1 year on from traumatic house purchase gone wrong

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Hello everyone. This is my first post on here. I live in Ireland and I was diagnosed with Asperger's three years ago. I want to ask advice on what to do now regarding the aftermath of a house purchase gone wrong.

I guess I should start from the beginning. It all started when I saw a beautifully designed house with an extension with a beautiful garden come up for sale. At the time I was not in a position to be able to afford the house. This house made me want to purchase a similar house on the same street and carry out my own extension. A few years later the house next door to this house came up for sale and I was in a position to purchase it. I was shown around by an estate agent called Mike who also sold the house I had saw at the beginning. The house I had looked around had a badly done extension and this put me off. The estate agent said he believed the house would sell for around €250k, this price had also put me off as the much more beautiful house had sold for €270k but this was two years previously and prices had gone up since.

A few months later the house next door to the one Mike the estate agent had shown me appeared on the market. This house was listed by a different estate agent than Mikes. I was excited to view it as it was very run down and had no badly done extension so I thought I could put my own stamp on it and get it at a bargain price. I went to view it with my mum. I brought my tape measure to measure the living room to compare it to my existing house. I tried not to let the estate agent know that I really wanted the house as I knew if they get a hint of your interest they are likely to create fake bids to push the price up. As I was viewing it there was another young single male chatting with the estate agent. They had an English mainland accent but sadly I can not remember what they looked like.

The house was listed at €185k so I decided to put an offer in and told the estate agent I was a cash bidder with no need to get a mortgage. The bids started coming in and pushed the price up to around €195k. The bids had all died off when another cash bidder entered the bidding. I remember when the estate agent told me about this and I said oh this is like my last house where it only takes one other person to push the price up. I took part in a bidding war with this other single cash bidder and I ended up winning with a price of €227k. The cash bidder had pushed me up €32k. I knew straight away I had paid too much for the house but at the time I had forgot to calculate the percentage increase from the original asking price. In my mind at the time I had a feeling the estate agent created a fake buyer to push the price up. This is illegal but there is no real way of proving it as all bidding is carried out over the phone. (Thinking about it the estate agent is required to get bank statements from all cash bidder buyers and in theory they would still hold these bank statements. I guess if I were to demand to see the bank statements of this other bidder this would prove if they were real. I however know the estate agent would never reveal this information to me.)

After winning on the property I decided to get a house survey done and this valued the house at €220k but in my opinion the surveyor got lazy and just based the valuation on what I was prepared to pay. They did not take into account the purchase price of the previous house which sold for €250k with the better internals and a beautiful garden.

I found out after winning on the property from the estate agent that he knew I had wanted the property because of the tape measure. I found this revelation very unprofessional and looking back only cements my opinion that he created fake bids to push the price up.

After winning the property I decided to go to Mike the estate agent who had shown me the first property for some advice as I had found him approachable. He told me that I had over paid for the property. He also revealed that his friend was looking for a house in the same street and that he was also bidding on the property. His friend was not in the advantageous position of being a cash bidder like myself. He had advised his friend to pull out of the bidding as he believed the price was going up too much. He told me to ask for a reduction in price once the survey was complete. I had said to him that I believe I was fake bid on the property.

One week before I was due to complete on the property a much better property on the same street appeared on the market. It was listed with the same estate agency that I was about to complete with. The property had a much better back garden than mine and inside it was much better too. I felt bad about the situation as I would have to pull out of my property purchase. I spent a few days comparing the properties. I decided to focus on the fact this property had a tree in-front blocking of it blocking the daylight and that mine did not have a tree directly outside of it and that alone made me decide not to even view the property. I had come to the conclusion that I could fix the back garden of the property I had won but that I could not remove the tree from the front of the property as the tree was not on my property. I had messaged the surveyor of my property and they had said was I tempted to view the property and I said no because of the tree.

This new property was listed at €215k. I decided to approach Mike for advice because I still felt I was paying too much for my property. I had completely forgot that his friend was wanting a property on that street. He started saying that this other house was indeed much better than mine and that it would be easier to live in it before carrying out any extension. I told him that I had not viewed the property and he told me not to bother viewing it as I had already saw mine. He then asked me what did my surveyor say the property was worth. I told him €220k, he looked shocked and did not say anything. I decided to break the silence and said maybe he valued the property so high as it had a garden and a property without a garden sold across the street for €195k. He then said that the issue I had was that this new property was being sold by the same estate agency and that he said they might decide to not bother selling me the property as I would have to pull out of my current purchase. He mentioned that the other cash bidder will have seen this new property too. He said for me to put a bid on the new better property, this is without even viewing it and lower my €227k offer to €220k. I ended up following his advice and ended up purchasing my property for the €220k figure.

I moved into my property and I was content, it was not very nice inside but I was planning to do an extension to it. To my shock a few weeks later the other better house had been put back on to the market as the house sale had fallen through. The property then sold.

The new owner of the property met my mum when she was visiting me and I got speaking to him. He was whistling as he walked past my house almost like he wanted to be spoken to. I asked to view inside his property. When inside it my heart sank and how much better it was than mine. It was totally private at the back where as I have around 8 windows staring into my back garden.

This person is young around Mikes age which makes me think he was Mikes friend. He was not a cash buyer again like Mikes friend. When I first spoke with him he had mentioned that he was about to buy an apartment but his solicitor told him not to purchase it because of an issue with the hallway. The funny thing is I remember reading about this exact same apartment on some forums a few years ago. I think that he made that all up so I did not make the connection between him and Mike. There have been a few other things he has said which make me suspicious.

1. Why did he hang around near my house to try and introduce himself to me when he lived 3 doors up.

2. He said he did not know there was a service charge for the apartment he was about to buy.

3. The house he bought is near a train station, he gets the train regularly to visit his mum who lives near a train station, he also travels to his workplace by train. The apartment he mentioned was not near a train station but he does have a car. When I met him for a second time he said he does not get the train to work because it is quicker to drive, yet months later he revealed he gets the train to work.

4. The guy who was viewing my house had an accent from England just like this guy, sadly I forget the face of the guy viewing my house so I can't confirm it was him.

I have been trying to trip him up to see if he is lying. I did ask him straight up if he had viewed my house and he said no. I did mention about the apartment as we were walking one day and he mentioned that he loved it due to the beautiful views over the river for his home office. He works from home. I did also ask him who was the estate agent who listed the property, for this question he did pause for 10 seconds before he answered.

So I am wondering should I continue my friendship with this new neighbour even though I have a hunch that he was Mikes friend and Mike tricked me into not purchasing the better property.

I guess I could ask to see any email correspondence between him and his solicitor regarding the other property he said that he pulled out from. Every time I see him it just creates hurt that I missed out on getting his better property.

Something that you cannot change is keeping you from enjoying your property - drop it.

I have owned 5 homes so far and I learned early on to not look at comparatives after the purchase was done. If the market is on a downturn stay 4-6 years to ensure you make the investment worth your while. In a good market you can sell from 2-3 years and still do ok.

This is your home like it or not. If you can't enjoy it only do basic upkeep and consider moving on in a few years. About 6 months before listing start your research into local markets and watch local trends. An informed investor makes decisions they can live with.