Do estate agents lie about offers they've had in negotiations ?

[arghhhhhhhhhkkk]

They must do, surely ? Eg:

• we've had two offers at asking price

• your offer is too low and seller went with another offer already

Is this bluffing or truth ?

Registered solicitor/estate agents don't in Scotland, or risk losing their registration (or chartership or whatever it is) if they do. You're probably not in Scotland so that might not be helpful, but what @MaggieFS and @LKnope said is the same here. Buyers typically only get to make one bid. Console yourself, we went about 23% over to get the house we wanted. Crazy, but there's no second chances, once it's gone, it's gone.

this is what it's SO important to set your budget before you enter a negotiation. Then it doesn't matter what anyone else is doing. If the house is worth x to you, then you start by offering less than x. If that offer is rejected, you increase your offers until you hit x. At that point you walk away. The vendor will either come back to you to accept it, if they are able to and haven't had a better offer or they won't.

This. Estate agents know it can be an incredibly emotive process buying a house and will really play on that.

You only needed the first four words of your question, really.

@Namechangeforthis88

Registered solicitor/estate agents don't in Scotland, or risk losing their registration (or chartership or whatever it is) if they do. You're probably not in Scotland so that might not be helpful, but what *@MaggieFS and @LKnope* said is the same here. Buyers typically only get to make one bid. Console yourself, we went about 23% over to get the house we wanted. Crazy, but there's no second chances, once it's gone, it's gone.

If it's gone- when do they change the status to 'under offer' or 'sold' on rightmove ? Million dollar question whether it was bluffing..

I've had hassle with the solicitors rather than the estate agents, but like Rhubarb, because I spoke to the sellers directly, we sorted out the issue between us (it was about the amount of the deposit - we wanted to give 5% rather than 10% and the seller's solicitor had said no without even asking them).

When we put in an offer on this house, the agent accidentally called me back instead of the vendor and said "they've (i.e. me and DH) offered asking price of £x50k. They saw 3 today with us. Yours was definitely their favourite, I think we could go back and tell them it's popular and push for £x60k. !!!!!

I heard him out and calmly explained that he'd called the wrong people, and firmly suggested he call the vendor with our offer of the asking price and not a penny more. We got it!

@arghhhhhhhhhkkk typically it's under offer until missives are concluded.

@Carrotcakefiend

When we put in an offer on this house, the agent accidentally called me back instead of the vendor and said "they've (i.e. me and DH) offered asking price of £x50k. They saw 3 today with us. Yours was definitely their favourite, I think we could go back and tell them it's popular and push for £x60k. !!!!!

I heard him out and calmly explained that he'd called the wrong people, and firmly suggested he call the vendor with our offer of the asking price and not a penny more. We got it!

But that’s the agent doing their job. I get that it works for the seller not the buyer but it’s not lying.

@Whitewinespritzer I know it is terrible. It was for a reputable well known large company too.. I'm sure that all agents are not like that but when some are, it's so hard to trust and differentiate between the two IMO.

When we bought our house there was no chain- we were buying from the estate of someone who had died, our buyer had been renting, neither of us were in any particular hurry. But out EA kept lying both to us and our buyer that the other party was getting really impatient and was going to pull out if we didn't complete and exchange soon. Fortunately we were in direct touch with each other and knew he was lying, but it was very stupid of him: in other circumstances either of us might well have got pissed off enough to pull out of the entire transaction.

When we were renting we met some very strange agents. One kept going on and on about how great the (apartment) building was and how he would be moving in himself when his current lease was up. We have lived here 4 years now and the agent is still yet to move in. It's seemed such a pointless thing to lie about. Was he trying to prove the building was great or was him moving in meant to sway me because then we cound be bffs or something?

I have had a letting agent spewing the most vile and disgusting lies after i had a bereavement…Pity we aren’t allowed to name and shame on here really
My take is they aren’t the brightest people and they assume everyone is stupid enough to believe their BS 🤬

Honestly I don’t know. But maybe they embellish? Who knows. I think it depends on the agency maybe and how reputable they are?

We put an offer 2k over asking for our first property and the agent rang back to tell us it had been rejected due to a higher offer, they wouldn’t tell us what

Sorry posted too soon!

They wouldn’t tell us how much but hinted it was 10-15k over and they’d had similar others too from other first time buyers. We couldn’t afford that and didn’t think it was worth it.

Oh well, mourned a bit and moved on. A few weeks out the blue the agent calls to say the original buyer dropped out and would we like to re offer. We did at the same and they accepted - so who knows what happened to the multiple others offering 10k over!

It’s a dirty business for sure. No way to tell who is honest and who isn’t.

I would expect they do. You need confidence to walk away. They are trying to achieve the best possible outcome for the seller (and that may not be the highest price)

Estate Agents are tricky.

I'm thinking of putting my house on the market at the moment so recently had an estate agent come and do a valuation.

He suggested setting the asking price from X to Y.

X was unrealistically low and around £15,000 less than he though the house would sell for. Y was £5,000 more than he thought I would realistically get for the house.

He then told me that if I got any offers of the lower amount I should refuse them and wait for the higher offers.

So, the lower offer is there to draw people in and then you hope for a bidding war.

Playing games basically, but it seems this is how it's done now.

If find it really annoying when I look on Rightmove for houses at a price I could afford to pay to find that that is only the starting price and there will be a higher price tagged on that the vendor is expecting to achieve, so the likelihood of buying any of those houses at a price I can afford is non existent.

It's all so pointless and frustrating.

Yes - 100%

Yes.