Agents may be the easy scapegoat but agents don't cause the bidding wars, demand does. It's neither unfair nor improper. Value is what you assign to it. People need to take responsibility for their decisions. What's important is that you have an agent that facilitates and informs those decisions, and doesn't push you into them without the info, tools and consideration you need.
Avoiding multiple bid situations is an ok strategy *if* you're willing and able to stick to your guns. What can happen is that people avoiding the bidding wars eventually crack after lookign for ages but never buying, and then go whole hog in a bidding war when they're tired, stressed and done with house hunting just to get the process over with. If you're abstaining from bidding wars you have to have the resolve to stick with it or else it's worthless (potentially more harmful then participating in them from the get go.)
Registering your bid as far in advance as possible makes you look composed and serious (as opposed to frantic, last-minute ones that make buyers look desperate.) If possible, get the earliest bid presentation time that you can. Also, making bids on holidays or long-weekends also helps. We bought ours on Good Friday, surprising the listing agent (agent: "who works on Good Friday?") and beating two bids that were submitted the next day.
Make offers on overpriced properties that have been sitting on the market for a while.
I did that on a house that was 30 days on the market, and got it for 6% under asking (which I think was probably close to real market value or possibly slightly low).
My sis did that on a condo that was months on the market, and got it for 9% under asking (which I think was probably a little under real market value).
I got mine in 2007, and my sis got hers in 2011, both in sellers' markets.
Agreed, this also worked for us (though our home was not up for 30 days.)
One thing that worked for us was researching info on the house - how old, when sold, what price, when improvements were done, etc. That may not sound like rocket science but I think in the heat of the moment people tend to look at local comparables and that's it.
Our research on the house and the selling agent helped us in our strategy.
Hint 1) Something like 6 sales in past six months (-agent not hurting for funds), and 4 of them went for slightly under asking (-indicating that she may be willing to vouch for an offer below asking.)
Hint 2) House sold only twice - 1950-something, then 1990-something (-so not a flipper/investment vehicle, a family home.)
Hint 3) Previous owners bought the house for almost half of it's current list price (-indicating that money was likely not the most pressing concern here, margins weren't thin)
Hint 4) 24 hours irrevocable in the listing. (family issues going on? divorce?) When pressed, listing agent admits one of the two owners is out of town (-family moving?)
Hint 5) Google search of current owners reveals quote from one owner welcoming him to a company out west (-family likely moving) and that the other had a reasonably paid, stably-employed union job (-decent money being made by both owners, not hurting for money) with one mid-teen kid (-not selling the house to pay for uni)
Hint 6) Despite owning house for 12 years, particularly after the previous owner had it for 40 years, any renos done were done in past 2 years *only( (-indicates spending money available, decent financial situation as of late, maybe they waiting til mortgage paid off to do work?)
Hint 7) Obviously obvious, but after only six days on the market the price drops by 20 thousand (-motivated)
Turned out that the owners were moving out west and needed to sell the house instantly in order to buy the one they wanted in the new locale, and that their mortgage was paid off and money wasn't the greatest concern since they were making almost double what they bought it for. This info allowed us to low ball twice and get the house a not aweosme but reasonable nine percent under asking.
It's difficult to do this type/amount of research for every house you tour, but a couple of searches (MPAC, MLS system, the city, google) can help you in your strategy. Worked for us.
