Is this a normal practice when putting an offer in?

Pandilex

Friend of mine found an amazing house, and they said someone put an offer in recently that was slightly below the price and was rejected, and that several other people are interested.

This to me, sounds potentially like your typical lies to make you pay more and faster.

The house really was amazing though, so he put an offer in for the asking price, the day after viewing it, and they said brilliant accepted.

Apparently today they said the offer isn't accepted because they have to contact all the other people who were interested to see if they want to put an offer in.

Is that even legal? Or honest? Is it just another scam so they can say 'Yeah another party has put in an extra 5k above your bid, do you want to raise yours' or something similar?

If anyone has any advice on this I would more than welcome it. I don't want him to get ripped off.

sirmosh

Even if they accepted your offer they could easily turn around and accept a higher off until contracts have been exchanged. That's just how buying a house works.

Plenty of people like to do things the right way and be very honest and so on but many don't/

bebewoo

Yes it's legal.
And it's perfectly normal for the estate agent to mess you about for ages like this until you either offer more or tell them that's your max (they won't believe you), or tell them to do one.

giddypenguin

I would be cautious about these people now. If they're not taking your offer seriously now, they might never. As no-one is bound until exchange, trust is a massive issue. Can you trust these vendors now?

artbaron

^ Exactly. I wouldn't trust these people and wouldn't do business with them. Like as not they'll mess around at the last minute and cost you £thousands.