Estate agent selling tactics

reformedspender

Has anyone else come across this tactic, or have we just been unlucky?

A couple of weeks ago we tried to buy a house at the full asking price. There and then, when we were still at the property, we offered the full asking price but so did other people viewing the property at the same time so it went to sealed bids and eventually sold for £20K over the asking price (there were three bids in the end). Needless to say, we didn't get it.

Last week we viewed another place (same estate agents) and again put in an offer at the full asking price straight after the viewing. The estate agent rang us back saying that because they had lots of viewings they were 'morally obliged' to let them see the property as well. Although we were tempted to tell them to shove our offer we left it on the table and went to have another look around over the weekend. The person showing us around didn't know that we were the people who'd put in the offer and merrily told us that there was an offer on the table and that if we wanted it we had to go above the asking price - in other words our original offer has been used as a bargaining tool.

Surprise surprise, after a weekend's viewings, bids have gone in significantly above our original offer and we're now having to up the offer we've made if we want the house.

It's almost as though a new way of selling houses has evolved where sales eventually become an auction and the 'guide price' bears little resemblence to the market value of the property.

God, buying a house is miserable and stressful experience.

courtjester

There's nothing new here, it's simply supply and demand.

Where property has a lot of interest, it will naturally go to the highest bidder. An asking price is only a general indication and all property sales have the potential to become auctions if many buyers all want the same property - it's a wonderful situation for a vendor to be in, but entirely legal and normal.

It looks like there was simply some misunderstanding due to mis-communication as regards being told to outbid your own offer, but that sounds like an honest mistake - if there had not been other bids, you might have had cause for complaint if you were not informed of the error eventually.

Making an offer on a property is not legally binding in the UK (unfortunately) and this is the cause of many of the ills of the buying and selling process we have.

tonydee

Maybe the way to go is a full asking price offer subject to the house being taken off the market. Of course the vendor may refuse this if they know more interest is abound.

spunkeyrich

Sounds like a very healthy area to sell in and a bad place to buy in. Some agents would put on the details 'offers over'. Sealed bids is the usual way of dealing with multiple offers, although they still are not legally binding.

rich

reformedspender

The second house has now gone to sealed bids too, unfortunately. The Estate Agent tells me that there have been 11 bids in total, the highest being £15,500 over the asking price. Not sure if we'll put in a sealed bid or not. Part of me wants to tell them to shove it, but it would be a bit like cutting off my nose to spite my face.

Tonydee, we tried getting the estate agent to take the place off the market but they refused - even though we'd offered full asking price. I think they knew exactly this situation would happen.

Rich, it must be a very healthy area (Oxfordshire) as there seems to be a buying frenzy at the moment.

courtjester

err... that's not sealed bids if the agent is telling you what is in the bid's received so far is it ??

I'd be rather wary of anything this agent is telling you, particularly if they are inviting bids and specifying you need to go higher than a certain amount.....

Horasio

This is the norm in Scotland

arnie&caseysma!

I read of a woman who in the past had bought evey house she ever wanted by offering a certain % above the asking price directly to the sellers face, take it or leave it and made it clear that they would not get another offer from them should it go to a closing date.

My sister has just bought a house on this basis also (just before the robbing estate agent got there), she gave the a price, got a verbal acceptance and had the conveyancers put it in writing within the hour for immediate acceptance. She got the house and the EA didn't get anything!!!!

spunkeyrich

you dont know if the estate agent didnt get anything. sounds like they got a claim if your sister viewed through them, which they may pursue in time. However good luck to your sister as its not her problem.

rich

arnie&caseysma!

Nope, they get nothing as the EA hadn't advertised it (not even taken the photographs) and sister heard about it as they had been trying to sell privately before getting him involved. They basically struck lucky as had he got there first the price would have been inflated like he does with every other house in the town (so he gets more money in commission) and the seller might have struggled to sell at the higher price when they have already had an offer accepted on another property.

reformedspender

courtjester wrote: »

err... that's not sealed bids if the agent is telling you what is in the bid's received so far is it ??

I'd be rather wary of anything this agent is telling you, particularly if they are inviting bids and specifying you need to go higher than a certain amount.....

I'm wary of trusting him too, but it's a great house so we're in a real dilemma.

I think the reason he told us the highest bid so far was because initially the property wasn't (allegedly) supposed to be going to be sold by sealed bids at all but just by verbal bids. I'm sure he's told all the other bidders the highest offer so far too. But, as I say, I suspect the whole thing has been engineered this way as the same process has happened to us before with the same estate agent.