I’m still trawling property listings sites on a semi-daily basis and I’ve now got alerts setup with Daft.ie
Of course buying a house involves some basic economics. You have a buyer (me) and a seller (either a previous owner or a developer). For the seller to be able to make their money they need to be able to find a buyer who either has the money required or the ability to get their hands on it.
So why on earth would anyone list a house with the mysterious “price on application”?
If I have a budget of say 300k there is no point in me looking at a house listed at 400k.
What can possibly be gained by listing houses without guideline pricing?
Maybe I’m missing something essential and basic from the “big picture”
From Grannymar:
Be glad you are not looking for property in Scotland. There they yse the sealed bid system, and you never find out if Joe Bloggs has bid £5 or £5000 more than you!
From alan@spoiltchild.com:
You are missing the the Auctioneers trying to hide the decline of house prices and keep them artificially high. Lots of press covering this practice lately.
From Trinity:
I’ve asked that question many a time myself! I don’t know what the story is in relation to residential property but speaking from a commercial point of view, the vendor/client more often than not, does not want the price listed. It apparently eliminates a lot of time wasters as well, apparently!
From Kae Verens:
I think Alan has it right.
I have been looking at the prices of houses around me online for a few months, trying to figure out how the wind is blowing. Suddenly a month or two ago, a few of the houses changed from advertising their prices to having a POA.
I think this is partly to hide that the prices are going down, and also partly because the advertiser is afraid that their price might appear to be too high, they’re desperate to sell, but they don’t want to put a low price on there either.
From Donn:
Aye that one always confused me, I would have thought that having POA would result in one of two outcomes;
1. nobody bothers to ring as most people would like to know a ballpark figure before making contact.
2. you are constantly harassed by people ringing looking for prices.
What Alan has said makes perfect sense though.
From Michele Neylon:
@Alan You may be right, but I’d fall into category no.1, as outlined by Donn. If I don’t have an indication of ballpark costs I’m not going to bother pursuing the matter any further.