Is the estate agent trying to get more money out of me than necessary?

Blondeclaire37

I put an offer on a house this morning. I am a first time buyer and I put in my max bid and made this clear. An offer was placed a month ago and was rejected, there have been no other offers. The estate agent called a few hours later to say another offer came in today for 3k higher than my offer. Is it not a bit strange that someone would bid 3k more knowing what my offer was and on the same day when there has been no other interest in a month? Please help. I really want thus house but don't want to pay more than I have to. I need urgent advice and would be very grateful for any help. Thanks.

TightGit

Book a viewing and have a proper chat with the seller.

lee636

If there’s been no interest then it could be a tactic. Talk to the EA again and reiterate your offer, say its conditional until Monday and then is to be retracted. Leave it and let the EA sweat with their client for a while. Chances are if they are playing games you will get a call and your offer 'was more reliable to the vendor than the other party being a FTB'.

Blondeclaire37

It's a repossion so therefore the estate agent is not acting on behalf of a private seller.

ILW

Even if your offer is accepted, the EA will then place an ad in the paper stating what you have offered and asking if anyone wants to better it.

Henry_P_Chester

This is definitly a tactic used be EAs. I made an offer on a house in febuary which had had no other offers and been on the Market a couple of years! I am a FTB too. I made my first offer which was rejected upped it to my final offer and was told by the agent that another offer had just been recieved 2k above mine but with the other agent (it was marketed by 2) I said no I can't go higher then phoned the other agent who told me that no offers had been recieved. The house is still on the Market 6 months later!

My advice would be the same as lee636. Stick to your guns if you lose it there will be another that you like, probably cheaper.

Good luck. Let us no how you get on.

Jackinbox99

I agree. Its a tough one if you have your heart set on the property, but really you need to be prepared to walk away.

Its an old trick of estate agents. I had the same thing happen to me on my first house. Had been on the market for 8 months, i made a 10% less offer and he came back and said "oh they have already been offered more than that". Without thinking I up`d my offer, which was snapped up.

Then I thought back and realised the EA was just trying it on!

Id re-iterate that you have looked at everything and that is definately your max offer. Stress that you have the advantage of being a FTB with no chain and that puts you in a strong position.

Good luck!

lee636

Henry_P_Chester wrote: »

This is definitly a tactic used be EAs. I made an offer on a house in febuary which had had no other offers and been on the Market a couple of years! I am a FTB too. I made my first offer which was rejected upped it to my final offer and was told by the agent that another offer had just been recieved 2k above mine but with the other agent (it was marketed by 2) I said no I can't go higher then phoned the other agent who told me that no offers had been recieved. The house is still on the Market 6 months later!

My advice would be the same as lee636. Stick to your guns if you lose it there will be another that you like, probably cheaper.

Good luck. Let us no how you get on.

It happened to us too, we second viewed a place after speaking to the EA's mortgage adviser. We said we'd look to offer around £230k after being told that they wouldnt go below £235k (on for £245k). The broker previously told us that two people had offered £230k and been turned down.

I told the EA im not keen on the road as much as others but the flat is really nice. We didnt put a formal offer in and just left it as we wouldnt go above £230k so no point formally offering that.

Around 2 weeks later a call from the EA confirmed what i thought, the broker was in cohort with the EA (obviously i hear you say!) and confirmed to him we could actually afford above £230k - but the other two offers had 'fallen through', would we like to formally offer £230k.

We just said no. We now have an offer accepted on a flat at £250k.

maninthestreet

lee636 wrote: »

It happened to us too, we second viewed a place after speaking to the EA's mortgage adviser. We said we'd look to offer around £230k after being told that they wouldnt go below £235k (on for £245k). The broker previously told us that two people had offered £230k and been turned down.

I told the EA im not keen on the road as much as others but the flat is really nice. We didnt put a formal offer in and just left it as we wouldnt go above £230k so no point formally offering that.

Around 2 weeks later a call from the EA confirmed what i thought, the broker was in cohort with the EA (obviously i hear you say!) and confirmed to him we could actually afford above £230k - but the other two offers had 'fallen through', would we like to formally offer £230k.

We just said no. We now have an offer accepted on a flat at £250k.

So you should have bought the other flat for £230K, and saved yourself £20K??

Blondeclaire37

I do really want this place and the other offer is still 5k less than the asking price, 10k less than the original asking price. Should I offer say £500 less than this other offer pushing the fact I'm a ftb? The max I can do is £1 more than this offer!

lee636

maninthestreet wrote: »

So you should have bought the other flat for £230K, and saved yourself £20K??

The place we are buying now has an extra 150-200sqft of space and is overall in a perfect road both for us now and the future selling point.

I was just saying that we didnt get too worried by what the EA said and something better came along.

The price for us was irrelevant, we had £250k to buy with and weve used it and got a fantastic place.