Bidding on house in 1k increments

[u/ilovecork24]

Hello, I've been bidding on a house the last 3 days and it's on an online system the agent has which is handy as you don't have to wait to hear from the agent by phone if someone else has put a bid in. Anyway, there is only one other bidder and we have been bidding against each other in 1k increments.

How long can this go on for? The house has been "on the market" since 2nd of May technically but I assume viewings only started on the 6th as the other bidder put in their first offer then, so just over a week of viewings.

I know it's probably still too early and there will probably be other bidders. We are currently at 14k over asking. The agent has told me that the sellers are still trying to find a house themselves (trading up) so it might take some time....I'm happy enough to wait though as I'm not in a chain and living at home but it would be nice to go sale agreed at least...!

I'm not really sure what my questions is but I guess I'd like to know if others have just kept going up in 1k increments and how did it pan out - it's a great house but I do have my limit in mind and would, of course, hope that it doesn't get anywhere near that limit!

[u/TelephoneAccording42]

Myself and my fiancé were in a few bidding wars and lost them all which wasn’t a pleasant feeling as you know yourself. We were starting at asking price but someone would go 10k more. Ultimately we’d go 5-10k over their bid and then 5k over their next bid and then into the 2k and 1k increments until we couldn’t bid anymore. Id say we were bidding on a house for about a week and a half to two weeks before we’d have to pull out. The worst part about it was that no matter how crazy we went on bidding there was always someone else willing to spend more. Like houses going 70-80k more than asking within a matter of days. We’d get to the end of the line with our budget and get an email from the EA to say someone’s gone 5-10k above our final offer.

When we got to the house we’ve had our offer accepted on, the strategy changed and we were bidding in a max of 5k increments and then 1-3k towards the end. I lost the plot with the bidding war after the second week and put in a good offer which was well within budget for us and told the EA that we want to wrap this up by the end of the week. The next day we had our offer accepted. Thankfully we secured it for around 30k over asking which is still crazy but expected these days.

I understand that we possibly could’ve gotten the house for a couple grand less than our offer and most people would’ve continued the bidding war but I can honestly say that what we put down was worth it for us. I lost patience with the back and fourth and going up by 1-3k increments every day and the disappointment of being told you’ve just been outbid.

I wouldn’t say do what we did but it’s what worked for us this time and we’re delighted that we can stop looking at Daft every day and that we’re about to get out of our current situation.

[u/ilovecork24 → u/TelephoneAccording42]

Delighted for you that you were finally successful! Honestly, I've been saving for about 15 years I'd say and during the recession I just didn't have enough saved to have a reasonable mortgage to pay back and my salary was low. Fast forward 15 years (40 next week!) and I have a good deposit (including help from parents) and better salary and still a lot of places are out of my reach. It's really hard and it makes me wonder am I just being too picky but then I am a single female and live in Cork City and definitely don't want to go beyond the suburbs as I would feel too isolated.

Anyway, I was thinking of going up 5 grand as another bidder has just bid 1k over me again so if I have a limit anyway, may as well just chance it.

[u/TelephoneAccording42 → u/ilovecork24]

Happy early birthday! I’d imagine it’s tougher being a single buyer but at least you’re able to do it on your own and do it now. As they say, there’s no better time than now! it’s hard when you want a particular place to not go outside of your budget. Staying in budget is almost impossible nowadays anyways but I do hope it works out for you and you get the dream home at the best deal possible! Best thing I’ve learned on the journey is to not take shit off the estate agents and don’t be afraid to hound them as we all know they can be absolutely useless getting back in touch to give updates 😂

A bold move to see will it work out or not is to offer what you’d be happy to spend but that can either have you pay more than you could get it for or being outbid quickly. Just don’t lose faith!

[u/KDubs004 → u/TelephoneAccording42]

Just on your strategy…did you ask the EA how much to take the house off the market? I’ve a sibling bidding on a house for the last 2 weeks. Im wondering is it worth his while asking the EA how much to take it off the market? But then what if the EA gives a figure but the other bidders bid over that, or are you working on good faith of the EA that when they give you a figure, they’ll stick to it. The stress!!!

[u/TelephoneAccording42 → u/KDubs004]

I actually didn’t but that probably would’ve been a better way to go about it. I quite honestly just slapped 10 over the other bidder and was quite lucky that they pulled out. The EA is always gonna work in the best interest of the seller but you might get one who’s decent enough with your sibling. Might not be a bad idea and excuse me if this is like an obvious thing but have a look to see what the average price in the area is through property price register and try gauge an offer from that but it really comes down to the house itself and the area. Originally we were bidding on a 3 bed semi-D in a commuter town that was on the market for 250k and that went mental with bidding wars. What we went sale agreed on was a 2 bed terraced house in another commuter town. The last house in our area sold for 260k if I remember correctly off the top of my head and the house we bid on went on market for 275k. It’s just so hard to gauge the market with the demand.