hoew truthful are Estate Agents?

Surrey_EA

HiToAll wrote: »

Good wind up thread. How honest is an estate agent? Possibly, slightly less so than Robert Maxwell.

Rather like solicitors, mortgage brokers, surveyors, financial advisers, there will always be some good ones, some average ones and some absolutely awful ones.

EAs are not part of some homogeneous group, that all behave in exactly the same way.

bmthmark

Do not trust them in anyway at all.
If they said someone else has put an offer in above yours. It probably means the seller has said they want more money or the estate agent can clearly see you really want the property so are trying their luck.

I've bought and sold a few times and my advice is do not get involved with any game playing.
If the estate agent says another person is interested and have put an offer in on a property you are interested in, I would just tell the estate agent you are not interested and look elsewhere, they are more than likely to back track and say that the other person has pulled out.
I remember when I was selling my last house the estate agent was trying to push me the sale quickly, I mean really quickly like few weeks. We hadn't even found a place to buy. A tactic they tried to use was that the buyer had a mortgage in principle but it runs out in a few weeks. They were hoping for me to panic and push things along, but they were shocked when I told them I wasn't that bothered if I didn't sell and if they keep pushing I will withdraw the sale of my property. The estate agent was in shock and completely back tracked and made out they made a mistake on the dates lol. They didn't bother me after that and we sold about 8/9 weeks later with no issues.

Just remember they want the sale to go through as soon as possible and they will do anything to get it. But be prepared to walk away, do not let emotions get in the way. Do not let them bully you.
Good luck

kingstreet

Between 1995 and 2001 I worked for several smaller EA firms in Staffordshire and I never heard of one of them inventing offers.

They simply took the offer made, put it forward to the vendor and passed the result back to the potential purchaser with the vendor's comments.

All they wanted to do was get a sale for their client. The levels of subterfuge which may go on now in some parts of the country aren't practiced everywhere otherwise we'd hear about it from our clients.

FitzWilliams

I use to work at an estate agent where the owner would come in and fire people on the spot for not selling enough. It was a god eat dog environment where other sales negotiators use to put your sale in their name right before it was approved. I would have to call people up to 8 pm asking if they wanted to view a property even though they were begging me to remove their name from our records. If you sold a ton of houses but didn't hit the £300 commission threshold then you wouldn't be paid anything on the sales you made. If you weren't making the company a certain amount in sales figures every 3 months you would be fired. I could see how in that kind of environment imaginary buyers could be created.

upoiupou

What sense do you have about the asking price and how desirable the house is? For example, has it been on the market long, does it seem like a very reasonable asking price for the house and the area, are you aware first hand of many other viewings taking place (eg if you attended an open house there and saw other viewers).

If you think that even at a higher offer price the house is a good buy generally, and a good buy for you, then I'd consider making one more offer but making it final.

Whether you do that, or keep to your existing offer, I'd list to the agent all the reasons you're a good buyer. I would also arrange to see some other properties, preferably through the same estate agent, and make it clear that you're quite willing to walk away from this offer if it isn't accepted and the house taken off the market and closed to any other offers. (Then check online that that's been done.)

phoebe1989seb

Brock_and_Roll wrote: »

Really? Then you are very, very naïve as it happens all the time!

Agreed. With four out of the last five houses (the other was a private sale) we've purchased in various parts of the country (Hampshire, Essex, Wiltshire, Staffordshire) over the past twenty-odd years, the EA concerned has told us there was a higher offer on the table/other interested party. That doesn't take into account several others we offered on but decided not to proceed with Many of them had been sitting on the market for months - in one case, years - so it seems extremely strange that another buyer would appear at the same time. Call me sceptical, but I always smell bull **** when EAs trot this line out.....

anotheruser

Surrey_EA wrote: »

I find it difficult to believe that it is incredibly common for an EA to invent another offer, and risk losing a genuine potential buyer. An extra £10,000 means £100 to the firm, and £10 to the individual. It's not exactly worth the risk, hassle and aggravation.

There's no risk at all.

If the house buyer decided to walk away, the Estate Agent simply needs to go back to them a few days later and say the seller will accept their first offer.

If you think Estate Agents are honest, you should speak to ours. They've played us - we should have walked away and let them stew for a few days.

Surrey_EA

anotheruser wrote: »

There's no risk at all.

If the house buyer decided to walk away, the Estate Agent simply needs to go back to them a few days later and say the seller will accept their first offer.

If you think Estate Agents are honest, you should speak to ours. They've played us - we should have walked away and let them stew for a few days.

What if during that few days the genuine buyer has had an offer accepted elsewhere?

As I mentioned in an earlier post it would be a breach of the Estate Agents Act of 1979 for an EA to invent an offer. If you had suspicions that this happened to in your case I would urge you to report the EA in question to Trading Standards. If more people did this then the bad apples would begin to be removed from the industry.

It's something of a myth that the EA business is unregulated. There's plenty of regulation, it's just ineffectively applied.

csgohan4

Surrey_EA wrote: »

What if during that few days the genuine buyer has had an offer accepted elsewhere?

As I mentioned in an earlier post it would be a breach of the Estate Agents Act of 1979 for an EA to invent an offer. If you had suspicions that this happened to in your case I would urge you to report the EA in question to Trading Standards. If more people did this then the bad apples would begin to be removed from the industry.

It's something of a myth that the EA business is unregulated. There's plenty of regulation, it's just ineffectively applied.

Bare in mind it is difficult to prove with EA putting their offers via telephone only if at all. So you won't be able to prove anything unless you had something in writing or recorded their phone calls.


The EA could still deny it and say it was a rogue employee.


Your approach doesn't take into account of the real world approach and your continued stance that EA are all angels and trustworthy will not cut it with the vast majority of posters on here, who have seen first hand their tactics.

Surrey_EA

csgohan4 wrote: »

your continued stance that EA are all angels and trustworthy

Now, I've hardly said that have I? Would you like to direct me to the particular post where I've claimed such a thing?

I don't doubt it happens on occasion, but my point is that I do not believe it is anywhere near as common as some are claiming, for the reasons I have already outlined.

csgohan4 wrote: »

Bare in mind it is difficult to prove with EA putting their offers via telephone only if at all. So you won't be able to prove anything unless you had something in writing or recorded their phone calls.

The EA could still deny it and say it was a rogue employee.

Your approach doesn't take into account of the real world approach and your continued stance that EA are all angels and trustworthy will not cut it with the vast majority of posters on here, who have seen first hand their tactics.

So now we're moving from offers being invented to genuine offers not even been put to sellers. It's going to make it a little harder for an EA to sell a house when they won't inform the seller about an offer from a prospective buyer, wouldn't you say?

There is just a chance that in over twenty years, dealing with thousands of house sales that I have a reasonable of amount of experience and know what goes on in the real world, and have seen tactics first hand. Based on that experience it is my belief that whilst some EAs will have invented offers it is not as common an event as some have been suggesting. A view that is shared by others on this very thread.

When you have any industry that has tens of thousands of people employed within it, you will get some that are very good, some that are average, some that are awful, and hopefully only a relatively small percentage that are lying little 5hits.