When do you show your hand?

Ah the trickery and game play that is house buying. We've found a little house. It is:

1. Little.
2. Semi-detached (shares a wall with the neighbours).
3. Quite well maintained.
4. New(ish) bathroom.
5. Big yard (yay for doggies).
6. We can afford it.
7. Mum assures me she will still love me even if we do live in Reservoir.

It is being auctioned in a few weeks but we're keen to make an offer. Problem is, I don't know how much one should offer. If I show too much interest they know I'm going to be willing to pay more. Clearly the price has been understated on their advertising but if I offer too much they know how high I'm willing to go and will push up the price at auction automatically. Basically, I feel like to buy a house you have to show complete indifference whilst still bargaining.

I told the guy a price we'd be happy to start from (which is more than their advertised price) and he said it was probably too low. Which we thought it would be, but we felt on the whole it was good to start too low so that he doesn't have very high expectations, yet it shows we are still interested and want to be kept in the loop. But if we make a good offer it could be too high but enough to take it off the market - alternatively it could just make the vendor think there's lots of interest out there and wait till auction and drive the price up.

So why to they always advertise such a low price range? Why does this all have to be such a bloody game? When you are bidding at auction everyone is straight faced. No one is bidding until they know it is on the market. It all just seems so fake. There are all these unwritten rules that you have to learn to play properly. Of course, if it was me selling I'd be wanting to get the most I could but it irritates me that the advertised price brackets never seem to encompass the sale price.

Why can't I just meet the owners and charm them into selling to us? That would be much better. We are fabulous and lovely and really just the perfect people to leave their old mum's home to. We'll have lovely little babies that will grow up and enjoy the lovely little house and wouldn't it be nice if you could sell it to us? We just love the roses and we'd fit in so well! Can you see my puppy dog eyes? No? Let me introduce your to our dog Buster then...