estate agent block offers & flipping house

crusha101

Hi guys, Basically, we were looking at buying a holiday home and saw a property come up for 150k which is a great price. Straight away we contacted the estate agent who said the house was sold, bear in mind this was literally the day or two after the house went up. weeks went by and the house was still up online and the for sale sign was still outside the house. We kept on ringing and kept being told the house is sold. A few of the locals warned us about the estate agent and said he was dodgy. So now 2 months later the house is up for sale again, nothing has changed no renovations or anything but the house is now up for 200k, 50k more expensive 2 months later. It has become obvious that the estate agent is flipping the house.

Is this kind of practice allowed? clearly, the estate agent was blocking offers whilst getting the money or whatever together to buy the house himself.

Time

crusha101 wrote: »

Hi guys, Basically, we were looking at buying a holiday home and saw a property come up for 150k which is a great price. Straight away we contacted the estate agent who said the house was sold, bear in mind this was literally the day or two after the house went up. weeks went by and the house was still up online and the for sale sign was still outside the house. We kept on ringing and kept being told the house is sold. A few of the locals warned us about the estate agent and said he was dodgy. So now 2 months later the house is up for sale again, nothing has changed no renovations or anything but the house is now up for 200k, 50k more expensive 2 months later. It has become obvious that the estate agent is flipping the house.

Is this kind of practice allowed? clearly, the estate agent was blocking offers whilst getting the money or whatever together to buy the house himself.

If he bought the house himself with a view to flipping it, and he blocked legitimate offers from going to the vendor, he's in a whole world of trouble. He has a duty to act in their best interests so they could sue for the money he made afterwards.

Alternatively, the low price could be to test the market. Then they just hold off on selling, on the basis if there's huge interest at 150k there'll still be enough interest at 200k.

crusha101

ya its just strange that any offer was blocked straight away. They wouldn't even entertain us on the phone. Is there anything I can do?

Time

crusha101 wrote: »

ya its just strange that any offer was blocked straight away. They wouldn't even entertain us on the phone. Is there anything I can do?

Absolutely nothing. Theres no evidence anything untoward actually happened, the vendor could be very happy with the agents behaviour if they got them the best price.

crusha101

Just one of those helpless situations, thanks for the help.

dudara

Contact the Property Services Regulatory Authority with details of your complaint. They may investigate. More information here

http://www.psr.ie/website/npsra/npsraweb.nsf/page/whatwedo-investigation-en

dok_golf

contact the previous owner if possible. Speak directly to them and see whether the auctioneer was applying best practice or sharp practice.

peteb2

You could see on the property register whether it was sold.

John_Rambo

I was selling a small townhouse in Dublin city centre in 2005 and the estate agent arrived and announced he had a bespoke seller that was willing to hand over cash right away. No sign, no hassle, no fees, no tyre kickers, no "upsetting" shows, no "weirdos" or "nosy parkers" traipsing through the house... (his words)

I'm not stupid. But and elderly person met with the hassle of all that stuff that he mentioned?

It's definitely a risk an estate agent, or an employee of an estate agent will pull. I called it up on him and he just laughed and told me he was working for me and doing the best he could for me. The house sold for 130K (with a different agent) more than the "bespoke" buyer.

Graham

My in-laws went through almost exactly the same scenario 2 years ago.

House in a small development originally intended as holiday homes but the estate agent refused to accept any offers.

Fast forward to today, in-laws have subsequently purchased a completely different property a few miles away but through a social connection that are now friends with the couple that eventually bought the holiday home. It turns out there were issues with the OMC that would have frustrated an early sale so effectively the agent was marketing a property that wasn't ready to be sold.

It's not entirely uncommon, particularly where the sellers are a financial institution that have taken possession of the property from a previous owner/developer.

Added For Clarity:

The initial speculation was the agent was trying to pull a fast-one.

Askthe EA

Contact the PSRA if you have a complaint, if the agent was being sharp he deserves to lose his license.

That being said, there are other reasons he may have been blocking viewings. A receivership sale comes to mind straight away where there are clear issues with the title etc and the EA knows it cannot sell at that time, doesnt mean that it wont ever sell. He may not have wanted to waste his time doing viewings.

The receivers dont always tell the EAs the real story, but in a local setting like that, who knows what they would know.