Prime Time Property Market Investigation

Sizzler

Anybody see this last night?

A few places came out of it really badly, an estate agent in South County Dublin who fostered a sales ethos of mystery bidders in order to put the prices up on gaffs they were trying to sell :eek:

A well known mortgage company in cahoots sharing details on their client base to the estate agent so they then knew what the client could afford :mad:

Also covered were management companies and questionable developers !

Im surprised this didnt get more coverage in the morning papers...it was disgraceful!

ferdi

no surprises here

developers, builders, agents, big investors all hand in hand driving up prices for normal folk. all totally corrupt, out to make their millions and to hell with everyone else. lets hope there is a Hell, so these sh!ts have somewhere fitting to go after death.

manonthemoon

Robbers


Cheats



Liars

EKRIUQ

Yawn!! same old stuff,

BobbyD10

BingoBongo wrote:

Yawn!! same old stuff,

Interesting point of view.

Thanks.

connundrum

Unregulated business people will take the piss, it has always been the way.

The government are afraid to regulate (or impose existing regulations on) developers/mortgage companies/real estate agents for fear that it'd lead to recession and a property slump. The 300,000+ people working in the building trade need to be kept in employment.

Joe Bloggs sets up ABC Developers and builds a housing estate, and then dissolves the company so that he is not liable to either finish the estate and/or fix mistakes. 2 weeks later he sets up CBA Developers and builds a new estate down the road.

This situation happens every week around the company.

mikedragon32

We watched in horror last night! We had the featured estate agent in our house a few weeks ago for a valuation as we had been planning to sell and were quite impressed with him.

Thank God we opted not to use him.

But it does make you think about if that's what the small ones do, are the major players any different?

Heyes

its all over the news now.

would have liked to have seen it

am intreged to know who the estate agent is also.

BobbyD10

Heyes wrote:

its all over the news now.

would have liked to have seen it

am intreged to know who the estate agent is also.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054967253&page=62

Go to this and should help.

whizzbang

If you missed it you can watch the show here!
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/1211/primetime.html
Needs realplayer.

Terry

BingoBongo wrote:

Yawn!! same old stuff,

don't post here if you don't have anything relevant to say.

Sizzler

Heres a cracking waste of Taxpayer's hard earned euros!

http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/?jp=CWIDSNAUGBMH

Pay particular attention to the last line :mad:

Plissken1

Sizzler wrote:

Heres a cracking waste of Taxpayer's hard earned euros!

http://www.breakingnews.ie/business/?jp=CWIDSNAUGBMH

Pay particular attention to the last line :mad:

"But they're not so much rules, more sorta guidelines really.... YAAARGH"


I worked in the building trade in the UK in the early 90's, And it was always the Irish contractor that ripped you off. He was always the one you had to keep your eye on when it came to getting paid for a job. I never got stiffed by the English, it was always my own people who took the piss. ... COWBOYS and ALCO's.


Whats going to happen now ? I cannot honestly see the Government doing anything as they know full well that Ireland's high prices
have made us uncompetative, so the property market and building trade is really the only thing keeping our economy going.

mambo

Many reports don't name the offenders, but http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3?ca=45&si=1740006&issue_id=14993
does.

Hope you haven't dealt with them when buying your house!

Zirconia

Unfortunately I'm shocked and stunned to realise that we did buy our house off these agents just over a year ago, and I was highly suspicious at the time. We were started off at the asking price, and then told there was a bidder offering more. We offered to better this price, but then were told that the other interested party was offering more again.

My partner, unfortunately as it appears to have worked out, made it very clear that she really wanted this house. When we gave a better offer, the agent then said we should add another 5k on top of our already generous better offer, as this would secure the deal without further bidding. While I was already beginning to have slight doubts, this statement made alarm bells go off in my head - how could he know this would secure it?

I tried to convince my partner that we should consider pulling out, as I didn't think that there was any other bidder, but she was determined to get this particular house, and said she was willing to pay the price as it stood. I personally felt we were at the point of over extension, and that the agent was behaving strangely, but she was putting more into the purchase than I was, as she had a house to sell and I didn't and we did both like the house, so I agreed reluctantly. Even after this, things did not go at all well, and it took nearly eight months, and we ended up out living with relatives for over a month, but that another story, though again because of these cowboy agents and their cronies.

Is there anything we can do though - we lost about 20K in what appears to be bidding against nobody. Seems they didn't break any laws?

Idbatterim

surely this will have fairly substantial implications on the said estate agent, atleast in the short term future, even though all of the estate agents are probably as bad as each other, because the investigation highlighted this agency, surely they will be feeling the impact! i mean could you imagine being in their shoes today! the one thing i will say is that it is human nature to get as much as possible, i dont think what they do is right and saying that, anyone who didnt suspect these types of going on in the property business must be mentally deficient. But this is why there are regulators, i heard earlier on todays prime time that they had to introduce regulators in germany and denmark to clamp down on this carry on, While i agree this country has its pros and its cons, it would be ridiculous to say "thats ireland", "that is everywhere"! In my opinion and i have been to alot of countries, the irish would probably be the most helpful, decent, charitable nation from what i have experienced. Ultimately id blame the government, people will always push as much as they can, the government can put a stop to it, the estate agents, developers, banks etc arent going to act in the favour of the public, so its left up to the government to protect the rights of many over the few!

wyndham

mikedragon32 wrote:

We watched in horror last night! We had the featured estate agent in our house a few weeks ago for a valuation as we had been planning to sell and were quite impressed with him.

Thank God we opted not to use him.

But it does make you think about if that's what the small ones do, are the major players any different?

Seemed to me like the ideal agent if you want the best price for your property? That is, after all, what they are employed to do.

Sizzler

Zirconia wrote:

Unfortunately I'm shocked and stunned to realise that we did buy our house off these agents just over a year ago, and I was highly suspicious at the time. We were started off at the asking price, and then told there was a bidder offering more. We offered to better this price, but then were told that the other interested party was offering more again.

My partner, unfortunately as it appears to have worked out, made it very clear that she really wanted this house. When we gave a better offer, the agent then said we should add another 5k on top of our already generous better offer, as this would secure the deal without further bidding. While I was already beginning to have slight doubts, this statement made alarm bells go off in my head - how could he know this would secure it?

I tried to convince my partner that we should consider pulling out, as I didn't think that there was any other bidder, but she was determined to get this particular house, and said she was willing to pay the price as it stood. I personally felt we were at the point of over extension, and that the agent was behaving strangely, but she was putting more into the purchase than I was, as she had a house to sell and I didn't and we did both like the house, so I agreed reluctantly. Even after this, things did not go at all well, and it took nearly eight months, and we ended up out living with relatives for over a month, but that another story, though again because of these cowboy agents and their cronies.

Is there anything we can do though - we lost about 20K in what appears to be bidding against nobody. Seems they didn't break any laws?

Sorry to read your post mate, I can see the frustration bursting out of the screen Unfortunately the law in Ireland doesnt provide for agents making up ghost bids. I have to say it would be one of my worst fears when I move house

If its any consolation Id say this lot will be out of business in the next few months, bad word travels fast and even if you were a seller Im sure the majority of people would have the decency to go elsewhere now after seeing how they run their business. It will take a LOT to come back from that. A truly sickening case of schadenfraude from the agents.

mikedragon32

wyndham wrote:

Seemed to me like the ideal agent if you want the best price for your property? That is, after all, what they are employed to do.

You could well look at it that way, but later in that programme the report goes on to say that some agents have pet investors for whom they'll do their best to get a lower price and while they didn't name this agent in that portion, it wouldn't have surprised me if it was the case.

Personally, while I'd be pleased to get the market value for my house, I would be disgusted to discover that I got over the asking price because an agent was able to squeeze more money from the buyer. I don't just expect to be honest in all my dealings, I would expect those representing me to be equally honest.

That's not to say, however, if there was genuine interest and two potential buyers looking to out-bid oneanother, that I wouldn't appreciate the extra money.

It does also raise the question of the artificial inflation of house prices due to this practice.

TwoShedsJackson

Although having non-exsistant bidders is obviously an underhand and dishonest way of increasing the price of a house, an estate agent is being employed to get you the best possible price for your house, and by extension, the largest comission for himself.

A house is worth what someone will pay for it, end of. Unfortunately the climate of fear and need to get on the property ladder at all costs helped fuel price increases for years as conditions were perfect for such unscrupulous agents to squeeze a few more thousand out of the first time buyers, petrified that they might lose out on their chance to get on the ladder, and all for a few thousand euro over thirty years.

If buyers had been able to demonstrate a bit more backbone and restricted themselves to a price they can realistically afford, this practice would not be so prevalent. I include myself in this lot as my wife and I were so keen to get our first house in Crumlin a few years ago that we willingly offered a couple of grand over the asking price even though there didn't seem to be colossal interest in the house, as we were terrified of missing out.

Fratton Fred

TwoShedsJackson wrote:

Although having non-exsistant bidders is obviously an underhand and dishonest way of increasing the price of a house, an estate agent is being employed to get you the best possible price for your house, and by extension, the largest comission for himself..

Ethics are not your strong point then obviously.

Who pays for this? All that happens is prices go up, normal folk end up paying more and the mortgage companies and agents just line their pockets even further.

TwoShedsJackson

Fratton Fred wrote:

Ethics are not your strong point then obviously.

Who pays for this? All that happens is prices go up, normal folk end up paying more and the mortgage companies and agents just line their pockets even further.

And where did I say I thought it was a good idea, or ethical??

The second paragraph of your post then says the same thing I said in mine.

Fratton Fred

TwoShedsJackson wrote:

And where did I say I thought it was a good idea, or ethical??

The second paragraph of your post then says the same thing I said in mine.

My bad, I didn't read your post properly. I thought you were echoing an earlier post that advocated such practice.

apologies.

Plissken1

Most people are hoping this topic dies a death, as so many of them are making a nice little earner from the property game, and they dont want any spanners in the works.

Plissken1

Plissken1 wrote:

Most people are hoping this topic dies a death, as so many of them are making a nice little earner from the property game, and they dont want any spanners in the works.

FUNNY YOU SHOULD SAY THAT!!

Did anyone see the poll on the RTE.ie website yesterday??

here is the google cache!! look for the poll:
http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:6A0ea3lI6-MJ:www.rte.ie/+rte.ie&hl=en&gl=ie&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

today its gone from the archive of polls - if you click on comments it has an archive of previous polls. that one is gone!!


RTÉ POLL
Should estate agents and mortgage brokers be regulated?


94.56% (852 votes) - Yes
3.77% (34 votes) - No
1.66% (15 votes) - Maybe


Please click here to make a comment on today's topic
n

pred racer

Was anyone surprised by this information??:rolleyes: this has been going on for years. Along with that you have the other favourite which is telling prospective buyers that its sold/price is way too high........telling the owner there is no interest and buying it yourself for half nothing!!! many a country estate agent have a large number of properties gotten this way

http://216.239.59.104/search?q=cache:Okuf3ZGCF_oJ:www.rte.ie/comments/comments.html+site:www.rte.ie+poll+estate+agents&hl=en&gl=ie&ct=clnk&cd=1

Sizzler

Sizzler wrote:

A few places came out of it really badly, an estate agent in South County Dublin who fostered a sales ethos of mystery bidders in order to put the prices up on gaffs they were trying to sell :eek:

If I employ an estate agent, I'd be upset if they didn't do everything to jack up the price.