misleading advertising by estate agent ?

chrischarn

reposessed properties have to have a notice of the offer published in order that any higher offers can be put forward to them this is so that the mortgagee in possession can obtain the best price that he is legally required to by law.  So my offer , which was accepted of 75k was published but I was late told I had been out bid so I bid , again , and then again now its at 86k but the advert remains the same , the EA tells me the vendor wants the offer advertised to remain at 75k , but wouldn't this be misleading ?  Or is it just B.S , who wants the other bidder to have it as he is buying two properties, twice the sales twice the commission 

Mark_d

AFAIK it is normal for the advertise price to remain unchanged throughout the "bidding war"

theartfullodger

I'd expect an agent to be misleading: What makes you think they behave otherwise please?

Best wishes to all

user1977

chrischarn said:

reposessed properties have to have a notice of the offer published in order that any higher offers can be put forward to them this is so that the mortgagee in possession can obtain the best price that he is legally required to by law.

This isn't a specific legal requirement, it's just common practice (in England & Wales).

I'm not sure who you think is being misled and how it would affect them? If your offer isn't high enough, the EA will tell you at that point.

eddddy

Once an offer is accepted (for £86k or whatever), I guess they will update the info in the advert.

As for misleading other buyers, if somebody phones to arrange a viewing, it would be OK if the estate agent says something like "An offer has been received for £86k which hasn't been accepted yet, so you would probably need to offer over £86k. Do you still want to view?"


(But I don't think the Property Ombudsman would be impressed if the estate agent didn't mention any other offers - and somebody travelled a long way for a viewing.)

chrischarn

this is usefull information thanks , can the EA tell me what the highest bid currently is ?  she tells me she cant , otherwise we could end up in a situation where I say ill offer 80 and she says its not high enough so I say 81 then  she says again its not high enough ..... and so on  , until of course it is high enough 

NameUnavailable

They shouldn't tell you what another party has offered, so just make your 'best' offer if you want the property.

You will presumably still need to get a survey so if that throws up any unexpected issues you can of course try to renegotiate.

eddddy

chrischarn said:

this is usefull information thanks , can the EA tell me what the highest bid currently is ?  she tells me she cant , otherwise we could end up in a situation where I say ill offer 80 and she says its not high enough so I say 81 then  she says again its not high enough ..... and so on  , until of course it is high enough 

FWIW, I had success with buying one property (where they wanted offers by a closing date) by having a phone call with an estate agent that went something like this...

Me: Can you tell me the current highest offer? EA: No
Me: OK. If I were to offer £100k, is my offer likely to be successful? EA: No - that's unlikely to be successful
Me: If I were to offer £102k, is my offer likely to be successful? EA: No - that's unlikely to be successful
Me: If I were to offer £103k, is my offer likely to be successful? EA: No - that's unlikely to be successful
Me: If I were to offer £104k, is my offer likely to be successful? EA: Yes - that might be successful


But maybe I was just lucky and got an unusually helpful EA. Maybe other EAs wouldn't do that.

And I guess it wouldn't have worked if someone else did the same thing after me.

(And it probably helps to be friendly with the EA. Some people seem to regard the EA as 'the enemy', and are aggressive towards them, which might mean they're less likely to help you.)

Zoe02

They usually leave a note on the advert with the latest offer they have received.

I bought a repossessed flat in 2015 and ended up contacting the sellers directly myself as the agents were messing about and paid the price I originally offered. Was advertised for £150k, offered £155k and then agent said someone offered £170k not sure if it was all genuine but looking back think I was lucky. I did a google search to find out who the actual sellers were was a company. 

Was a stressful time.