Is It Possible???

jqy

Hallo MSEs
Something has just occured to me, what is to prevent an estate agent from actually putting through your telephone offer, (you are not physically infront of the agent) you make on a property.
say the property is £100,000 and you put in an offer of £90,000, to start with by phone, the agent says they will talk to the vendor and get back to you, they then wait 10 min or so (Not actually calling the vendor, probably finger drumming on their desks) and saying the offer was rejected, to get you to put in a higher offer, i guess to get more for themselves????
Do you think am thinking too hard???
Opinions, experiences please share

Debt_Free_Chick

As in all walks of life, there are bound to be some rogues, so it can't simply be ruled out.

However, the Agent is acting for the seller and in order to do a proper job, he/she would have to tell the seller that there had been an offer. It's in most contracts that the Agent WILL inform the seller.

In my experience, having been a buyer & a seller on more than one occasion, I've never thought that the agents I've dealt with have been unscrupulous like this. If you try to build a relationship with the Agent, you can normally form a judgment as to whether you trust them, or not.

As a seller, when I was contacted with an offer, I asked the Agent whether they thought I should hold out for a higher offer - invariably, it was suggested that they ask if the buyer was prepared to go to £x, to secure the sale.

I don't think the practice you describe is widespread - just my view, based on my own experience

EdInvestor

The only situation in which I could see this happening is if the vendor has told the agent he doesn't want to be bothered with calls telling him about by offers he would definitely refuse under a certain amount.

And even then, it would be an unusual agent who didn't pass on an offer put persistently, even if it was below the specified amount.But the agent might try to ratchet it up a bit first.Agents after all don't want to annoy their client, the vendor, who might go off to another agent if he got sufficiently irritated.

But equally they want to encourage buyers.The more people going around trying it on with offers seen as silly, the more you could see such a situation arising. What would you do in a case like this?

jqy

Thanks editor,
That's encouraging, we now live in a world that can be viscious (especially if there is targets to be met???) and even things i would never have thought about are a possible now, either that or i am being paranoid. lets hope it never gets to that- cheers

nelly_2

I know for an absolute fact it happens.

A mate of mine offered 90 grand for his girlfriends uncles house (£100000 price tag) they said yes as it was family.

So he phoned the agents but didnt say he was family he just said I'll offer 90, they phoned back a bit later saying the offer was declined.

Confused thinking they had hanged their mind he phoned the uncle, who said he never had a call off them.

Estate agents are lazy scheming gits second only to lawyers.