What influences asking prices?
When a seller sets an asking price, they do so strategically, usually acting on the advice of their agent.
This means that they won’t simply take into account the more obvious things, like:
- Recent sold prices for similar houses nearby.
- Any repairs or renovation needed.
- The energy label.
All of these are things that you can get at least some idea of from property listings and research.
But your seller will also be taking into account strategic factors. They might deliberately price low if they need to sell quickly, for example.
Or, they might gamble on a lower asking price leading to more interested viewers and a bidding war to drive up the price.
Sellers, and their agents, will look too at market conditions both nationally and in the local area. If sales are slowing down generally, an agent might advise a seller to price on the lower side, for example.
Agents may also take into account local trends, such as an area becoming more popular with families, pushing up prices for larger homes in the area (but not necessarily small apartments).
Buyer’s agents and bidding advice
We’ve talked about the role seller’s agents play in setting prices and encouraging higher bids. But what about buyer’s agents?
Buyer’s agents will often have good local knowledge and will be able to provide some solid advice on what to bid for a property.
But there are 2 problems with the way this happens:
- Most rely on gut instinct, at least to a degree.
Agents do have access to data on sold prices, and they will know about local trends and market conditions.
But instinct still plays a significant part, and that instinct isn’t always right.
- They are usually paid a percentage fee, giving them a strong incentive to encourage overbidding.
If an agent gets paid more if you pay more for your home, it’s inevitable that they’ll want you to bid as much as possible.
This doesn’t mean they’ll encourage unrealistically high bids that you can’t afford, as that would put your purchase at risk of failing. But they may well push you to the limits of affordability.
The alternative: AI-assisted bidding advice
Roofmatch combines buyer’s agent expertise, with an AI tool that analyses 12,000 data points.
These include:
- Recent sold prices
- Repairs and maintenance status
- Any renovations or alterations
- The energy label
- Local price trends
- Wider market trends
The aim is to find the most likely winning bid. Which means:
- High enough that you won’t lose out unnecessarily to a higher bidder.
- Low enough that you don’t pay more than you need to.
The AI works as a kind of super calculator, crunching all the relevant data. And then human knowledge is fed in too, by our experienced buyer’s agents.
How Roofmatch clients save up to €50K…
Our AI system means that our clients have around a 1 in 3 chance of winning each bid they make.
If that figure were any higher, it would mean many of our clients would end up overpyaing for their homes – which is specifically what we’re here to avoid.
In fact, our clients typically save between €20k and €50k with Roofmatch. Because precision, AI-assisted bidding means that they don’t end up offering tens of thousands more than the next highest bid.
On top of that, our fees are low, and fixed. They start from €2,599, with no percentage-based incentive for us to encourage anyone to bid higher than they need to.
Plus, we operate on a no home, no fee basis. So if you don’t find a home with us, you won’t pay us anything.