advice on games that estate agents play please for ftb

olly300

slosher wrote: »

Thanks Bonny, I do hate the to be pushed x

One thing to remember is however much you have set your heart on a house it's not yours until contracts have exchanged.

So if the survey (and don't just get a valuation survey) shows lots of faults and you can't negotiate a reduction pull out.

Chinkle

Tell the EA you don't want to compete with another buyer for the property, so won't be making an offer. Then sit back and see what happens. If the other buyer isn't genuine - I would expect you will hear back from the EA in a few days/weeks to say its fallen through. Then at that time go in with a lower offer.

mcc100

Estate agency seems to be the only profession where it is acceptable to tell outright lies.

Numerous posts on here refer to underhand tactics by estate agents.

Why are they allowed to get away with it?

Their lies can cost potential buyers considerable amounts of money yet it is just seen as part of the house buying process.

Any of the estate agents who post on here care to comment?

betmunch

EA's do whatever they can to get a higher price for the property. If it costs a BUYER a few thousand quid extra then they have done a good job and should be congratulated, not complained about.

A lot of people on here seem to think that EA's are bad because they want to push a price up. This is not the case, they work for the Vendor, they will always do what they think is best for the Vendor of the property.

Has any here ever seen a post from a Vendor unhappy that their EA lieed to a buyer and got a higher offer out of them because of it?

mcc100

I doubt whether vendors are even aware that the estate agent has lied to potential buyers.

slosher

Thank you everyone for all of your great advice, I am waiting to see if the EA phones me tomorrow to tell me the firm deal is not so firm, so will see if they are telling the truth.
It is such a shame that they behave so badley, on the plus I have had some great advice from an EA from Stratton Creber so wont tar every EA as a lying toe rag lol
xxx

westlondonbuyer

mcc100 wrote: »

I doubt whether vendors are even aware that the estate agent has lied to potential buyers.

I think most vendors would be *horrified* if they knew of the sorts of fibs their agents are telling prospective buyers.

I've lost count of the number of times, for example, that an agent has told me "They've already received an offer which they're considering" the second I've walked through the front door.

I always lose interest in the house immediately, because I'm not interested in a bidding competition.

chambta

I'm perfectly happy for my EA to lie to potential buyers.

Indeed if a low offer comes in from someone in a position to buy I'll encourage it to make it seem other offers are on the table.

westlondonbuyer

As they say, it's easy to tell when an estate agent is telling lies, because their lips move.

If you've had an offer, no matter how low, the EA is not fibbing. The fact that they're still prepared to show you the property after an offer has been received indicates to the buyer that it's probably not a very good one, however.

Hailstorm

I wonder how many offers vendors have missed out on due to EAs pretending there is a higher offer. Vendors would never know when it happens so they will never complain about it.

I think that happened when I was having some second viewings prior to making an offer. On one of the viewings I had the following conversation with the EA.

EA: There has been an offer for the full asking price but before accepting it the vendors wanted you to see the property again as you are chain free.

Me: I was potentially interested but at nowhere near the asking price. I have looked and sold prices for the immediate area and the asking price looks very optimistic. I noticed that larger houses in this street have sold recently for less then the asking price.

EA: Why not make an offer anyway. They may accept less as you are chain free.

Several days later the same EA phone me and asked if I was still interested. By this time I had had an offer accepted on another house. I told the EA so. I also told them that I thought making an offer on there place would have been a waste of time. If they had received an offer for the full asking price they would never have accepted what I think a fair offer would have been.