Do EAs make up 'offers'?

Windsorcastle

spunko2010 wrote: »

Of course they sometimes lie, but you don't mention how much the price is. £10k more on a £600k house isn't much in terms of the % that the agent gets as commission. Would they risk losing a sale for £50...?.

The properties are both on for around 350k. My suspicion is more that, because these 2 flats have only just come on the market, that the EA can see there is interest so is stalling with these 'offers' in order to hold out for something better. But as you say, there's no way of knowing, which is really frustrating. There really needs to be more transparency when buying and selling property.

JencParker

Windsorcastle wrote: »

The properties are both on for around 350k. My suspicion is more that, because these 2 flats have only just come on the market, that the EA can see there is interest so is stalling with these 'offers' in order to hold out for something better. But as you say, there's no way of knowing, which is really frustrating. There really needs to be more transparency when buying and selling property.

Of course, it could be the buyers stalling. Why do you think they should accept 10K under asking price. The estate agent is working for the vendor not the buyer.

ManuelG

Do they make it up? Suspect some do. Suspicious about mine, that had been sat on the market for a fair while but had someone interested when I was. Where were they for the previous year?

Anyway, I'd take the 'other' out of the equation. In effect what the agent has told you is the seller won't accept your initial offer, but here's a ball park figure of what they will. I'm guessing as you offered that, it's worth it to you, in which case both you and the seller have reached a figure you're happy with.

I'd always, always take out the 'rush' of a rival though. If they end up offering more than I'm willing then so be it, they clearly wanted a house more than me. And if they don't exist after that? Well, the seller might have lost a buyer. It's the chance they take.

Old_Git

When I bought two years ago I put in an offer .A month later the agent told me someone had offered £1000 more than me .I increased my offer by £2000 and got the house .The owners daughter told me they never heard of another bidder or another offer .

Windsorcastle

JencParker wrote: »

Of course, it could be the buyers stalling. Why do you think they should accept 10K under asking price. The estate agent is working for the vendor not the buyer.

The EA says it's a company selling it, and it has to be passed through several people to get a decision on offers. However it's not probate or repo so I have no idea what sort of company it might be. Not an individual private seller though...

Landofwood

Old_Git wrote: »

When I bought two years ago I put in an offer .A month later the agent told me someone had offered £1000 more than me .I increased my offer by £2000 and got the house .The owners daughter told me they never heard of another bidder or another offer .

They must have been very grateful when you randomly decided to give them an extra £2k!

Nice made up story.

Old_Git

Landofwood wrote: »

They must have been very grateful when you randomly decided to give them an extra £2k!

Nice made up story.

excuse me its not made up

SG27

I made an offer on a house a few years ago which was on with two agents. I was told that a higher offer had just been received by the other agent. The house had been on the market around a year so I thought it strange that two offers suddenly appeared at once so I called the other agent to 'enquire' and he told me they had not received any offers. I didn't up my offer.

So yes they do lie

PixelPound

EA's obviously want to maximise their profit, but I bet they have sales targets too, so squeezing for the extra few thousand whilst only getting them an extra tenner or so will be going towards their target. Having houses that go on or over the asking price will help them get new business (if an EA values your house at a pleasing amount but also says the majority of their sales go for at least the asking price, you are more likely to use them to sell your house).

There will be plenty of people with anecdotes of EA's having mysterious bidders. I suppose they could be genuine, but not all. There was the repo I looked at, EA told me two stories by different reps (that they'd had no offers and then lots of similar offers to my low amount (10% under asking), that had all been rejected), I got an offer £2k under accepted, had a good rapport with the EA woman until her boss the lead sales person took over and informed me of another offer and I had to up it to just over asking price, which I did. I ended up having to pull out for mortgage reasons, and seemingly that other bidder was no longer around. It eventually sold to a developer only after a price reduction of almost 15%.

There is emotion attached to house buying and EA's probably know when they can push. Also once the process is under way they know the buyer has made a commitment and some financial investment so can be squeezed for a bit more. How many would have the determination to refuse paying the couple of extra thousand and risk losing what they'd paid for solicitors and surveys.

Landofwood

Old_Git wrote: »

excuse me its not made up

OK buddy, I must be mistaken