Estate agent & Dutch Auction - have you been in this situation ?h

Somerset

My friend who is returning from N.Z. thought she'd found the perfect home to buy here in the UK. It was being sold at auction ( elderly owner - needed work ). I was going to bid on her behalf and I was quite excited :eek: Anyway, it never went to auction because the owner's family/solicitors didn't get all the legals done in time. The auction dept have said that they'll now do a dutch auction with interested parties. Fair enough. Now she knows what a dutch auction is and still wants the house .... but how truthful would you expect the agents to be ? I assume they can't make up bids can they ? Or invent ficticious other bidders ? What I'm saying is ... if you were in this situation, would you be confident that the agents ( who are a big name ) wouldn't act like cowboys but would be honest and professional ? She doesn't want to lose this house but she doesn't want to be taken for a mug either - the agents are obviously aware she wants it and intended to bid at auction.

wecanhelpu

Buying at a dutch auction is no different to any other auction
ie have a figure in mind that you are prepared to pay and stick to it.

when/if it gets down to that figure, make your bid.

ensure that you have all the finance in place first though.

good luck

Somerset

The '' blind '' bit ?. As it's the auction section of an E.A. chain, do all the interested parties attend for it as in it's a physical auction ( back to me representing her ) or is it done on the telephone or what ?

She's waiting to hear from the auctioneers next week as to when they're going to do this, but any info beforehand would be appreciated. She's never been involved in anything like this I've never come across it in connection with property sales either.

wecanhelpu

The fact that a dutch auction is taking place is an indication that the boom is over. I saw lots of these during the last crash (but that's another story).

Anyway, back to your post - if it is carried out as a "physical" auction and everyone who's interested is present then it's not "blind" so, as i said earlier, have a figure in mind and stick to it.

Other ways of carrying out these auctions that are I have seen is a property being advertised in an EAs window and every day or week the price goes down.

I'll leave it to you to work out how you can be scammed in this way.

best of luck to you

Somerset

wecanhelpu wrote: »

The fact that a dutch auction is taking place is an indication that the boom is over. I saw lots of these during the last crash (but that's another story).

Thanks for that. I think this particular case is a one-off. From speaking to both my friend and the agent - elderly person went to live with family, EA dealt with normally and sale agreed but purchaser dragged it out for 12 months without completing ( time-waster ), family got fed-up and said 'just stick it in your auction', solicitor was whatever and didn't get the egal pack available by auction date so ..... this is now what agent is proposing to do.

Anyway I hope Jan gets it, and thanks for your help.