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First Time Buyer - Estate Agent Tactics
whywhywhy2015
Posts: 3 Newbie
We are first time buyers. We recently put it in an offer on a property where there was an open house (around 20 people were there at once) and sealed bid scenario.
We submitted our best and final offer which was 4k over the asking price. The house is a refurb and is a probate sale but is in a desirable area.
We have been told there are 9 other offers (not sure if it's true) we submitted our offer on Wednesday and we received a call on Friday saying that due to the level of interest the buyer now wants £165k which is 3.5k more than we offered.
The estate agent is apparently ringing around everyone who has put in an offer to see if they are willing to offer that much. The estate agent also stated that they were annoyed with the sellers and that the sellers have said they might re-list the property at £165k if no one will match it.
We have no idea if we are bidding against ourselves. I think our offer is strong since we are only 3.5k away. We really want the house but don't think we are willing to offer more.
I'm not sure if the estate agent is lying to us to get us to panic and increase our offer - am I right to feel cynical?
We submitted our best and final offer which was 4k over the asking price. The house is a refurb and is a probate sale but is in a desirable area.
We have been told there are 9 other offers (not sure if it's true) we submitted our offer on Wednesday and we received a call on Friday saying that due to the level of interest the buyer now wants £165k which is 3.5k more than we offered.
The estate agent is apparently ringing around everyone who has put in an offer to see if they are willing to offer that much. The estate agent also stated that they were annoyed with the sellers and that the sellers have said they might re-list the property at £165k if no one will match it.
We have no idea if we are bidding against ourselves. I think our offer is strong since we are only 3.5k away. We really want the house but don't think we are willing to offer more.
I'm not sure if the estate agent is lying to us to get us to panic and increase our offer - am I right to feel cynical?
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Comments
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Unless you really really want the house, leave your offer as it is. The vendors sound like complete !!!!s. This doesn't sound right. 9 offers. If it was worth £165K, they'd have been offered it. To be honest, I'd probably retract my offer at this point, as I'd not want to go through exchange and completion with these guys."Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance" - Confucius0
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Although i'd be more likely to believe the other offers were genuine if there were 20 people viewing at the same time, i'd second kinger's advice.0
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Which means this is likely to be treated as a newbuild, leaving you needing a higher deposit, perhaps 20%.whywhywhy2015 wrote: »The house is a refurb
Check with your chosen lender.I am a mortgage broker. You should note that this site doesn't check my status as a Mortgage Adviser, so you need to take my word for it. This signature is here as I follow MSE's Mortgage Adviser Code of Conduct. Any posts on here are for information and discussion purposes only and shouldn't be seen as financial advice. Please do not send PMs asking for one-to-one-advice, or representation.0 -
I wouldn't be surprised if it is indeed the vendors being a bit greedy. The estate agent has done a good job, got lots of viewings, offers, best and finals etc. He has sold it for them. Now they have moved the goalposts and I bet he is really annoyed with them. But he has got to follow their instructions now they have changed their mind.
Probably everyone else is thinking the same as you.
How special is this house? Could you risk leaving it and seeing what happens? Would you find something else easily if you lost out on it, or is it worth the extra to you? If you did offer it would you then find yourself in the same position with higher price - sealed bids again to push the price up even higher?
Do they actually want to sell, or are they just messing about? Have they found something to move to (keen to sell NOW) or are they just looking (open ended, could go on forever, could be taken off the market when they fail to find something)0 -
Don't offer more than what you are happy with. Fair enough for the vendor to go for best offers but to them still want more is being greedy IMO.0
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It's pretty much common practise for them do pull such tactics. They did it to me, and I just laughed and said that was my offer and not a penny more. Supposedly there were "other offers". Funnily enough mine was accepted.
Slimy people0 -
Thankyou to everyone that responded.
We refused to offer more but unfortunately another 'bidder' agreed to the 160k so we ended up losing out.
The house needed fully refurbishing - rewire, central heating etc so it just wasn't worth the extra money to us.
Back to the drawing board!0 -
It is not likely that this was an estate agent game. It is a very awkward way to create a phantom bidder (the whole point of which is that it is not simply the vendor asking for more money, which this is).0
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Hi,
You said:
Which makes your offer 161.5k.whywhywhy2015 wrote: »...we received a call on Friday saying that due to the level of interest the buyer now wants £165k which is 3.5k more than we offered.
And now:whywhywhy2015 wrote: »...but unfortunately another 'bidder' agreed to the 160k so we ended up losing out.
So why did you lose out (or did you retract your offer)?
Just curious
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