List of pathetic selling techniques by estate agents

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118952624#Comment_118952624

im Going to stick with the tube of the thread.

taking a bid with no intention of selling it to the person and only using their bid to drive up prices is a “of pathetic selling techniques”

it’s not far off a phantom offer

BOHSBOHS

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118952896#Comment_118952896

Get a grip, sellers take bids and have no intention of selling until they get the offer they want, that in most cases is the highest bid but there may be a caveat that they want to sell to the bidder who is able to complete without delay. Hence why cash bidders are the most desirable and those who need to sell-to-buy, the least desirable. Doesn’t change the fact that the price someone is willing to pay is going up as bidders increase their bid. It only seems pathetic if you don’t understand that all bidders are not equal, and vendors don’t need to explain why they aren’t going sale agreed to every bidder.

PalLimerick

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118929685#Comment_118929685

The Estate Agent isn't your employee to sack though.

LunaLoo

We're in the process now. When we were bidding for the house we're buying there was a cash buyer bidding but they maxed out 5k less then us with a house to sell. The seller had the choice of accepting their bid for a quicker sale or ours for a longer sale for extra 5k and they went with us.

When it came to selling our house the agent was told we wanted quick sale so only offers from first time buyers or cash buyers. We had 8 bids to choose from and went with the one that would be the quickest for us so we wouldn't lose the house we are buying.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118953004#Comment_118953004

They are a service provider, if they are contracted to provide a service which is contingent on getting the highest price for my property, then if they don’t do that by informing interested parties of new bids and asking if they wish to increase their offer, I will terminate the contract/sack them as my EA for the sale.

I definitely experienced phantom bids in the past- ie I felt someone else was bidding against me with no intention of buying - I walked away eventually mainly because I had 2nd thoughts about the house- estate agent hounded me for days after hoping I’d reconsider 😂

The main thing I hate about estate agents is that many want you to nearly take the first offer made and close the sale- sorry mate but an extra 5 grand by keeping the offers open for another few weeks might seem like a waste of time to you but makes perfect sense to me.

Under pricing the house is probably the worst thing they can do though- from a sellers perspective it puts too much pressure on to commit to an offer over the asking price - I tend to have my own price in mind when selling below which I won’t budge- never goes down well with estate agents but I get there in the end- like I say many of them want an easy life whereas I’m willing to wait a few weeks more and squeeze a few more grand out of the deal

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118952982#Comment_118952982

I fully understand the process. doesn’t make it right.

Do you not think it’s morally wrong to take a bid from a person with the sole intention of driving up an already acceptable price for the already highest bidder who you will sell to.

Dav010

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118953358#Comment_118953358

Acceptable price? You’d be a bit stupid to sell for less than someone else is willing to pay unless there is a benefit for doing so like a quick cash sale.

So no, I don’t think sellers wanting the highest price they can for the biggest asset they are ever likely to sell, the proceeds of which in most cases are used to buy another home is morally wrong.

happyfriday74

Phantom bids are not a thing , Ireland is a small place, the industry highly regulated and if an agent is caught doing that their reputation is shot.

I have heard of people thinking they were dealing with phantom bids as they might have lost out to a property only to have the agent come back and say the property has fallen through with the party who outbid them and that they will entertain your previously rejected bid.

What's actually happened is exactly what the agent is telling them, the original party could complete and they are doing their job going back to the runners up. Sale agreed is not sold and sales break down for all sorts of reasons during a lengthy conveyancing process.

Icantthinkof1

Auctioneers are salespeople so of course they will use any tactic going to sell the property at the best price for those who’ve hired them

We had a viewing yesterday and the auctioneers told us when we rang to book a time to view it that we were lucky we rang when we did as all the viewing appointments were nearly gone as the property was in very high demand

Total spoofing as we rent the house across the road from the one up for sale and there was only 1 viewing before us and 2 other viewings after us

You can’t blame salespeople for trying to do their jobs and sell properties

Royale with Cheese

I bought an apartment off Sherry Fitzgerald in 2014 that they told me was 72m2 (this figure was on their full glossy brochure as well as their online ads), I had it valued by them 7 years later when I went to sell and they told me it was about 64m2.

I viewed a house a few years back that was claimed as a 4 bed, one of the bedrooms was absolutely tiny to the point that I wondered whether it would meet the legal requirements to be called a bedroom. I looked it up, it did not. Nothing will ever be done about this kind of false advertising though.

spaceHopper

We bought in 2012 during the crash we were looking in 2011 as well. 

My experience of EA's is they work for the seller, they only make money when they sell so it's not in their interest to be d1cks to buyers. 

It is in an EA's interest to talk up not down the market. They will never say it's cooling or quite the market is always hot. 

Then houses were mostly going under asking. SF has about 30 to 50k fat in the asking. 

At a viewing always expect other people to be there especially the first viewing, do you expect EA's to show 20 people the same house on their own knowing that most won't offer or buy it.  There aren't enough hours in the day to do that.

From your point of view. 

Check the area before you go. 

 Expect the heating to be on. If it's not ask yourself is it working. 

 Expect there to be other people viewing it. 

 Be nice to the EA so that they will remember you in a good way. 

Have your finance in place and be ready to offer proof on it. 

  Find out what you can about the seller, why are they selling. 

    Is it a probate sale (tax due)

    Are they buying else where, need to sell/buy first could take time

    Are they at war with difficult neighbours or problem teens....

 

When you make an offer, make it a good one but not to good. Expect a counter offer, when there is, ask about the other offer, have they checked they have mortgage approval, are they in a chain..... If you go up then don't do by 1k somebody else will alway find 2k more to better you offer, they might not find 10K os make it 5K more.  Be ready to walk way early if you think you won't get it. All you are doing is driving up the price for the eventual buyer and house prices in general for you and everybody else

ewiz9

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118955739#Comment_118955739

  Is it a probate sale (tax due)

   Are they at war with difficult neighbors or problem teens

Any suggestions on how to find this?

L1011

You outright ask if it's a probate sale, but a decoratively dated house with no stuff in it = probate in virtually every case. These will almost always get delayed by something. You'd find out for certain before signing contracts with "the estate of..." anyway even if it was trying to be hidden somehow

It's near impossible to find out how bad the neighbours are in advance and nobody will tell you

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118953358#Comment_118953358

You'd forgo potentially tens of thousands of euro on selling your house then, when you felt you'd received a bid that fell under the completely nebulous blanket of 'acceptable'? You would in your backside, you'd get every cent you could.

ted1

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118956176#Comment_118956176

you need to find out if the probate has gone through. Then see if you can find out how many people are involved. I’ve got good deals with probate in the past. They want a quick sale. And once you divide the sale between 5 people , an extra 10k, is only 2k each so they really don’t like to drag out the sale

misterreginald96

It isn't a pathetic technique or anything, just the times we are in I suppose, but I have found that it is so difficult to get second / third viewings of houses (of course I know in places like Dublin it is hard to even get a first viewing! So it's not that bad) but I've given a pair of jeans more consideration and time before buying than some of these 400k houses I've been seeing.

Not only that but when you do get a viewing it is a 5 minute slot (even after bidding) and they always say something like.. "oh work away there i'll leave you at it" then two minutes later I'll find ya man following me around the place - get away from me!

spaceHopper

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118956133#Comment_118956133

Ask the EA the reason for the sale, look at house does it look like a family with kids lives there or an old person. Open the fridge, is it on is it stocked. Look up and down the street. Drive by the house at different times, maybe this is only relevant after going sale agreed

Kurooi

-Sherry Fitzgerald, early 2021 - you need to bid to view the property. They then call back and urge to bid higher because only highest bidders will be allowed inside. Naturally this led to stupid inflation as people had to enter a bid war just to see the place, half if not more weren't serious about buying it. Add to that, I placed a bid (low) and they never asked for proof or mortgage approval. We were legit all meant to bid against any random shadow bids all you had to do was have an email address, create an account and hit bid on their site. Pandemic was used as an excuse but I'm going to say they made a lovely buck on that.

-Outside of pandemic, I was always put off by estate agents on viewing urging to COME IN STRONG and overbid or else they or buyer won't take you seriously. Like coming into a viewing of a house for 300k you're either going to bid 310k on the spot or you're a time waster and they won't deal with you. Insanely unprofessional and rude.

Barnaboy

In the middle of the process right now. Our experience of EAs was mostly positive. While they most definitely work for the seller, they want the quick sale. Lot of extra work for them to keep hosting viewings for potentially minimal extra commission.

Most were pleasant to work with. But never too forthcoming with details. Usually had to push to get info.

We were involved in a bidding war. Initially thought we were being played when we had outbid the others, only to have a last minute new bidder. We decided to pull out when it was getting silly. EA never came back to us on that property so it must have been genuine. They don't even need to anyway. There are so few houses for sale there is bound to be multiple bidders on all properties.

The main thing that pee'd us off was the photography. Downright deceptive most of the time.

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118956176#Comment_118956176

I bought a probate house with **** neighbours, I know all too well. The probate actually went smoothly but the neighbours were an absolute disaster and if we'd know in advance we might not have bought the house.

amacca

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118939364#Comment_118939364

That can occasionally be a problem for a seller. Speaking from experience.