Sir, – Ciarán Mulqueen’s recent article on the lack of transparency in the house-bidding process raises some interesting points on the existence or otherwise of phantom bidders (“You have more transparency buying a steak in Ireland than you do a home,” Opinion, February 15th).
Valuing any property is not an exact science and at the end of the day, the level of interest always dictates the selling price. Private-treaty sales are, as their name implies, private. Because of this, there will always be the suspicion, however groundless, that some kind of underhand behaviour is at play.
The property agent has to walk a tightrope between obtaining the best price for his instructing client and treating all potential buyers with courtesy and respect. Buying a home involves all kinds of emotions, so it is only natural that unsuccessful bidders will feel very let down, especially when they have set their heart on a certain property and are pipped at the post by another interested party.
The understandable human reaction is to blame the messenger – in this case, the estate agent.
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In order to provide some comfort to those involved in the bidding process, would it be possible for the Property Services Regulatory Authority and indeed the agents’ own organisations, to carry out random checks on individual agents’ files? This could help reassure the buying public they are being dealt with in good faith, while also ensuring the legitimacy of the bidding process is beyond reproach. - Yours, etc,
CHARLES SMYTH,
Kells,
Co Meath.
