Competitive bids on real estate....

[Nabber]

Originally Posted by Crazy Flamer

My girlfriend and I bought a house about two weeks ago. Our realtor told us that usually, the highest bid wins, even if there are conditions.

I agree with this statement a lot, as a real estate agent whenever I have a listing my clients are all about more money rather than worrying whether or not the conditions will fall through. If the deal is very close then obviously the one without conditions will most likely be chosen, but for a house built in 1980 I would definitely recommend having a property inspection done.

I-Hate-Hulse I would recommend just like Troutman to use a agent, he will help determine what price you need to go at in order to win in competitive offers. As a rule of thumb in 1 competing offer go under or at list price, 2 competing 2-3 thousand over list, 3 - $5,000 over, and keep going up per offer. Also an agent must agree to present the offer in person, if the selling agent rejects your deal in some cases you can say "well I want to re-write my offer" if you know your clients is willing to spend more money and try to get the property that way.

Another funny thing I learned the other day is you can put in your offer in a competitive offer situation with no price, all it says is willing to pay $1,000 dollars more than the top bid up to a set amount. The drawback to this of course is the sellers know what you are willing to pay and I'm sure would counter offer at that price, have never heard of anyone using that strategy though.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Yee Haw! Won my bid! The other buyer backed out, right before we were going to present our "all in" offer. This of course changed everything so we asked if their original counter would fly which was considerably less than our all in offer. Ultimately we were less than the unrealistic list price. Thank the Dion for that!

After some nerve racking minutes they accepted! Talk about your roller coaster ride! I've had an agent all along whom I thought was nice and had my best interest in mind, but to be truthful, I found myself leading the charge on a lot of the bid strategy. Inspection and financing conditions are in place.

It's not so much honour among theives, it's more there's 5000 agents working on 1100 properties trying to make a living. And people are squeezing agents and going to sale by owner sites.

Actually, now it's agents squeezing agents. I saw listings where the selling agent would cut the buying agent's cut unilaterally. Unfathomable in a normal market, but when the supply is as short as you say, questionable tactics seem to be standard.

Have you tried searching welist.com or comfree.ca?

Yup, been browsing there for some time now. Definately less traffic than MLS but listings are a little short in supply. Still, if there was something there I'd be all over it. What a crappy website though.... so much potential but what lousy execution....



So now the flip side of the equasion comes into play. For a downtown 4 year old condo, is MLS or welist the way to go? I'm willing to pay a certain amount for the convience of turning it over to someone but certainly it looks like you can save a lot by welist. Any thoughts on welist vs MLS?

[troutman]

welist - will save on R/E commissions but may not get as many offers, and therefore lower sale price

mls - more offers - agents may have a better idea of true value of home - agents will offer reduced commissions in existing market

[MacDougalbry]

What the h*ll is going on out there! Someone bought the neighbour's 2200 sqft house last month for $630,000 ($270,000 above tax assessment) and I am way out in a new subdivision.... now there are 4 houses for sale on my street all asking over $600,000. I thought the first guy was a fluke, but it looks like someone else has managed to sell. Crazy days.

[photon]

IHH congratz!

[ken0042]

Originally Posted by troutman

mls - more offers - agents may have a better idea of true value of home

I have to agree. A few months ago; just as the big boom was starting, my neighbours went to sell their house. They were going to go welist, and list it for $230K. They talked to a realtor who suggested they list at $250K, so they used the realtor. I even laughed when I saw the asking price; 900 sq feet, deck partly done, bad curb appeal.

The house sold for $246.5 K less than a week later. So even after paying 11K in realtor fees, they still ended up over $5000 ahead of going welist. Plus none of the headaches.

Also if you are buying it makes total sense to use a realtor. It costs you nothing. And shop them around. The first guy I started using was a jerk so I told him I didn't need his services. Found another guy who was great and bought my current house through him.

[I-Hate-Hulse]

Originally Posted by photon

IHH congratz!

Thanks Photon - it's a strange world we live in when we're excited that we just closed a deal to put ourselves in the pit of debt! (OK, increasing it) There's still a few bogeys that could torpedo this, such as the inspection or some particulars of the condo documents so we're not counting our chickens yet. It'll be a higher debt load than what I had before, but while I'm not that much of a fan of revenue properties, I've don't see the harm in investing in a place I'll live in.

Lots of renos lie ahead, kitchen and bathrooms. I'll be making offerings to the CP Gods of Renos here for their sage advice!

You don't have to sell me on the virtues of an agent - the question is whether the numbers support it. I think the market will bear a $250K price for my current place if I push it and list on Welist. The question is whether an agent and the benefits they provide can push that to $260, the number I need before real estate comissions to net back to $250. I think we'd only get there if there's a bidding war. There's a premium on my own time and dealing with the hassles of self listing and I'm willing to pay for someone else to handle that, up to a certain amount.

EDIT - Sigh.... the condo corp docs are a mess. Let this be a lesson to all of you in condos... make sure the Board is doing their admin & paper work they are obligated to. I'm less certain this'll work out now...