Can an estate agent lie about a rival bid?

Horizon81

It's probably all lies but you never know. Sometimes they do tell the truth. I recently viewed a house and the agent said 'don't hang around if you're interested'. I arranged a second viewing a couple of days later as I was keen, along with another viewer but they sold it in the meantime. The vendor was seemingly keen to not hang about and must have got a price he was happy with.

But this house had just come up and was priced well so I believe the agent was being straight. If it had been for sale for months at the same price and suddenly 5 people were interested at once then i'd smell a rat.

skinnyman9000

I’ve literally started to view houses this week and I’m already convinced that EA’s just lie whenever they feel like it. I rang one up this morning to view a property over the weekend to be told I needed to ‘act fast’ because they’d had ‘substantial interest’ in that property, despite it being up since May 2011 with no alterations to the price/availability.

renegadejay

Hi,

I'm having trouble at the moment. It's my very first time making offers on a house and I'm already stressed to hell with it.

The house has been on the market since April 2013 and has already had one sale fall through. There have also been a few inconsistencies with what the branch manager is telling me. She has pulled the 'oh I was just about to ring you' trick and is now saying that someone has put in an offer for £90,000. She asked 'Can you go to £92,000?' to which i said 'No way, I 'd push to £88,00 but that's as far as I'll go' She then asked 'Well do you want me to put £88,000 as an offer anyways?' to which I thought, well why?. Since then she has said yet again that she will call me this morning...she hasn't. After reading the previous posts I feel like I shouldn't be contacting them and should be making them contact me.

Any thoughts?

Thank you

zxof

Similar situation here. We've seen about 6 houses so far and there are 2 houses that we like. Not long after we gave feedback to the EA about the house, he/she told me that they've received an offer for the house.

kwmlondon

Conrad wrote: »

Unlikelt. EAs never want to risk losing a buyer as this could mean thousands in comission lost whereas the gain say on an extra £10,000 would be about £200 commission, so not worth the risk.

In my experience EAs don't care how much a property sells for, they just want a sale at any price as quickly as possible. They won't want any messing about if they can avoid it, as a rule.

However, some may have arranged some kind of sliding scale, which isn't unheard of, but generally most EAs just want to get a property sold and the commission in hand and on to the next one. Why mess about over a couple of hundred quid, making calls, risking a sale, when they could wrap it up and be selling the next place, with the potential to make thousands.

I'm not saying they don't do it (clearly, people have experienced EAs making up bids etc.) but the process means it's not hugely in their interests.

geoffky

They are not here to look after you...They are a obstacle in the way of the sale and one day the scumbags will be sidelined...
I can not wait for that day,
Once individual people are allowed to advertise on a popular housing website then it will be the beginning of the end for them.
They bring nothing to the table...

kwmlondon

geoffky wrote: »

They are not here to look after you...They are a obstacle in the way of the sale and one day the scumbags will be sidelined...
I can not wait for that day,
Once individual people are allowed to advertise on a popular housing website then it will be the beginning of the end for them.
They bring nothing to the table...

Well... that's your experience.

In mine I've found EAs to be at worst slow. At best they've been invaluable in getting the process moving, dealing with issues and helping resolve the problems from the real pains IMO - conveyancers.

ALL of the problems in EVERY single sale I've experiences has some from the solicitors. I've had to fire one company due to incompetence.

I guess it all boils down to your own experience, but my EAs are pretty good and have been an asset more than a hindrance.

Mallotum_X

renegadejay wrote: »

Hi,

I'm having trouble at the moment. It's my very first time making offers on a house and I'm already stressed to hell with it.

The house has been on the market since April 2013 and has already had one sale fall through. There have also been a few inconsistencies with what the branch manager is telling me. She has pulled the 'oh I was just about to ring you' trick and is now saying that someone has put in an offer for £90,000. She asked 'Can you go to £92,000?' to which i said 'No way, I 'd push to £88,00 but that's as far as I'll go' She then asked 'Well do you want me to put £88,000 as an offer anyways?' to which I thought, well why?. Since then she has said yet again that she will call me this morning...she hasn't. After reading the previous posts I feel like I shouldn't be contacting them and should be making them contact me.

Any thoughts?

Thank you

She has just confirmed there is not an offer of £90k. Stick to your lower bid.

Propertyfan

I thought EAs were required to inform you of all other offers made on a property. As to how much detail they give, like the name/address of the other bidders, I guess not. They could be making it up.

You could chance your luck and say "please send me some proof of this other bidder." See what the EA do in response. You never know, they might try to show you proof of the other bidder. It might be worth trying this approach.

One thing I do know for certain - it's more or less a free-for-all selling/buying property. You, the buyer/seller, have to play just as tough as the EAs. If you have doubts over the EA's claims then challenge them (in a polite way). Just accepting all they say when you think it's bullsh*t isn't the right approach. I know that from my own experience. The EAs can be ruthless so you have to be too.

DKLS

Very common tactic by EAs, just like the local national chain car auctions. If you stand in the right place you can see people regularly bidding against the wall.