Estate Agent Bluffing?

ReadingTim

akorn77 wrote: »

Its happened to me before. Fair game, money talks.

It does - which is why you need to put your money where you mouth is, or more accurately, put your mouth where your money is.

So instead of playing silly games, trying to second guess the vendor, and spot the EA's lies and ulterior motives, simply decide what it's worth to you, and work out an offer strategy which gets you from credible opening offer to best and final offer in no more than 3 steps - by that time it'll be clear whether you can agree a price with the vendor, or not.

akorn77

I did. Offered 476k prior to close of business. EA will revert in the morning with decision.

Between 465k and 476k is only a £2-3k difference in terms of upfront costs so I dont want to lose it for the sake of a few grand. Good properties in Prime London are hard to come by.

AdrianC

If the vendor is so dissolute a slug as to gazump the other buyer for just a grand, then I wish you luck - because you're going to need it.

akorn77

Vendor hadnt yet accepted the other offer so its not gazumping.

iammumtoone

akorn77 wrote: »

I did. Offered 476k prior to close of business. EA will revert in the morning with decision.

Between 465k and 476k is only a £2-3k difference in terms of upfront costs so I dont want to lose it for the sake of a few grand. Good properties in Prime London are hard to come by.

So now you are in a bidding war, where if you offered 476 as a full and final offer in the first place it probably would have been accepted and the other buyer wouldn't have even got a look in.

If I was the seller I would go with the other buyer for the sake of 1K I would take their offer as they submitted a fair price to start and didn't play games.

AdrianC

akorn77 wrote: »

Vendor hadnt yet accepted the other offer so its not gazumping.

I must have misunderstood...

akorn77 wrote: »

- 5 minutes later, someone offered £475k and took it.

MysteryMe

There is no set rule stating that all offers have to start at £X below asking price. It depends on how the property is priced compared to other similar properties sold recently. This property had been reduced by £25000. There is no suggestion from the OP that this was an over inflated price so it was always highly unlikely that another substantial reduction was going to be acceptable. You have to use your common sense.

steampowered

You could now offer £480k if you really want the property. Up to you.

Did you say you are looking for property in London? You've got an enormous amount of choice in that case!

akorn77 wrote: »

Between 465k and 476k is only a £2-3k difference in terms of upfront costs

But you'll still have to pay the remainder - albeit through the mortgage.

akorn77

steampowered wrote: »

You could now offer £480k if you really want the property. Up to you.

Did you say you are looking for property in London? You've got an enormous amount of choice in that case!

But you'll still have to pay the remainder - albeit through the mortgage.

To be honest I've never dealt with this agency and I dont understand their approach. When I made the 455k and 465k offer they said "We are at about guide price. Were at guide price" to sort of confuse me? I mean you're either at guide price or not.

Then when I made the 3rd call and upped it to 476k the EA said "Okay, I need to speak to my director, I will call back in 5 minutes" - bit baffling, why does he need to speak to his Director? Surely, they would just forward it to the vendor? :undecided Anyway, he didnt call back so I called him back 20 minutes later and he said the offer has been forwarded to the vendor.

From the terminology, phrases, little mix-ups my gut feeling says they may potentially be lying about the other offers. For example first they said the vendor is a She and later it became a He. Secondly they said the vendor has had the property since 2000, but it doesnt correspond with the Land Registry. Thirdly he said they had 3 viewings at the property on Saturday, then it suddenly become 6 viewings lol.

It's one of the biggest agencies in central/west London but I've never dealt with them personally up until now.

I know I'll have a slightly higher mortgage payment but its not being purchased as an investment, so I dont mind paying a bit extra for the sake of happiness/comfort. Wouldnt surprise me if the EA told me someone came in with 477k tomorrow.

3card

Apologies for arriving at the party a little late.

Why deal with someone you obviously dont trust? I would be looking elsewhere if i couldnt trust the people dealing with it.

My thinking on any deal is at what price would I be 'pig sick' at losing out and would i go higher? once i have that price in mind that would be my maximum offer and my offer would be around what my top figure would be

I think you should be looking at other properties because if i was the vendor i wouldnt really be kicking someone elses offer into touch for yours as i would be thinking you would come back later in the process with a revised reduced offer