Fake offers from agent

babyblade41

No one will find out if the undisclosed offers are real or not ..just doesn't happen.

Do your due diligence, look at what other properties have sold for (actually sold not up for sale) in the area so you can gauge what to offer & what is likely to be accepted.

If it's a hot area then it will probably go to offers over the actual price & those who are ready to proceed ...FTB's are always tricky as they buckle under the littlest bump in the process especially when they get sight of the survey

ProDave

I had this 30 years ago.  I was constantly being out bid on a house i was trying to buy.  so at the end of the day, on my way home from work I called in at the house to speak to the vendor, unanounced and without an apointment to discuss my offer.  The vendor knew nothing about another offer and nobody else had been to view the property.

Lying b******s

leroyJ

When I was selling my flat, one estate agent alluded to faking bids - he said they would try and get viewers to give "theoretical offers" that they could then use to negotiate with other potential buyers, something like that anyway.  (I didn't go with this agent so can't verify fully what that meant.)

This was one of the "premium" estate agents, i.e. charging 2% fee.  I think that those type of estate agents will work harder to get a higher price, as really there isn't a huge increase in commission for them in getting a slightly higher sale price.
So I guess a tip would be to try and determine the type of estate agent selling the property, maybe find out what commission they charge, and use that as a factor to determine how valid other bids are.

And for those who say it shouldn't matter about other bids.  You aren't living in reality.  Maybe if you have been through the buying process several times, are incredibly confident in what you are buying and what it should be valued.  But most people are making these incredibly important decisions (i.e. how much to offer for a property) and you are trying to work out what information to base it on, and inevitably the "other bids" plays a factor into this.

Spiderroo

Everything we offered on had other bids, not because EAs were lying but because we're in a high demand area. It's like other posters have said - you need to offer what you can afford/are happy to pay for the house.

It's not always the highest bid that gets a property, we weren't the highest but our seller wanted a quick sale so he looked at the chain. We'd nearly sold our flat (it's completed now) and he liked us so our offer was accepted. 

If the property is popular they won't bother to verify each bid with your solicitor, they'll just say make your offer or not. It's more work for them and they want to do as little as possible for their money. 

Doozergirl

leroyJ said:

When I was selling my flat, one estate agent alluded to faking bids - he said they would try and get viewers to give "theoretical offers" that they could then use to negotiate with other potential buyers, something like that anyway.  (I didn't go with this agent so can't verify fully what that meant.)

This was one of the "premium" estate agents, i.e. charging 2% fee.  I think that those type of estate agents will work harder to get a higher price, as really there isn't a huge increase in commission for them in getting a slightly higher sale price.
So I guess a tip would be to try and determine the type of estate agent selling the property, maybe find out what commission they charge, and use that as a factor to determine how valid other bids are.

And for those who say it shouldn't matter about other bids.  You aren't living in reality.  Maybe if you have been through the buying process several times, are incredibly confident in what you are buying and what it should be valued.  But most people are making these incredibly important decisions (i.e. how much to offer for a property) and you are trying to work out what information to base it on, and inevitably the "other bids" plays a factor into this.

Having experience of these things places those people saying it shouldn't matter very much in reality.  You have to bid on what you feel it is worth and the only way to try and work that out is by the prices of genuinely sold properties and the speed of the market at the time you are purchasing.   If the property goes over your valuation, it goes over.   

Trying to work out what a place is worth on the basis of what may or may not be a realistic opinion of someone that may or may not exist is not realistic at all. 

There's no doubt that it's stressful for people but the price you pay for a property is quite quickly forgotten by most people quite soon after the transaction. 

diystarter7

IMO there is very little difference between many EA's and the leader of our country.