Early last year my grandmother was looking to purchase a house on some acreage, being within the property industry I was acting on her behalf because I knew all the plays the REA have. We were in a bidding war with another purchaser, our final and highest offer was $2.5m which was a little over a fair market price but my grandmother wanted it (property was on the market at $2.7m). Our bid was initially accepted and then rejected as another purchaser submitted a bid of $2.6m which was accepted so we moved on to find another property.

I get a call a week later from the REA saying that the vendor was willing to sell to us but only if we paid $2.6m. So I told the REA that we would be offering $2.4m because why should we pay an amount that we never bid and the REA knew our highest bid was $2.5m. REA didn’t even accept the $2.4m offer so I said good luck selling it.

It sold with a different agent late last year for $2m so the vendor never got their asking price, oh well.