Deepti and I had talked about my previous misadventure at an auction and felt that Andrew's guidance on the big day (or even bidding) would be a huge boost for my confidence. Andrew's an expert on this topic - he's won a couple of auctions but more than that, is well read and industry savvy enough to read the agents and seemingly outsmart them.
So Andrew turned up in a suit, very smartly dressed. I think it had the agents on the back foot from the start. They kept avoiding eye contact with him and coming to me, even though they knew Andrew would be bidding on my behalf. After the auction they asked me if Andrew was a buyer's agent - sure enough a compliment that he had them on the run.
No one bid, at first, so the agent passed it in and then went into a gathering bid mode. The agent came to me and then some others. Each time, Andrew was clearly the smarter at the game than the agent. A comment from the agent - which I would have never have known to be rubbish - resulted in a firm retort from Andrew that basically shut them up. It was actually funny. To be honest, that firmness that Andrew has resulted in me saving a few thousand at least and not losing my nerve as well.
When the agent came back and shook my hand, Deepti says I was crying on the inside. More than true. A sense of relief and exhaustion swept over me.
So we settle in mid-October and will be moving in thereafter.
Here's the obligatory celebratory photos (we're all exhausted).
No more househunting - let's party!
5 comments:
Awesomeness!
That's fantastic! We stalked it on realestate.com and had a look at some more photos. It looks like it's a great size.
Congratulations, guys!
Of course, we now want a move by move breakdown on how Andrew outplayed the agents.
Whoa, congrats. Smooth!
I am really happy for you guys. I'd like to be able to say that there was some tricky strategy that I offered which enabled you to win, but the reality was simply that you and Deepti were prepared to pay more than the other guy. I think my contribution was to help deflect the unhelpful hard-sales approach of the auctioneer. I can see you all really enjoying living in the place, and I hope you celebrated the achievement!
And big, big congratulations from Bron and me!! I really hope you'll all be very happy there.
Hooray! May you have very happy times there.
House hunting sucks!
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