Going...going...gone!

On 6 June I mentioned my interest in an apartment which had come on the market in my building. It would make a great upgrade for me, I believe.

I made an offer some weeks back and ahead of the auction which is scheduled for 2 July. I was told the vendors were inclined to sell to me ahead of auction day but wanted to make certain they weren't losing out on potentially better offers. They wanted to see the response to open viewings that had not then occurred. Fair enough.

Anyway, after two weeks of open viewings, another person matched my offer. On Monday afternoon the agent told me the vendors preferred to sell to me but would sell ahead of auction to either of us whoever was the first to raise our offer by a figure that represented a 5% increase of our offers. If we didn't want to offer that amount the vendors would wait for the auction.

Things moved fairly quickly. I thought about this for a couple of hours and felt the requested increase was a bit steep in one step. I wasn't prepared to make that single jump but in weighing up the issues realised that my desire to secure the property was strong. I decided to offer 2.5% more rather than 5% to gauge the reaction. Whilst waiting for the vendor's response I mentally decided that if he wanted to halve the remainder that I would agree. That's what happened.

So within three hours there was an in principle agreement between us. The race to exchange contracts had begun. The solicitor obtained a strata report yesterday and arranged for a building and pest report this morning. I was present whilst the latter inspection occurred and the inspector provided me with an oral report of his findings ahead of his formal report to be delivered tomorrow. Given that I live in the building already there was nothing unexpected in his findings and, more importantly, nothing to give me concern.

I rang my solicitor to give my oral OK to proceed and then went to the bank to draw the deposit cheque. My solicitor saw me at 3pm today and by 3.45pm I had signed the contracts. I took the bus home and had not yet reached my driveway when the agent telephoned to congratulate me that contracts had been exchanged. When I reached the driveway minutes later a smart looking young man, obviously an estate agent in training, was marching towards the advertising hoarding at the street front with a SOLD sticker in hand. They move quickly don't they.

Humorous postscript. About half an hour later my phone rang and a youngish voice (almost certainly the 'apprentice' I had seen earlier) rang to inform me the advertised unit had been sold privately ahead of auction and he was doing a ring around the building in case we would like to use their services. He clearly had no idea I was the purchaser.