Estate Agent Bluffing?

Lespaul1960

Just speaking from my own personal experience,whenever an estate agent has told me there is another offer on the property,it has turned out to be true!! As others have said though, just offer what you think it is worth to you.

diggingdude

If the estate agents lips are moving then they are most likely lying

akorn77

Thanks for all your responses. The general consensus looks clear! The EA suggested yesterday the vendor will accept £465k, but I'm thinking to start at £440k and hopefully end up somewhere in the middle.

cattie

akorn77 wrote: »

Thanks for all your responses. The general consensus looks clear! The EA suggested yesterday the vendor will accept £465k, but I'm thinking to start at £440k and hopefully end up somewhere in the middle.

But if the ea has told you what the vendor will accept, why would your risk annoying the vendor with a stupid low offer? You admit the property is a good price anyway & you love the flat, yet instead of trying to secure it for yourself you decide to ignore the given advice & play a bit of a game.

Estate agents will make extremely little commision on an increase of a few thousand £'s so it's hardly worth their effort to try to coax a little more out of a potential buyer.

If somebody else comes along at the same time & offers what the vendor is looking for how are you going to feel? If you get into a bidding war then you could end up having to pay close to the actual asking price of £475k to secure.

Simby

What do you think is a fair price? And what are you willing to pay?

You could offer low but it might be simpler if you think 465k a fair price to offer that.

Of course if you think a fair price is 450 offer that

akorn77

cattie wrote: »

But if the ea has told you what the vendor will accept, why would your risk annoying the vendor with a stupid low offer? You admit the property is a good price anyway & you love the flat, yet instead of trying to secure it for yourself you decide to ignore the given advice & play a bit of a game.

Estate agents will make extremely little commision on an increase of a few thousand £'s so it's hardly worth their effort to try to coax a little more out of a potential buyer. I could be wrong.

If somebody else comes along at the same time & offers what the vendor is looking for how are you going to feel? If you get into a bidding war then you could end up having to pay close to the actual asking price of £475k to secure.

You make a valid point. However, I wouldn't regard £440k as stupidly low, offer? Given that the vendor wants £465k as people often haggle and meet in the middle. I did also tell the EA my max budget is £500k so im almost certain he will try to coax more out of me.

Simby wrote: »

What do you think is a fair price? And what are you willing to pay?

You could offer low but it might be simpler if you think 465k a fair price to offer that.

Of course if you think a fair price is 450 offer that

I've spent the whole day trying to value it! I'd probably say £455k is a fair price for it, as it needs £10k of TLC.

Simby

Then my advise would be to offer 455 if that is what you judge fair and are prepared to pay.

When you make the offer explain that this is your final offer if that is genuinely your final offer.

Put it another way if you were to offer 455 and then got pushed to 465 would you feel you had overpaid.. if make it a final offer... if you are prepared to negotiate and be pushed up just make it as an offer

getmore4less

The EA is trying to get an offer out of you and is trying to get the first one as high as possible knowing you can go to £500k.

Sometimes you need to put the ball back in the EA court and back off a bit by talking the price down a bit and going quiet for a bit.

AdrianC

akorn77 wrote: »

Flat was originally listed at £500k in November. It was reduced last week to £475k. During the week, when I spoke to the EA he himself (I didnt ask) said they had a £450k rejected and today at the viewing he said they had a £460k rejected :undecided

When I asked him why it hadnt sold since November he said there was a buyer but the buyer pulled out. If the buyer did pull out, why would they drop it £25k? I would think, given that the seller had found a buyer, it means the price was sensible.

But now the vendor wants to find another buyer quickly - and reducing the asking will generate more interest.

Anyway, does it matter if the EA's "bluffing" or not? It makes no difference to whether you're going to offer - or how much - does it?

akorn77

getmore4less wrote: »

The EA is trying to get an offer out of you and is trying to get the first one as high as possible knowing you can go to £500k.

Sometimes you need to put the ball back in the EA court and back off a bit by talking the price down a bit and going quiet for a bit.

This is what I think too. Reason being, on Thursday he said they rejected a 450k offer, then on Saturday they supposedly rejected a 460k offer. IMO of the buyer genuinely wanted it, he probably would have offered 465k and sealed the deal. Also the EA was a slimeball, blatantly devised fake offers and viewings.

The reason I think the vendor wants 465k is because the EA said "460k was rejected, the vendor wants a tinch higher"