Estate agent selling tactics

Khannie

Are estate agents legally free to "invent" bids on a house that don't exist?

I am considering making an offer on a house, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the estate agent is inventing an offer. Does anyone who has previously sold have experience of estate agents offering to do this?

frodi

yes it goes on. Recently my brother and his wife were interested in a house. Estate agent told them there was an offer at the asking price when they offered below it. I rang up a week later (using false name) to be told that nobody had made an offer. (my brother then rang up again and again offered less than the asking price and got the house)

yes lots of phantom buyers exist whose only purpose in life is to screw more money out of you.

Khannie

Nice one. Thanks Frodi. I think I'll try the same tactic as you.

I think that's really really nasty. I mean, they're artificially inflating the price of a house. No wonder house prices are rising at ridiculous rates. It may not be illegal, but it's certainly unethical.

EKRIUQ

The person selling the house may of told the estate agent not to accept bids below the asking price. But People often soften when their getting no offers on their house. The auctioneer saying that he already has an offer on it is a nice way of telling you, That bid won't buy the house but a higher one might, as else he may be a greedy lying wanker

frodi

TIPPTOP wrote:

The person selling the house may of told the estate agent not to accept bids below the asking price. But People often soften when their getting no offers on their house. The auctioneer saying that he already has an offer on it is a nice way of telling you, That bid won't buy the house but a higher one might, as else he may be a greedy lying wanker

he's on comission so.............greedy lying wanker,

he should go to http://pie.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=2009880#post2009880

Gordon

Hope I'm not thread hijacking but:
I live in Greece now and a mate is trying to buy a house. The agent is being extremely lax in his whole approach to selling the house as he still hasn't given the blueprints to the place to my mate. He did also mention that another party was interested in it though.

My mate thinks he's just a lazy arse but I think he may have given the blueprints to the other buyers if they do exist.

My point: Are estate agents not usually hungry for a sell or do they also come off as - not giving a toss? (bearing in mind I'm in Greece and the second option does hold a lo of water for some 'professionals'.

Dingatron

I think they've had it too good for the last few years. House prices increased, commission increased, wages increased,population increased and greed increased. I've dealt with 3 different estate agents in the last 3 years and they've all been sh1te. They never kept us informed on anything, and when we complained about lack of advertisments in the paper suddenly viewings appeared but cancelled at last minute etc. Communication has to be a large part of job but haven't seen a lot of that in my case. Wouldn't trust them one bit.

zapata

IMO they have been inventing fictional bids for years, wasn't it suggested some time ago that bids had to be in writing and not anonymous.

irlirishkev

Money mad the lot of them. As previously mentioned, they've had it too easy for years. I wonder when the last time any of them had to actually work to sell a place!

I bought an apartment recently, and not only could I rarely get hold of the moron, but he was trying to flog me the contents for an extra 5k. 5k??? You can get full 1bed kitouts for less than that, so I told him to shove it (what I actually said was no thanks). In the end, I actually got about 90% of the contents included in the sale for nothing but the actual sale price! Chancy ripoff baxtard!

Kevin.

RainyDay

Khannie wrote:

I think that's really really nasty. I mean, they're artificially inflating the price of a house. No wonder house prices are rising at ridiculous rates. It may not be illegal, but it's certainly unethical.

When you come to sell the house, will your enthusiasm to get the highest possible price outweigh your ethical concerns about estate agent tactics then?

shltter

I was selling my house a couple of years ago with an estate agent in dublin

i agreed to 300 quid for advertising
they were brutal the guy never made any effort
any way we changed our minds after about 3 months and decided not to move
so he sends me a bill for twice what i had agreed
the ad he placed a child would have made a better effort
on top of that they lost the keys to my house which i only found out after i had taken it off the market
but probably explains why there was only 2 viewing in 3 months and they were in the first week or two
needless to say i did not pay got nasty letters for a while rang him told to **** off and he could bring me to court for it

Khannie

RainyDay wrote:

When you come to sell the house, will your enthusiasm to get the highest possible price outweigh your ethical concerns about estate agent tactics then?

A fine question....answer: no. I'd rather be honest. I like the suggested idea of having offers in writing. That could cut some of it out.

RainyDay

Fair enough - I guess most sellers would tell their agents to push it as hard as they have to in order to get an extra €5k or €10k onto the selling price. I can't see how putting offers in writing is really going to help much, unless the written offer is non-negotiable and legally enforceable, i.e. the buyer MUST proceed with a sale at that price if the bid is accepted. I'm not sure if buyers really want to go down that road (a friend of mine had offers out on 3 properties simultaenously recently, but was only ever going to buy one).

I think much of the hammering of the estate agents is misplaced. They are just playing the game. The people who really inflate the prices are the buyers who offer the high prices. Buyers should offer what they think the property is worth and no more. If they get the property at that price, great. If they don't, that's great too - leave it to the other to whom it is worth more for whatever reason.

If you get into a bidding war for anything, (e.g. a house, a car, a prospective employee), of course the prices are going to spiral out of control.

Buyers seem to want to have it both ways. They are quite happy to put in low-ball bids way below the expected price in order to test the market, but then get all uppity when the seller plays the reverse game.

EKRIUQ

I was selling my house a couple of years ago with an estate agent in dublin

i agreed to 300 quid for advertising

300 quid, do you honestly know how much advertising you'd get for 300 :rolleyes:

they were brutal the guy never made any effort

I don't blame them if your only willing to spend €300 on advertising on something that your trying to sell for hundreds of thousands.

after i had taken it off the market

so you just really wasted their time

but probably explains why there was only 2 viewing in 3 months

Maybe you over valued your house and scared all prospective buyers away

needless to say i did not pay got nasty letters for a while rang him told to **** off and he could bring me to court for it

Your a class act alright :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

shltter

TIPPTOP wrote:

300 quid, do you honestly know how much advertising you'd get for 300 :rolleyes: I don't blame them if your only willing to spend €300 on advertising on something that your trying to sell for hundreds of thousands.
so you just really wasted their time Maybe you over valued your house and scared all prospective buyers away

Your a class act alright :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

this was a couple of years ago
300 pounds was the ammount suggested by the estate agent as normal at that time

it was not selling for hundreds of thousands

i didn't waste anybodies time the house we were moving too had gone so we decided not to move this was about 6 months after we put it on the market

i didn't value the house the estate agent did

the guy lost the keys to the house so he couldn't show it to any one never told us this til we took it off the market

class act i would be class stupid to pay for that!!