#guideyouhome
In order to buy a home you have to make a bid.
The selling agent will advise you on the asking price of a property and if there are any existing bids on it.
If a property has been on the market for a while you could be lucky and have a bid accepted either below or at the asking price.
Quite often if there is more than one offer on a house, the asking price will shoot up. At this stage you need to decide whether you want to be part of a bidding war and how high you want to go.
That house you had your eye on for €200,000 might have been well within your budget but if its asking price ends up at €50,000 above this then it might be beyond your means.
If there is bidding back and forth on a property it’s best to determine your upper limit and stick to it. That might mean you miss out on that property but there’s no point in overextending yourself as this could eat into your ability to repay your mortgage or into your budget for decorating the place afterwards.
Some tips for the bidding process are as follows:
- Never bid on a property while you are at the property, always walk away, you can show interest and say you’ll be in touch, but offers there and then serve you no purpose other than to scream out “I’m eager and inexperienced!”
- Try to slow down any counterbidding process. Sometimes, unfortunately, you’ll have to face down other bidders, don’t ever make more than one counterbid in a day. Whipping up a storm is an estate agent speciality, don’t get caught up in it. Say whatever you need to in order to delay, but try not to get into a “fast bid” situation, you’ll always pay top dollar by letting that happen and if you lose it just bids up the clearing price of other properties in the area which may be your “plan B”.
- If you counterbid pretend it’s like a punch, if you are going to bother throwing one at all then make sure your intended target gets knocked out. Going up in €1,000 sums creates a dynamic that can often end above where things would have settled if you had gone up by €5,000 in the first place.
- Know your upper limit, getting over-extended on a purchase is a mistake, know when to accept you have lost.
- Look at lots of property, the more you do the more you realise there are lots of great places for sale. There is a huge risk of getting too focused on “the one”. If that happens you risk becoming the buyer equivalent of Jennifer Jason Leigh in Single White Female and any estate agent worth their salt will make you pay for that . . . dearly.
- If you ever suspect the estate agent or seller isn’t being totally upfront, walk away if you can. Don’t do deals with people you don’t trust unless there is no alternative (which is rarely the case).
- Put timelines on any conditions and stick to them, if you make an offer that is only good for 48 hours and requires a “yes” or “no” answer, then stick to that timeline.
- Seasonality can be a factor. The market is quieter in December and January so if you can hold off until then to place an offer then it could work in your favour.
- With a trend for prices to go above asking prices don’t bother with places that are right on the cusp of what you can afford, although this doesn’t apply everywhere. In a falling market you can afford to wait, it makes sense to do so, you can make demands that would never wash in a regular market. Now that prices are not falling, tactics need to change. The strategy remains the same, be the winning bidder, but the long game doesn’t work in that situation. So aim to get in and close fast or maybe consider being a long term renter, that’s a perfectly good lifestyle choice too
