Homebuyer calls out ‘unhinged’ experience after bidding nightmare

A homebuyer in has fired up after what she describes as an “unhinged” experience she had while bidding on a home in Queensland.

A prospective homebuyer has opened up about an “unhinged” experience she had after putting an offer on a property in Queensland.

This isn’t the first time Laura Clare, a content creator and singer, has been through the home buying process.

So, when she decided to sell her townhouse and upgrade to a stand-alone property, she thought she had a pretty good idea of what to expect.

And, in the beginning, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Ms Clare went to an open home for a property she liked the look of and was immediately told by the real estate agent that the owner was keen to sell quickly and wanted final offers in by Monday.

The open home was held on a Friday and Ms Clare felt the agent was “trying to create a sense of urgency”.

However, having bought before and recently selling her own home, she understood this was an expected part of the process.

The 33-year-old put forward an offer on Saturday and, 24 hours later, she was told four other offers had been submitted that were all in the same price range as hers.

This is where things started to take a bizarre turn.

Laura Clare took to social media after the infuriating experience. Picture: @laurac1are/TikTok

She felt the real estate agent was trying to ‘create a sense of urgency’ from the start. Picture: Laura Clare/Instagram

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Speaking to news.com.au, she claimed the real estate agent told her that, because there were multiple offers with similar conditions, the owner had decided to use an online bidding platform.

Having never used an online bidding platform when buying property, Ms Clare asked a few questions throughout the process and was under the impression that whoever placed the highest bid would be getting the house.

The bidding was to go from 12.30pm to 5.30pm. Ms Clare logged in as soon as she was given the information from the real estate agent and so was surprised to see a bid had already been placed for $20,000 the price listed.

The way the platform worked, if an offer is placed in the last five minutes of the session, it will be extended for another five minutes and so on until there are no more offers.

A few seconds before the bidding ended Ms Clare put in an offer for $1000 over the first offer that had been there when she logged on.

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When the session ended with her as the highest bidder she was elated, believing she had just secured the property.

However, that feeling of excitement came crashing down 30 minutes later when the real estate agent called her and told her the owner had “jumped the gun” and wanted to do another open home instead.

Ms Clare was, understandably, not happy.

She felt there was inadequate information leading up to the bidding about how the platform actually worked and it wasn’t made clear how it differed from a traditional auction.

“I was really pissed off because I [expected] my offer would then be used to get further money out of people at the open home, so I withdrew my offer,” she said.

There are multiple platforms that can be used to run these real estate bidding events.

Speaking to news.com.au, Andrew Pizzino from GYDA buyer’s agency said these biddings sites are not the same as a formal auction and it can sometimes be confusing for buyers.

“Different agents run them different ways, and it’s just becoming even more convoluted,” he said.

“The easiest way to relate it is probably like an eBay bidding platform. There doesn’t necessarily need to be a set reserve or a figure that must be met in order to be sold.”

Online bidding platforms differ from formal auctions. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

However, the use of these platforms isn’t inherently disadvantageous to the buyer. Depending on how the bidding process is structured by the agent, it can create some extra transparency for the buyers.

If done for the “right reasons”, Mr Pizzino said it “should create some transparency with you knowing whether or not you’re the highest offer and what that offer might be if you’re not”.

After the disappointment of the bidding process, Ms Clare decided to go to the next open home of the property to confirm whether pulling out of the race was the right decision.

During the inspection, Ms Clare overheard the agent talking to a group of people and telling them they had received multiple offers for the property.

Ms Clare interjected and asked if he meant he had received more offers since hers and the agent clarified that “no” he hadn’t.

This prompted her to turn to he people the agent was speaking with and tell them of the recent online bidding fiasco, wanting them to have as much information as possible.

“I am seeing red at this point,” she said.

Then, the agent did something that made her blood boil; he let slip her offer to the other potential buyers.

Ms Clare claims the agent apologised and said it was a “slip of the tongue”. It was after this that she informed the other buyers that she had withdrawn her offer, so that figure couldn’t be used to drive up the price further.

Ms Clare has been left extremely disappointed by the experience. Picture: Laura Clare/Instagram

Unfortunately, since then, Ms Clare has had another not-so-great experience with another online bidding event for a separate property.

She was informed final stage offers would be taken at 6pm on Tuesday, with the bidding expected to go between 3-5 minutes.

She was told that once the final bidding stage finishes, that the seller would consider the top offers and was expected to make a decision within 30 minutes of bidding finishing and to sign the winning contract by 7.30pm that evening.

There were over 20 bidders on the platform, with Ms Clare describing the experience as a “total sh*t show”, with the timer being continually “reset” towards the end of the auction so the minimum bidding price could be lowered.

At the time of speaking, more than 14 hours after the bidding had ended and the seller was informed of the highest offers, no decision had been made on which offer was successful.

The whole experience has left a bad taste in Ms Clare’s mouth, with the young homebuyer said practices like this are only making the already difficult process of finding a home even more stressful, branding it “unhinged”.

“Just watching the market has been insane and the way agents are behaving and the lack of regulation around these platforms,” she said.

Ms Clare is now working with a buyer’s agent to help her navigate through this process.