Fake offers from agent

F37A

Hi 

So if agent makes up offers what are our options generally. Ask for them to show copy of offer to my solicitor seems best bet. Any thoughts / anyone disagree? I hear too many lies from agents.

Thanks

staffie1

Estate agents are professional liars in my experience. It’s clearly sharp practice - might even be illegal - but you need evidence to prove it. Are you talking about the agent selling your property or someone else’s agent?

Marky4040

F37A said:

Hi 

So if agent makes up offers what are our options generally. Ask for them to show copy of offer to my solicitor seems best bet. Any thoughts / anyone disagree? I hear too many lies from agents.

Thanks

Yeah the starting point is they lie.

Is this offers on a property you have offered on too? If so ask to see the email of the offer with the personal info removed.

If it's your property they are selling then you are able to see all of the offer information to make an informed decision of whether to accept or not.

Marvel1

Take them as true and go with the whichever is best for you.

eddddy

F37A said:

So if agent makes up offers what are our options generally. Ask for them to show copy of offer to my solicitor seems best bet. Any thoughts / anyone disagree? I hear too many lies from agents.

I wonder if you're over thinking this.

• Are you buying or selling?
• What exactly is it that you want the agent to show to your solicitor? 
• • (If you're another buyer - the agent can't disclose the name of the person making the offer, and usually cant disclose the amount of the offer)
• What do you want your solicitor to do as a result? 
• Have you instructed a solicitor to do this - how much will the solicitor charge you for doing this?

And... how are you hoping any of this will help you?

F37A

staffie1 said:

Estate agents are professional liars in my experience. It’s clearly sharp practice - might even be illegal - but you need evidence to prove it. Are you talking about the agent selling your property or someone else’s agent?

Someone else's agent. I.e i'm trying to buy so interacting with agents this way

F37A

eddddy said:

F37A said:

So if agent makes up offers what are our options generally. Ask for them to show copy of offer to my solicitor seems best bet. Any thoughts / anyone disagree? I hear too many lies from agents.

I wonder if you're over thinking this.

• Are you buying or selling?
• What exactly is it that you want the agent to show to your solicitor? 
• • (If you're another buyer - the agent can't disclose the name of the person making the offer, and usually cant disclose the amount of the offer)
• What do you want your solicitor to do as a result? 
• Have you instructed a solicitor to do this - how much will the solicitor charge you for doing this?

And... how are you hoping any of this will help you?

I'm buying
evidence that the offer they claim to have received is real
i wouldn't need the name of the other person that has offered. The amount of the offer / date / time.  If what you say is true that the amount of the offer can't be disclosed and therefore proven then its pretty corrupt and the system can be abused by the agent. It would be a joke that we live in a place where this is allowed to happen.
I'd want my solicitor to verify that competing offer is legit. But if what you say is correct i.e amount of offer can't be disclosed then pointless.
I haven't yet.
Well I certainly wouldn't offer as much if I know nobody offered on the property.

user1977

F37A said:

eddddy said:

F37A said:

So if agent makes up offers what are our options generally. Ask for them to show copy of offer to my solicitor seems best bet. Any thoughts / anyone disagree? I hear too many lies from agents.

I wonder if you're over thinking this.

• Are you buying or selling?
• What exactly is it that you want the agent to show to your solicitor? 
• • (If you're another buyer - the agent can't disclose the name of the person making the offer, and usually cant disclose the amount of the offer)
• What do you want your solicitor to do as a result? 
• Have you instructed a solicitor to do this - how much will the solicitor charge you for doing this?

And... how are you hoping any of this will help you?

I'd want my solicitor to verify that competing offer is legit.

How would they do that?

eddddy

It sounds like you're saying that you want the agent to disclose any/all other offers to you (or your solicitor) so that maybe you can offer £500 or £1000 more than anyone else.

But then the agent would disclose your offer to any/all the other buyers (or their solicitors), so one of them would offer £500 or £1000 more than you.

So essentially it would turn into a slow, painful auction - with buyers increasing their offers by £500 or £1000 each time. And if it was done via solicitors, it would probably take weeks.



That's a key reason why agents don't disclose the amount of other offers - they want to avoid a long, slow auction.

donutandbeer

Well… just because the estate agent says there are other offers at X price, doesn’t meant you have to offer that much - especially when you suspect they are lying. You can certainly offer less and see if your offer gets accepted, if yes then you might be right about them “lying” (or maybe you are just in a better position to proceed than other higher offers), if not then maybe they didn’t lie. At the end of the day you offer how much you want to offer on the place, regardless of what the estate agent says. And even if there’s no other offer, it doesn’t mean that your offer will definitely be accepted.
 
In my experience, when making an offer I always ask if there are other offers, and they say things like “there are how many more people looking to put in an offer” when there is no other offer yet. I don’t think I’ve ever felt that they lied and said there are other offers when there’s none. 

hazyjo

It's not necessarily the highest offer that the vendor will choose anyway. Offer what you feel it's worth and put yourself in the best possible position. If you get it, great.