House Auction Cancelled and Now for Private Sale - Why?

Crit1986 on 25/03/2021 - 18:26
Last edited 25/03/2021 - 19:19 by 1 other user

I was looking at purchasing a house and we put an offer in pre auction above the range, that amount wasn’t accepted and I was advised they are negotiating with someone at a higher price and ask if we are willing to put an offer in at that price. The place isn’t worth the higher price so I said no.

A few days later the Auction is cancelled and instead is now private sale at the price that was supposedly being negotiated with the other person…. Why would someone cancel an auction and then list the house at a higher price? My thoughts are there isn’t much interest. What would other reasons be?

Has anyone experienced this before?

Financial

Comments

  • brendanm on 25/03/2021 - 18:31
    +7

    They don't want an auction, and just want to sell it at the price listed.

    • netjock on 25/03/2021 - 21:39
      +3

      The auction was a ploy with an artificially low price range hoping people would bid over range.

      I saw one that was listed between $440k - $480k, only went up to $460k at auction. Got listed afterwards at $495k. Area median is around $460k. The really well done up ones go for over $500k. What is on offer is not even close to the $500k mark.

      Some vendors are just fishing. They are only serious when big bucks come knocking unfortunately their offerings are well short.

  • tsunamisurfer on 25/03/2021 - 18:32
    +3

    Why incur the costs of an auction if they already have the terms they want from a sale?

    • Mechz on 25/03/2021 - 18:49

      No cooling off period on offers close to auction.

  • brettymaccc on 25/03/2021 - 18:40
    +3

    Assuming the agent is telling the truth, probably accepted the pre-auction offer from the other buyer and then they disappeared. The owner's expectations are therefore now at that price and they probably didn't feel they had enough competition to run an auction.

    That being said a good agent would still run the auction (even with just you) and give you an opportunity to buy the home under the hammer

    • Killerbala on 30/03/2021 - 11:18
      +1

      Good agent ? You mean unicorns !

  • star-ggg on 25/03/2021 - 18:45

    if they're not in a hurry to sell, they're probably just waiting for the market to catch up to their price.

  • Porker on 25/03/2021 - 18:52
    +1

    You stated you put in an offer above the auction listed range. Agent said they already had a higher offer.

    Seller likely realised that the listing was too low and relisted at price that their offers are comparable to.

  • dizzle on 25/03/2021 - 19:13
    +2

    They may have accepted the offer, but not listed it as under contract(I'm seeing this a lot lately).

    What then happens is they continue creating interest in case the building/pest/finance falls through. People still call up to view the property and they may/may not continue inspections, but this gives them a list of people to call if the original contract falls through.

  • SF3 on 25/03/2021 - 20:04

    Happens.

    Agent looking to get the “best” deal for the vendor.

    My thoughts are there isn’t much interest.

    You’ll be suprised.

  • [Deactivated] on 25/03/2021 - 20:21
    +5

    If you don’t think it is worth that price then the reason does not matter.

    Vendor wants more than you’re willing to pay. Someone else will likely pay what the vendor wants, especially in the current market.

    • SF3 on 25/03/2021 - 20:46
      +1

      FOMO feeling might have started.

    • derrida derider on 25/03/2021 - 20:53

      Probably the last but it is always possible the vendor is dreaming, will discover that in due course and will ring you back.

      If that happens don't offer more than your original bid; that they've rung you back is a clear signal there is not as much competition as the vendor and/or his agent thought. Plus hiidenbicycling is correct - that's what it was worth to you then, that's what it's worth to you now.

      Bear in mind that housing markets are really weird ATM. Some places are facing extreme boom conditions, some places prices are actually falling (especially for investment properties). They will certainly be steadier and more consistent once the disruptive effects of covid are past; IMO most will be mildly depressed based on the two fundamentals of reduced immigration and interest rates having bottomed.

  • iNeed2Pee on 25/03/2021 - 22:21
    +4

    I succeeded the other day by getting an agent to change his statement of information price as it was disgustingly underquoted.
    Went from 650-700k to 780-840. Amazing that.

    Dodgy bastards.

    • neo on 25/03/2021 - 22:28

      I feel like we're back at that 2016-2017 period again when REA's are getting away with murder and everyone goes along with it. The real estate industry is a disgrace and unfortunately it will continue as long as it's a three way circle jerk between government, REA's and banks.

    • yellowfever on 25/03/2021 - 22:59
      +1

      3 years ago when this Statement of Information rule came out in Vic I threatened an agent to upload the SOI otherwise I will report them.
      They uploaded it straight away lol

  • k1llersloth on 26/03/2021 - 01:34

    we are selling our house now, basically if you put your house up for auction you do not have to show a price on the website etc so you get more people through who would usually be ruled out if you had a price guide up there.

    If you then got interested parties (which like we want) i would settle on a price pre auction and cancel the auction if i was happy with it

    • Quantumcat on 26/03/2021 - 11:39

      you do not have to show a price on the website etc so you get more people through

      I guess this doesn't apply now with the market so hot but both times I've been house hunting I never once clicked through to any house on allhomes that doesn't have a price. In fact I contacted them to ask how to exclude these from search because it was getting annoying having to page through multiple pages of search results to get to the ones with prices (turns out you can't exclude them)

      • dizzle on 26/03/2021 - 13:33

        Searching at the moment and I'd say about 60% of the adds don't feature prices, they are just "open to invitation". This way they get people to inspect, and when talking to prospective buyers they find the current market price (instead of limiting it to what the seller thinks they can get.

        Those that do have prices are all "offers over $xxxxxx. So they are aiming for similar results, that the buyers are rushed and need to make one high offer rather than low-balling and being talked up.

        You can still find rough estimates by changing search parameters. Find properties by seaching your limits, say up to $500,000. Then change search to $500k-$550k, then $550k-600 etc.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join