Are we being lied to by the estate agent? AIBU to be so suspicious

[notamum3210]

We fell in love with a property on Saturday and its open day. The property has only gone on the market a few days earlier. It's a popular area but this street often has them up for sale. There were 3 other couples there. We liked the property a lot and it was only very slightly above budget. We made an offer less than 2 hours later and were told soon after that it was a bidding war between us and another couple. 3 days later and after lots of negotiations back and forth, agent came back to us and said that they had 2 identical offers on the table: we were both first time, cash buyers bidding the same amount. Reluctantly, we put in an extra £500 yesterday which is at the very top of our budget and only £1000 under asking price.

Today we were called back by another agent in the same form saying the person we had been dealing with before was now on holiday. Lady said she'd left a message with the vendor but in the mean time she wanted proof that we did have the funds in place for the cash purchase. We sent this over very quickly. On further probing, she said that the offers were the same but that they were mortgaged and not cash like us. It made it sound like we were definitely in a stronger position. Late this afternoon, she called and said that the vendor decided to go for the other couple who had offered the same amount of money but with a mortgage in principle.
I was disappointed but OH is very angry at agent and feels theres been some miscommunication. He thinks the agent he spoke to yesterday who said the other buyers were cash like us only lied to encourage us to bid more money.

I'm baffled that a vendor in this position would pick a mortgage over a cash purchase. The only feedback that agent could give us was that the other party had made an initial offer first but even if that is the case, there can't have been more than an hour in it..

Do you think the agent is lying to us about the other buyers?

I told them we were disappointed and would leave the offer on the table but in truth we are absolutely gutted. Am I being unreasonable to think that this is poor behaviour even for estate agents?

This isn't in london/south east by the way.

I would pop round and knock on the neighbours door they may well have contact details for the owner. I would also get a mate to call the agents about the house to see what they got told. I wouldn't trust the estate agents.

I think the vendor has just decided they prefer tyre other couple. Maybe they think you will rent it out, or perhaps they have a baby on the way. And they did offer first so maybe that's why. Mortgages don't generally fall through anyway if they have the right deposit and income which has presumably been checked out.

They may even know their family of course....

I recently found out an offer I put into a house want even passed on the owner by the estate agent. There was a different house I asked to view this week (with different eastate agent) and was told it's not ready for viewing as they're putting cosmetic touches to it, I then spoke to a different person from the company to be told the agent I had been dealing with was currently doing two viewings at that house and they would get them to ring me back when back in the office.
I'm completely put off estate agents at the moment it all seems very underhand.

I'm sorry for my lack of spelling And typos in previous post!!

We put an offer in and the agent told us he wasn't going to put it forward because it was below asking.

On another occasion the property was marketed by two agents and we were suspicious about other offers that were being made (there had been zero interest in the property and all of a sudden a bidding frenzy). The agents advice 'well isn't it better to find out you are bidding against yourself'. Er no, not really

I can count on one hand the number of estate agents who have behaved correctly. They are not acting in the buyers interests but invariably they aren't acting in the vendors either.

I've turned down a cash offer for a lower mortgaged offer before. I preferred the mortgage couple and wanted them to have the house. I suspected the cash buyers would be landlords even though they denied it.

Often the estate agents are wanting to build a chain of properties that they are interested it - either because they are selling them or because they get a kick back from arranging mortgages or other reasons. So they describe your offer negatively, the other one positively. That might be what is going on here. I think you need to contact the sellers direct.

Of course, if it's a case of the vendors simply preferring the other couple as people, that's completely fine.

For those suggesting we go in to see agent in person, how would we phrase are reason for calling in? Should we just ask for feedback or advice going forward? Or make out that we're interested in one of their other properties (we're not at the moment).

Poppiesway, I believe you. My dad put in an offer on a flat a while ago and he was told it was ''unavailable'' yet it remained for sale =, on the website, for ages. I got my friend to ring up and she was fobbed off as well. Eventually I saw it on the price register and it had definitely been sold for less than market value.

I was a cash buyer but it was obvious that I was going to live in the house. because I didn't have another house

We were turned down in a similar situation because the Vendors knew the other potential buyers. Six months later their buyers pulled out, and we were contacted (had found something else but those vendors didn't really start to proceed) and eventually bought it for less than we were originally prepared to pay.

So i bought the land registry title deed online (cost me £3 and I can see the names of the owners and details of what they paid, when etc.) Under address it give me two houses on the same street including the property itself (e.g. if the property for sale was 3 Swan Lane the deeds say 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith of 3 and 6 Swan Lane).

I know from the agent that the vendors are a separated couple. I don't know how I could go about actually contacting them. Any ideas?