Offer accepted... but...

botchjob

Why does everyone seem to think that agents invent other buyers and offers out of thin air? I'm sure some low-end agents do but it's just not in their interests to risk losing a sale with a bare faced lie.

We made a 'first and best' offer on somewhere last year and, after the agent had gone away and done some nifty footwork, found ourselves up against two other buyers. The agent went to best bids, whereupon we repeated our original offer. In the end all 3 offers matched and the agent tried to take it to a contract race. We declined and took ourself out of the picture. One month later a better place in a better location came on the market and we're now living there.

Agents have a job to do and that job involves turning around as many properties as possible in as short a time as possible. Do people seriously think they'd risk losing a sale with an invented offer in order to achieve a few thousand pounds on the sale price? Do the math. Even at a hefty 2% commission, an agents share is £20 for every £1000 on the sale price.

When making an offer it's kinda important to be level headed about it, rather than paranoid. If push comes to shove make your best offer and stick to it. Leave the tin-foil hat brigade to tell you you've been played like a violin...

JuniorSherlock

The reason they agent asked about your financial situation is that many EAs will not now show people around properties unless they have a mortgage offer in place. There are many offers falling through because people presume they will get a mortgage and they can't, so the EAs are tightening the rules. Nothing untoward there.

They may or may not be pulling a fast one. I would be hesitant with advice from a forum. I've asked something similar in the past and had EVERYONE tell me about how we'd been conned, how they had pulled a fast one etc and I got so annoyed that I confronted the agent. It turned out I had to eat humble pie. If the EA was having you on then it was a dangerous game as you could have pulled out and they could have lost a sale.

You are entitled to ask for the sellers details, this is fairly common and it makes sense anyway to have their number. You can then ask about any offers made at the same time as yours.

Just be wary of jumping to conclusions. If you want the house, then you should always be prepared to go up to your highest bid. You can always re-negotiate once the surveyor has been if you feel hard done by.

acg83

JuniorSherlock wrote: »

The reason they agent asked about your financial situation is that many EAs will not now show people around properties unless they have a mortgage offer in place. There are many offers falling through because people presume they will get a mortgage and they can't, so the EAs are tightening the rules. Nothing untoward there.

They may or may not be pulling a fast one. I would be hesitant with advice from a forum. I've asked something similar in the past and had EVERYONE tell me about how we'd been conned, how they had pulled a fast one etc and I got so annoyed that I confronted the agent. It turned out I had to eat humble pie. If the EA was having you on then it was a dangerous game as you could have pulled out and they could have lost a sale.

You are entitled to ask for the sellers details, this is fairly common and it makes sense anyway to have their number. You can then ask about any offers made at the same time as yours.

Just be wary of jumping to conclusions. If you want the house, then you should always be prepared to go up to your highest bid. You can always re-negotiate once the surveyor has been if you feel hard done by.

I am wary of jumping to conclusions which is why I am here asking for opinions rather than calling the agent and making any sort of demands.

As I said, it's a niggling doubt in the back of my mind because I'm a little annoyed that I didn't get the deal I wanted and because I've not done this before. However, I'm in pole position to get the house I want and I'll take the good advice that's been offered on here and by friends and see if I can improve the deal later on.

chewmylegoff

botchjob wrote: »

Why does everyone seem to think that agents invent other buyers and offers out of thin air? I'm sure some low-end agents do but it's just not in their interests to risk losing a sale with a bare faced lie.

i have no doubt that agents invent buyers, because every single time i have put an offer in on a property, regardless of how long the property has been sitting on the market unsold, i have always been told there is a competing bidder.

i presume the reason they do it is because the seller has refused the offer, and they find that buyers tend to increase their offers by more when they believe that they are in competition for the property. i.e. they're not doing it to try to get £20 more in their pockets, they're doing it because there will be no sale without an increased offer.

the opening post of this thread is evidence that the practice works, particularly on ftbs.

hazyjo

botchjob wrote: »

Why does everyone seem to think that agents invent other buyers and offers out of thin air? I'm sure some low-end agents do but it's just not in their interests to risk losing a sale with a bare faced lie.

It's the strange way the offers all seem to appear at the same time. Bit like buses - 3 turn up at once.

Sometimes these properties have been on the market for ages, and you put an offer forward, and the EA says there's another interested party, or that someone else has put in an offer. So why didn't the vendors accept an offer? That's the bit that doesn't ring true. Yes, some do lie, but some just stretch the truth - and maybe that 'interested party' isn't actually someone who's in a position to proceed with the purchase.

I appreciate a lot of properties are hanging around on the market for ages and that doesn't necessarily mean that people aren't trying to buy them, just that it's a Catch-22 situation and maybe they can't sell their property, or maybe there are other finaincial reasons why they're not in a position to actually make an offer. I believe a lot of EAs are either giving it a load of Billy BS or keeping every last drop of interest on their books and quoting it every time someone puts an offer in.

We've had it too on many properties. Been told other people are very interested, or considering making offers - and how we should get in first to get it off the market. Those houses are either still on the market now, a year later, or they've been dropped by several tens of thousands to sell (some sold, some still for sale).

You just have to do what's right for you. Eventually put forward a best and final bid - making it clear that's what it is, and walk away.

Jx

Qualcuno

Perhaps you could tell the EA that another identical house has come on the market, for exactly the same price, and you can't choose between them...

botchjob

chewmylegoff wrote: »

i have no doubt that agents invent buyers, because every single time i have put an offer in on a property, regardless of how long the property has been sitting on the market unsold, i have always been told there is a competing bidder.

Yes but it's up to the prospective buyer to be sharp enough to cut through the sales patter and bluster. If the only other offer an agent has received is 50% below the asking price, they can still dress it up as a ‘competing bid’ in an attempt to put some heat under it. That’s their job and is completely fair and proper.

Patter and bluster are one thing but an outright and specific lie about a non-existent bid is another. And I just don’t believe it happens on a regular basis. They wouldn’t stay in business long and it’s not in their own selfish interests. They really don’t care that much if they sell somewhere for £300k or £280k as the difference in the personal commission to the individual agent will be negligible. Away from the posh postcodes, most agents commission and livelihood comes through selling volume.

chewmylegoff

botchjob wrote: »

Yes but it's up to the prospective buyer to be sharp enough to cut through the sales patter and bluster. If the only other offer an agent has received is 50% below the asking price, they can still dress it up as a ‘competing bid’ in an attempt to put some heat under it. That’s their job and is completely fair and proper.

yes caveat emptor applies, but i'm not sure that makes it "completely fair and proper" for a salesman to make stuff up (which includes deliberately misrepresenting the facts relating to a previously rejected bid, or as you term it "sales patter and bluster"), although you are of course correct that it is their job...

astronut

Just to add a little balance, I have sold my house (exchanged today!). It was on the market for months, sold twice and fell through twice(mortgage issues both times), then along came 3 (yes, 3) people who made offers in the same week. The agent did his job and after accepting offers £20k below asking twice, I ended up with the asking price. I'm happy, they're happy(!), the agent's happy...and we complete next week.

acg83

astronut wrote: »

Just to add a little balance, I have sold my house (exchanged today!). It was on the market for months, sold twice and fell through twice(mortgage issues both times), then along came 3 (yes, 3) people who made offers in the same week. The agent did his job and after accepting offers £20k below asking twice, I ended up with the asking price. I'm happy, they're happy(!), the agent's happy...and we complete next week.

Congratulations on finally selling your home, I can appreciate your previous frustrations.

However, I don't think your situation is comparible to the one here as mortgage falling through is an effect of the estate agent/vendor pushing and pushing on the bids as well as the issue of whether or not there was a rival bidder. If anything, pushing the price up and up can only really increase the risk of sales falling through.

Say they had accepted an offer £20k under asking, then there'd be a lot less risk involved because I would have had more contingency for anything raised in the survey. Having been pushed on the asking price, my contingency is greatly reduced and so any money needing to be spent as a result of the survey will have to be found through a reduction in the offer price. Given how insensitive the absolute deposit amount is to the purchase price for a given LTV, any significant expense will require a significant drop in offer price.