Saturday, August 30, 2014

Auction Day

So today was the auction day for the house we were interested in buying. At this point we haven't bought it...

So we got a valuation that cost us $330 and they produced a value of $770k. But when we were meeting with the mortgage guy at the bank he said that the bank could do a valuation for $50 and if we go ahead with the purchase the fee will be waived as they do this as part of the loan approval process anyway. So we got that valuation too. The median of that appraisal was $800k with a range of $760k to $840k. So I went into the auction with an limit of around $860k in mind. The highest I got to bid was $850k and then the next bid was $865k. The auctioneer was not accepting smaller increments. As we were still below the reserve price I then decided not to push the price higher on the gamble that the owner wouldn't accept this higher bidder's offer and the house will return to market with a listed price. It turns out that the owner's reserve price was $970k but they are willing to go down to $950k but the other bidder would only go up to $870k. So, I expect the house will either be listed now at $950k or taken off the market and the owner will try again at the beginning of 2015 just before the current tenancy concludes.

1 comment:

Bigchrisb said...

Good luck. The same auctioneer auctioned a place at 58 Banambila St in Aranda that I was interested in. It got into a bidding war and was a solid $50k above what I was prepared to pay. It was passed in, advertised for offers over XX, and eventually withdrawn from market. Plenty more houses in Canberra to chose from - don't beat yourself up over this one, and you have to treat things like valuation expenses as sunk costs!