Estate agent telling me an offer is made on house I've viewed

Goldust

Hi,

I've looked at several houses and I'm ready to buy.

Now I saw a house I liked on Tuesday and then went on holiday on Wednesday so I sent my parents round to take a look.

The Estate Agent told them (and has told me now I'm back) that the people who viewed it after my folks have offered asking price for it. I wasn't sure they could do this as I asked them how much someone has offered for another property under offer last week and they said they were unable to say.

I do have one more house that I want to see but it's a fair bit more expensive than this one and I do think it's worth around the asking price but I don't really want to start a bidding war or pay over the asking price.

I'm a FTB and good to go - there is no chain on this property so think I would have a good chance but not sure if I just should walk away as someone else has already offered. Any advise would be much appreciated

LP84

Depends how you would feel if someone did it to you . Have they got surveys done etc?

Goldust

No, no surveys yet the offer was only put in on Saturday.

How can I be sure the Estate Agent is telling the truth though? Could be a ruse to get more money out of me...

Property_Auctions

Agents are able to say if the asking price has been offered but not to disclose lower offer amounts.

They are legally bound to submit any offer made to the vendor even after somebody has offered the asking price - Not something I personally condone though.

MrRee_2

Property is selling fast in some areas .... I would guess it's true.

Walk away from this one, but be prepared to offer asking next time if you think it's worth it.

Goldust

Cheers all - I didn't really want to jump in there but it felt like the EA was encouraging me too so I wasn't sure if they were just trying to drive the price up

MrRee_2

If you are in the South things are selling briskly at asking prices (or above for good properties).

Aberdeenangarse

MrRee wrote: »

If you are in the South things are selling briskly at asking prices (or above for good properties).

No they're not, take Maidstone as an example

SecondLegDownIsTheBigOne

Walk away, tell the EA to call you when the sale falls through.

Caveat_Mortgagor

Whatever you do, do not get into a bidding war.

Thats what happens in a climbing market. Politely tell the agent you wish the vendor and buyer well, and move on.

If the agent was bluffing, you will know soon enough. If not, so what? You only need to buy one house. You will miss out on some, as its not worht driving the price up with competing bids. You will get the house you want at the price you want eventually.

Sugared-frog

Offer what you think is reasonable for that house ... all you know is that that they have offered that amount ... you don't know if they are actually proceed-able. Though if they have offered the full amount and still have a house to sell, then the seller may have had his expectations inflated a little. We offered a couple of times on a house, and each time were told that there had been higher offers who had yet to sell their house - so we moved on from that house - that was back in June/July and that house has only just gone SSTC this week. I will definitely be checking the LR details when the sale finally goes through. Has the agent told you the offer has been accepted? If it has and it was me, I'd then move on to viewing the next house.