Estate agents claiming they used to live in your house?

[Jazzapples]

Our house is on the market at the moment. We recently switched estate agencies as we weren't getting any viewings. One of the reasons we picked our current estate agent is that when we were speaking on the phone about a property we wanted to view, he saw our address and said in an amazed voice 'I used to live in your house!'.

As we were looking for a new agent anyway I agreed to him coming round, and he spent a good half an hour talking to me all about how he used to live here, he knew specifics about the history of the property and even the unusual boiler we have! He presented a convincing marketing strategy so we probably would have picked him anyway but the thought that he had lived here, might take more of an interest in it and could talk to prospective buyers about the house in detail did affect our decision.

We thought this was all just a coincidence but this evening I came home to a hand written note from a rival local estate agent who says he's seen our property is still on the market and would like the chance to sell it for us because.... HE used to own it!

I know what people say about estate agents lying but I am feeling really silly for believing the first one and actually a bit creeped out about how he sat in my house telling me long detailed stories, well, lies, about the neighbours, and how he and his ex wife came to buy the property and what it was like when they lived here.

Is this a known tactic by estate agents to get business? Has anyone else had estate agents saying they used to live in your property?

Is it possible they lived there together?

Too much of a coincidence for both of them to say the same imo and for it not to be true. They have said different things: one that he used to own it and the other that he used to live there. One had a bit of a property portfolio and the other was a tenant? They may even have worked together in the past.

Could they not both have lived there?
Perhaps it was a rental in the past and they have both been tentants.
Or they are/were a couple.....

We rented from a local estate agent who'd previously let it to colleagues. I doubt it's that unusual.

Maybe you could arrange for there to be some sort of event to mark the momentous occasion of the marketing of the property. Get the local paper involved. They could do an article asking other people (or estate agents) to come forward to tell you stories about your boiler or the quirky way the bog flushes or that hilarious thing that happens when it rains.

You could get Keith Lemon to do a Froot Keyhole to find who hasn't lived in a house like this.

Create a scrap book of estate agents to present to the new owner as a historical record of estate agents who have lived there in the past together with a photocopy of the deeds.

I don't see why they would make this up??? They would look pretty damn silly when they came out and weren't familiar with the lay out etc! Also viewers would start to get suspicious when the same EA claimed to live in every house they showed them round!

The second agent might be lying but I wouldn't automatically think it of the first bloke you actually met.