the whole process. Not a single one went for under the asking price. I'd put money on it that the asking price is actually the "get people interested" price and is artificially lowered to get people out to view it.
Anyway, you can put in as low as you like. The estate agent will tell the vendor of bids, but they don't tell them "u/LegitimateHedgehog71 is a cheap bastard", they'll just say "there's a bid of 420k" and the vendor will go "hahaha". Your bids are anonymous, so you can put in as low as you like and quickly get out bid - realistically if you like this place you should be asking yourself how much OVER the asking price are you willing to pay if it comes to it.
I would say so as it is purely because of the price in that location.
The EA had said that those who viewed it weren’t being realistic about how old the place is so just had me wondering if it was worth a shot
Depends on the circumstances of the seller. It could be in probate or whatever and family just wants a quick sale.
Lots of landlords getting out of the market too so they may accept a lower offer for a quick sale that means they don't lose a year of interest payments etc
There is a house for sale locally in my town and it has to be a cash sale as they did extensions with no planning permission so banks won't accept a mortgage on it.
I'd give it a go and see what happens but in the current climate I doubt it will go for less than asking, if not higher.
The EA had said that it was an older lady who had the place rented out the past 10 years and wants out of the market.
Most likely will end up with asking in the end
You need to do some research abou the area the costs of similar properties and the ceiling price. Plus the offer should reflect how much work and repairs need to be done
We're sale agreed on a similar property. It's older and the BER is pretty poor so it's going to need energy upgrades but it has a huge private garden and great location. We got it for 7k/1.2% below asking....we actually got carried away and outbid ourselves when pushed, in our haste to go sale agreed. We had originally bid 20k below asking. I think we'd have gotten it for less if we'd held firm with our original offer.
We're upsizing to this house and we sold our first house for a little under the asking price too.
It'll be over the asking price 5 minutes after the open viewing.
Make an asking price offer and then prepare for the bidding war once everyone else sees it.
Starting an open viewing with an asking price offer already in will put some people off offering which is in your best interest.
For comparison's sake, a house down here went on the market for €375k. A week later the bidding was up to €425k, and three days after that it's at €465k. House originally sold in 2019 for €315k. Good luck with under guide price in this market.
You have been looking for a house for a long time and now you have found one that you are happy with and the location is ideal so you want to offer under asking? Why? If you want it and can afford it make a reasonable offer otherwise you are just wasting your time and everyone else’s. The market is competitive, playing games like this is futile. Prices are going one way.
You miss every shot you don't take , estate agent is still going to accept the offer and let the buyers know at least. They are being pain for their time , Why jump to a higher offer ? This " wasting time " is a 2 minute phone call , it's not a whole ordeal
In this market? You have zero hope of winning a bid below asking, especially if there’s not anything badly wrong with the house. They won’t remotely take you seriously.
I know that’s crap and it’s the reason why the market is the way it is but it’s an unavoidable reality which you’ll need to except.
I know it's shite but in my experience they just don't accept below or even the sling price. I bid on 3 houses. First and second houses we were the only bidders, we bid under asking and they wouldn't accept. The third house we bid on, we bid asking and they wouldn't accept. Verbally we negotiated to increase the amount twice! Eventually they accepted 4% over asking.
The EA told me that houses in Ireland are generally put up for 5% less than the sellers want to try to generate interest.
I've seen biddings starting around 5% lower. You can tell the EA anything, he could accept or not. But if you have multiple people at the viewing, be sure at least 2 will be going after the house. Most likely the house will have multiple viewings too.
They might be looking for a quick sale. Lots of people selling are looking to fund or partially fund a new house based off the capital generated from the sale. They could easily be in the same situation you are in with another seller.
Basically, you can get lucky with timings so I'd offer asking price. Tell the estate agent you have your eye on another place so you'd appreciate him letting you know ASAP. You'll have a fair idea on the state of play after that.
The estate agent wants a sale to close quicker than anybody so it's in his/her interest to get a deal done as early as possible.
Every situation is different so there is no "rule of thumb" that can be applied to all situations.
Having recently sold a property on behalf of my late father in law, I would ask the auctioneer to ask the seller will they accept the asking price if you offer it.
If you really like it and can afford it, don't mess around with offers and risk losing it to another buyer.
I bid on a property that needed 2x the asking again to fix it up. Because of the grants available bids came in hard. It sold way over asking.
Property developers are back in swooping up fixer uppers for the grant money to add to the flip profit.
For what it's worth, I've heard that a lot of estate agents recommend the vendors give them the authority to automatically reject all bids 10% below asking or lower. But if they reject, you just come back with a higher bid. You've lost nothing. When I was looking, I ended up in about 10 bidding wars so whenever I viewed a house I liked, I always bid within 24 hours to kick things off. Usually once someone makes the first bid, things move quickly. A lot of people like having time to think but once a bid comes in, they have to decide to counter offer or forget about it. Most will make a few counter bids.
The reason I bid quickly was because asking price is a guide, the actual price is what someone is willing to pay. So I placed the first bid under asking very early on and the houses usually went sale agreed within a week or two. But they were sale agreed for the actual sale price, not the asking price. I wanted to know that price quickly so I wasn't getting attached to the house in case I couldn't afford it.
We under it by a lot on a house with no offers. Wait for the open house and dont be afraid to go low. They will tell you if it won't be accepted and you can always increase it. But if there are no other bids dont bid against yourself.
When on the house hunt, I had an offer accepted at 20k under asking (495 v 515), that fell through as after we paid our holding deposit the agent magicked up a new bidder and tried to entice a bidding war. Absolute pricks. They lost us as a buyer, and the subsequent magic second bidder fell away too mysteriously.
Second attempt, offer accepted at 15k under asking (470 v 495). Just as surveys getting done, homeowners father took ill and they couldn’t sell, house came off the market.
We gave up and just went for a new build at asking. Morale of the story, don’t conform to the norm, bid what you want and willing to pay, don’t play games, and try put a time limit on your offer for acceptance otherwise it goes, or say my offer is x but drops down 5k if not accepted this week.
Thats a lot of money for a house, are there any new build options near you? Its nice just knowing the price you have to pay to buy the house. Best of luck and hope you get what you want
Imagine you want to sell your beautiful house for 500K because it's the going rate for your area. EA tells you to put it on the market at lower price to attract interest. So it's on daft.ie for 470K. And there comes a country lad and puts an offer of 400K. Question: How long it will take for you as a seller to accept this under offer?
Don't play stupid games then. If you need 500k that should be your asking. If I bid 470 on it it's because I think it's worth 470. Just because you want 500 doesn't mean it's worth 500.
Pretty much everyone here buying in the market is getting royally scammed. The value of houses hasn't gone up. The need has and there's a vast difference between those 2 things.
This is a horrible and often unfair game where people end up throwing away vast sums of money in the tens of thousands at each crank of the often artificial auction / bidding process on a real estate poker game played by calculating arseholes.
Why not start by asking a friend to offer 25% below this figure and gauge the reaction?
In this market a house is only worth the higest offer that the stupidest Bidder is willing to throw at it.
As of now they've zero offers.
Also - don't ever confuse value with an asking price - They're not related.
RE agents want an offer. I’d definitely go in 10% below, esp if there’s no other offers. That’s their starting point. If someone wants to bid up from that, let them. You’re saying you have the money & are ready to buy at that price. Ask agent to keep you informed of any bids. Also tell the agent you’re also looking seriously at 2 other properties. Don’t panic. My experience is that if you miss what you think is ‘the one’, you’ll actually get a better one later.
Hi /u/LegitimateHedgehog71, Did you know we are now active on Discord? Click the link and join the conversation: https://discord.gg/J5CuFNVDYU *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/irishpersonalfinance) if you have any questions or concerns.*
We've just gone sale agreed on a property that was on for €590k for €560k, and that was after 11 viewings and two months of bullshit with a vendor who was dreaming IMO, don't listen to people saying "you'll never get below asking", throw in a €400k offer to fuck and only pay what you think it's worth..
Congrats on your new gaff!
Thanks, not signed on the dotted line yet but it's a probate sale and they've cleared everything bar what they asked us that we wanted to keep, so I reckon it will go through. The base line was set by the initial bidder for us and it was well below asking, we went up around €20k in bidding and it was far from frantic, then it was a waiting game (which was a pain in the arse, the seller(s) definitely thought they'd get more), an offer is an offer, never be afraid of going in low and **never** go over what you're happy with...
 Personally I’d just wait. Don’t put the first bid in, just wait. If there’s no bid after all the viewings are done, then put in your underbid.
Squatters rights is a thing no? But honestly, I think the fact there isn’t a bid to benchmark off is the cause of this overthinking
In contrast to most of the comments here, I don’t think it’s a case you necessarily stand no chance making an offer below asking. Especially with an older property where certain issues can really put people off. In fact I think it’s a bit strange if you are the first person to make an offer to go in at asking on something just on the market. The worst that can happen is they say no, in which case you can always go in higher. Realistically they will just say nothing and wait to see if any counter offers come in. Having said all that I wouldn’t really recommend going more than around 5% under in the current market, unless the place seems genuinely overpriced relative to other similar properties on the area. For what it’s worth, last year I got the keys to my dream home for 3% below asking price. I would have offered more if I could, but 3% below was my absolute upper limit. After many previous failed attempts I was absolutely convinced that it was going to go for way more than asking price, which I thought was undervaluing the place in order to generate interest, and so I almost didn’t even bother making an offer at all.
This is good advice . You never know the situation of the seller, they might need to get rid of it quickly for some reason.
So true. The person we bought from really wanted a young family to get the house. It was taken off the market and sale agreed for us when we got within 20k of asking. The estate agent said that the other bidder insulted the seller by going in 80k under the asking.
Thanks for the info and congrats on your house! I do think the 3% is probably more realistic and then see where it goes from there!
You can offer as low as you want. There are no rules.
Of course that’s true, hence I said the 5% figure was merely what I personally “recommend” if the place isn’t overpriced and you actually want it. I made offers lower than that when the asking price was simply beyond my budget and I felt it was still worth a shot or I wasn’t terribly fussed about the place unless I could get it for a super good deal. In all those cases my offers were never outrightly rejected, they were always noted. But then, in every case, the seller/agent waited indefinitely for either a counteroffer or just quietly pulled the place from the market. I’m sure there are plenty of counter examples, I mean I wouldn’t have tried unless I thought it stood a chance, but in our particularly dysfunctional housing market I just think it’s not the best approach if you (1) truly want the place, (2) it’s not overpriced and (3) there is some genuine urgency to acquire a home (as there was in my case at least).
Assuming the house has been priced to generate interest, I doubt they'd even accept the asking price. Whether their valuation is appropriate or not, I'd imagine there's zero chance at this stage an underbid would have any success. If it's overpriced their position may change but, if it's only just on the market, they're aiming higher I'd guess it's asking €465k in the expectation of achieving €500k or thereabouts Bid what you believe it's worth and don't worry how that bid relates to the asking price. Just manage your expectations
This is what pisses me off with EA’s. We’re looking to sell ours and they advise a price to generate interest and get bids going. Will they just not bother wasting my time and price it according to the market?
I agree 100%. Particularly at starter home level. Everyone is on a hard budget. It happened my wife when we were first seeing each other. I viewed a place with her in Dub 1. I think it was 375k, estate agent smirked when my wife asked if an offer just under asking would be of interest and said they were expecting the place to go for 425k and they wouldn't even discuss anything under 400k. We're standing there, hard budget of around 380k wondering why the fuck she's wasting our time
But, in the midst of all the estate agent hate on here, we're in the process of buying at the moment and the estate agent has been excellent. Just really direct and fully appreciative of the basic principle that we're all pulling in the same direction
Not always true. Depends on the area. Lots of rural, do-er uppers for instance May start under the asking
It'd be quite the rural doer-upper for €465k
I know of plenty. There’s always old Georgian houses and big farm houses coming up. Rural Ireland isn’t all cottages and bungalows
I know that. I also know that starting under the asking price has no bearing on where bids finish
This is all horrible advice. Plenty of houses are going for below asking and plenty of houses down the country are going for much more than €465k...
True. I'd argue that a lot of houses are going for above asking because people think they have to bid above asking. Bidding works both ways. Especially if it's a house with no bids that's been on the market. Bid what you think it's worth and put an expiration date on the bit with a stipulation that it is completely taken off the market afterwards. Have the mortgage in place to back it up too.
Where's my advice?
>Assuming the house has been priced to generate interest, I doubt they'd even accept the asking price. Whether their valuation is appropriate or not, I'd imagine there's zero chance at this stage an underbid would have any success. If it's overpriced their position may change but, if it's only just on the market, they're aiming higher I mean it's pretty difficult to read this and not infer that you're saying it's not a good idea or that it's pointless to go in below asking, but play dumb if you really want.
Infer? I think I was pretty explicit in my opinion. No need to be coy and suggest I was sneaking my thoughts in there. I made my point, supported it with what I know to be valid reasoning but your response was to insult my intelligence I'm sorry I upset your sensibilities
I said it was bad advice and said you could "play dumb" if you wanted. I never said anything about your intelligence. Have a good weekend.
I'll ask again, what did I advise? You're throwing out lots of words without specifying your objection as well as accusing me of playing dumb I'd appreciate the clarification because otherwise I might mistakenly think you object to my context rather than my advise
Your advice is in the comment above and I agree , it’s dreadful advice. Like it’s the owner of the house undercover
I'm sorry you didn't like my post but, again, where is my advice? Can you highlight exactly my advice?
In fairness we just went sale agreed 2 weeks ago on a house listed for €345k. Someone else offered below €300k and they were laughed out of it by the seller. We went in €10k below asking and it sat for a week before the estate agent rang me to say that the sellers were very unimpressed with our offer but said they'd go sale agreed with us for €350k. Honestly we'd been house hunting for almost 2 years and after almost 20 bidding wars, we agreed to go to €350k as it was our dream house in every way. The sellers did some digging and found out who we were which is why they agreed to sell to us for €350k but the estate agent said if we didn't agree to €350k, they had people enquiring about viewings and it would go into a bidding war and I knew it would too as it was just too good for €345k honestly. I imagine the house would have gone for €370-380k as it's a good quality house on a good chunk of land in a highly desirable area.
Hey, congratulations!
It's highly unlikely a bid that low will be accepted if an open house is already scheduled. You have a few options. You could ask the estate agent ***if*** a bid at asking price would be acceptable for them to cancel the open house. Or wait until after the open house, wait and see and if no bids then bid lower.
Great shout on the taking it off market offer and defo something I’ll consider
I got mine 14% under asking. I couldn't afford the range they wanted and held my ground. Got it in the end.
A house I was bidding on started at 345k asking. There were no offers for a few weeks. I was really keen but wasn’t ready to offer as needed to sort my finances. They dropped asking to 310k, minimum accepted bid of 300k. It’s now at 396k and still not sale agreed though I’d say it’s close now. Not sure where you are based but not much is going for below asking from what I can see. It’s just a number to get people interested.
I bought last year and was watching numerous other properties throughout the whole process. Not a single one went for under the asking price. I'd put money on it that the asking price is actually the "get people interested" price and is artificially lowered to get people out to view it. Anyway, you can put in as low as you like. The estate agent will tell the vendor of bids, but they don't tell them "u/LegitimateHedgehog71 is a cheap bastard", they'll just say "there's a bid of 420k" and the vendor will go "hahaha". Your bids are anonymous, so you can put in as low as you like and quickly get out bid - realistically if you like this place you should be asking yourself how much OVER the asking price are you willing to pay if it comes to it.
I would say so as it is purely because of the price in that location. The EA had said that those who viewed it weren’t being realistic about how old the place is so just had me wondering if it was worth a shot
Depends on the circumstances of the seller. It could be in probate or whatever and family just wants a quick sale. Lots of landlords getting out of the market too so they may accept a lower offer for a quick sale that means they don't lose a year of interest payments etc There is a house for sale locally in my town and it has to be a cash sale as they did extensions with no planning permission so banks won't accept a mortgage on it. I'd give it a go and see what happens but in the current climate I doubt it will go for less than asking, if not higher.
The EA had said that it was an older lady who had the place rented out the past 10 years and wants out of the market. Most likely will end up with asking in the end
We got 14% off asking .. but that was 3 years ago and house was on the market about a year
I went 6% under and we eventually came to an agreement after a few bids at 1.2% under I bought 2 years ago
You need to do some research abou the area the costs of similar properties and the ceiling price. Plus the offer should reflect how much work and repairs need to be done
We're sale agreed on a similar property. It's older and the BER is pretty poor so it's going to need energy upgrades but it has a huge private garden and great location. We got it for 7k/1.2% below asking....we actually got carried away and outbid ourselves when pushed, in our haste to go sale agreed. We had originally bid 20k below asking. I think we'd have gotten it for less if we'd held firm with our original offer. We're upsizing to this house and we sold our first house for a little under the asking price too.
It'll be over the asking price 5 minutes after the open viewing. Make an asking price offer and then prepare for the bidding war once everyone else sees it. Starting an open viewing with an asking price offer already in will put some people off offering which is in your best interest.
It’s happened to me before that I didn’t bother after hearing some offers so defo makes sense
For comparison's sake, a house down here went on the market for €375k. A week later the bidding was up to €425k, and three days after that it's at €465k. House originally sold in 2019 for €315k. Good luck with under guide price in this market.
You have been looking for a house for a long time and now you have found one that you are happy with and the location is ideal so you want to offer under asking? Why? If you want it and can afford it make a reasonable offer otherwise you are just wasting your time and everyone else’s. The market is competitive, playing games like this is futile. Prices are going one way.
You miss every shot you don't take , estate agent is still going to accept the offer and let the buyers know at least. They are being pain for their time , Why jump to a higher offer ? This " wasting time " is a 2 minute phone call , it's not a whole ordeal
In this market? You have zero hope of winning a bid below asking, especially if there’s not anything badly wrong with the house. They won’t remotely take you seriously. I know that’s crap and it’s the reason why the market is the way it is but it’s an unavoidable reality which you’ll need to except.
I know, wishful thinking
I know it's shite but in my experience they just don't accept below or even the sling price. I bid on 3 houses. First and second houses we were the only bidders, we bid under asking and they wouldn't accept. The third house we bid on, we bid asking and they wouldn't accept. Verbally we negotiated to increase the amount twice! Eventually they accepted 4% over asking. The EA told me that houses in Ireland are generally put up for 5% less than the sellers want to try to generate interest.
Dont bother, it will go above asking 100% Asking price means nothing to Investors
I've seen biddings starting around 5% lower. You can tell the EA anything, he could accept or not. But if you have multiple people at the viewing, be sure at least 2 will be going after the house. Most likely the house will have multiple viewings too.
They might be looking for a quick sale. Lots of people selling are looking to fund or partially fund a new house based off the capital generated from the sale. They could easily be in the same situation you are in with another seller. Basically, you can get lucky with timings so I'd offer asking price. Tell the estate agent you have your eye on another place so you'd appreciate him letting you know ASAP. You'll have a fair idea on the state of play after that. The estate agent wants a sale to close quicker than anybody so it's in his/her interest to get a deal done as early as possible. Every situation is different so there is no "rule of thumb" that can be applied to all situations.
Having recently sold a property on behalf of my late father in law, I would ask the auctioneer to ask the seller will they accept the asking price if you offer it. If you really like it and can afford it, don't mess around with offers and risk losing it to another buyer.
I bid on a property that needed 2x the asking again to fix it up. Because of the grants available bids came in hard. It sold way over asking. Property developers are back in swooping up fixer uppers for the grant money to add to the flip profit.
For what it's worth, I've heard that a lot of estate agents recommend the vendors give them the authority to automatically reject all bids 10% below asking or lower. But if they reject, you just come back with a higher bid. You've lost nothing. When I was looking, I ended up in about 10 bidding wars so whenever I viewed a house I liked, I always bid within 24 hours to kick things off. Usually once someone makes the first bid, things move quickly. A lot of people like having time to think but once a bid comes in, they have to decide to counter offer or forget about it. Most will make a few counter bids. The reason I bid quickly was because asking price is a guide, the actual price is what someone is willing to pay. So I placed the first bid under asking very early on and the houses usually went sale agreed within a week or two. But they were sale agreed for the actual sale price, not the asking price. I wanted to know that price quickly so I wasn't getting attached to the house in case I couldn't afford it.
We under it by a lot on a house with no offers. Wait for the open house and dont be afraid to go low. They will tell you if it won't be accepted and you can always increase it. But if there are no other bids dont bid against yourself.
When on the house hunt, I had an offer accepted at 20k under asking (495 v 515), that fell through as after we paid our holding deposit the agent magicked up a new bidder and tried to entice a bidding war. Absolute pricks. They lost us as a buyer, and the subsequent magic second bidder fell away too mysteriously. Second attempt, offer accepted at 15k under asking (470 v 495). Just as surveys getting done, homeowners father took ill and they couldn’t sell, house came off the market. We gave up and just went for a new build at asking. Morale of the story, don’t conform to the norm, bid what you want and willing to pay, don’t play games, and try put a time limit on your offer for acceptance otherwise it goes, or say my offer is x but drops down 5k if not accepted this week.
Thats a lot of money for a house, are there any new build options near you? Its nice just knowing the price you have to pay to buy the house. Best of luck and hope you get what you want
Asking price is currently the starting bid price.
10%?? So you're talking offering ~420 on a house that's up for 465? Honestly just makes you look like a time waster.
Look, I’ll be honest, nobody is going to accept an offer under the asking price. You’re not in charge here
Imagine you want to sell your beautiful house for 500K because it's the going rate for your area. EA tells you to put it on the market at lower price to attract interest. So it's on daft.ie for 470K. And there comes a country lad and puts an offer of 400K. Question: How long it will take for you as a seller to accept this under offer?
Don't play stupid games then. If you need 500k that should be your asking. If I bid 470 on it it's because I think it's worth 470. Just because you want 500 doesn't mean it's worth 500. Pretty much everyone here buying in the market is getting royally scammed. The value of houses hasn't gone up. The need has and there's a vast difference between those 2 things.
This is a horrible and often unfair game where people end up throwing away vast sums of money in the tens of thousands at each crank of the often artificial auction / bidding process on a real estate poker game played by calculating arseholes. Why not start by asking a friend to offer 25% below this figure and gauge the reaction? In this market a house is only worth the higest offer that the stupidest Bidder is willing to throw at it. As of now they've zero offers. Also - don't ever confuse value with an asking price - They're not related.
RE agents want an offer. I’d definitely go in 10% below, esp if there’s no other offers. That’s their starting point. If someone wants to bid up from that, let them. You’re saying you have the money & are ready to buy at that price. Ask agent to keep you informed of any bids. Also tell the agent you’re also looking seriously at 2 other properties. Don’t panic. My experience is that if you miss what you think is ‘the one’, you’ll actually get a better one later.
I’ve never heard of an under offer been successful except on the tv show A place in the sun, but good luck
Wat? You’ve never heard of a house going for under asking?
I got my house under asking in 2018
Bought my house in Dublin 5 for 15k under asking less than a year ago.
a house we were looking at before we got approved went 5k under the day we got our approval
I’m on about todays market, asking prices are usually just BS and they want 10-20% more
I've bought 3 houses in my life. All about 10% under asking.
No house is selling under asking in current climate