Estate agent selling tactics

lynzpower

My understanding is that you are not to tell anyone what the other offers have been however you can say

"there have been offers at asking price"
there have been offers around the AP"
there have been offers under the AP, that the vendor has not accepted as yet.

I didnt think EAs could legally say there was an offer of 249000 but the vendor wants 250 - courtjester , is this right?

silvercar

But sealed bids shouldn't be opened until the closing time, so how would the agent know what the bids were?

lynzpower

silvercar wrote: »

But sealed bids shouldn't be opened until the closing time, so how would the agent know what the bids were?

no thats not what I meant, I meant in GENERAL, ie say you are selling your house for 300k, Im your Ea and Im showing someone round, I didnt think I could say anything about the offers apart from vague in and around comments. as above

In terms of sealed bids, surely, everyones bid is going to be asking price or over. So its fair to assume that if you are invited into sealed bids then other people have offered AP as well. What other peoples bids are, of course, shouldnt be known until the time the bids are read. Even afterwards, competing buyers should not be told of what other peoples bids are/ were. just to say, you are unsuccessful.

suffice to say,that if one is interrested check out nethouseprices a few motnhs later and you will see what the winning bidder paid

reformedspender

lynzpower wrote: »

no thats not what I meant, I meant in GENERAL, ie say you are selling your house for 300k, Im your Ea and Im showing someone round, I didnt think I could say anything about the offers apart from vague in and around comments. as above

In terms of sealed bids, surely, everyones bid is going to be asking price or over. So its fair to assume that if you are invited into sealed bids then other people have offered AP as well. What other peoples bids are, of course, shouldnt be known until the time the bids are read. Even afterwards, competing buyers should not be told of what other peoples bids are/ were. just to say, you are unsuccessful.

suffice to say,that if one is interrested check out nethouseprices a few motnhs later and you will see what the winning bidder paid

I've never had an estate agent tell me what other offers have been either, which is why I'm so suspicious of this guy.

Are there any rules stopping estate agents revealling what bids are to potential buyers or is it simply a tactic to ensure houses go for their maximum value? I'm guessing the latter?