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Original poster

EA invented a bidding war?

47 replies

Redfacedxo · 16/11/2020 23:59

Saw a house we liked and it's ticked all of the boxes it does need some updating. We have offered 10k below asking price 365k for 375k.
We put the offer in straight after viewing the EA called us back and said the house is very popular and it's possible it could go to a bidding war would we want up our offer.
We said no and while we were interested we aren't that interested in overpaying if it comes to it we will go to asking (we didn't share that with the EA)
We thought we had lost it so thought we will probably hold off now and look next year.

To our complete surprise EA later phones back and says the vendor is talking to her husband about the offer and they will get back to us tomorrow has the EA invented a supposed bidding war?

OP posts:
BluebellsGreenbells · 17/11/2020 00:02

Depends

It maybe you are the other buyers are in completely different positions

I all venders are money driven, it could be time scales or wanting a family.

I sold cheaper to a young couple over a charity looking to rehouse x criminals, because of the elderly neighbors either side.

Won’t harm if your offer is accepted

Smallgoon · 17/11/2020 00:10

I don't think they invented the bidding war as such. Seems to me they were either keen to know (or perhaps vendors were pushing to see) what your max offer would be... Not that a buyer would be daft enough to disclose that, but still.

How long has it been on the market? If it's only been on for a couple of weeks, I can see why they asked.

Original poster
Redfacedxo · 17/11/2020 00:17

We are chain free and so motivated to move my father lives in the same village as does my sister (my poor dh lol) it's a brilliant forever house but not interested in paying massively over the odds.

OP posts:
Rollercoaster1920 · 17/11/2020 00:21

They could have done. Pay what you think the house is worth.

Although I lost a house a few years back because I thought the agent was messing us around!

DespairingHomeowner · 17/11/2020 00:32

@Smallgoon

I don't think they invented the bidding war as such. Seems to me they were either keen to know (or perhaps vendors were pushing to see) what your max offer would be... Not that a buyer would be daft enough to disclose that, but still.

How long has it been on the market? If it's only been on for a couple of weeks, I can see why they asked.

This. If there was another offer, believe me you’d hear about it: don’t bid against yourselves
DespairingHomeowner · 17/11/2020 00:33

@Redfacedxo

We are chain free and so motivated to move my father lives in the same village as does my sister (my poor dh lol) it's a brilliant forever house but not interested in paying massively over the odds.
And no need for EA to know you have family in village
MillStone · 17/11/2020 06:34

I think EAs want the easiest, hassle free sale possible. Wouldn’t think 10 or 20 grand extra equates to much for extra for them?

chavocado · 17/11/2020 06:54

Estates agents definitely do invent bidding wars to get the price up. It happened to us on a house a couple of years ago; we made an offer under the asking price (like you about 10k under) and the agent claimed that someone else had offered more (and like us they had nothing to sell) and tried to get us to increase our offer. So I said no worries, let them have it as we're not prepared to go any higher.

Miraculously about an hour later the other buyers had "pulled out" and there was just us left in the running. I told the agent that we were no longer interested and we walked away and bought a different house as I didn't want him to get his commission when he'd been greedy and underhand.

Pipandmum · 17/11/2020 07:48

He suggested the possibility, not that there was one. Normal sales tactic.

Murmurur · 17/11/2020 08:14

We've upped our offer because of an alleged bidding war and I always had my suspicions. No proof either way. I hate the feeling that we might have been played for suckers. However I am still happy with the price we paid, 4k over asking. I've never seen a house in this price bracket, in this catchment area, that I'd pick over this one.

user1471538283 · 17/11/2020 08:18

Yes they did. I'm convinced that for our last house the EA invented another interested party. My EA for here said that open houses are a tactic to incite bidding wars. I dont know if it ever works. My friend was being pressured to offer more after a survey that stated her offer was reasonable. Offer what you think is reasonable and you can afford and that's it.

moronseverywhere1 · 17/11/2020 08:18

They didn't say you were in a bidding war, they said one could happen, which I suppose is true but it's most EA talk. You did the right thing.

moronseverywhere1 · 17/11/2020 08:20

@MillStone I think it's the stats that have more importance to EAs than the commission as such (in terms of negotiations), being able to say they sold X amount of houses at or above asking price within a certain time frame is really valuable to them.

Bwlch · 17/11/2020 08:22

My husband strongly suspected an EA invented bidding war when he bought our house. However, since then, at a social event, we have met the other person bidding. She really wanted it. It wasn't invented after all.

MillStone · 17/11/2020 08:32

@moronseverywhere1 makes sense!

MoonJelly · 17/11/2020 08:46

It's certainly possible. When we bought, our EA was obviously anxious to get his commission because he kept telling both us and the buyer that the other side was getting really bothered about delay and was likely to pull out. It was a complete lie as for different reasons both of us were relaxed about when we moved, and it was fortunate for him that we talked to each other, otherwise we might have got pissed off and pulled out anyway.

Loofah01 · 17/11/2020 09:18

Does it matter if you get the house at the offer price?

Frankly I have an innate distrust of EA and wouldn't put anything past the bastards. I've always thought the process completely fraudulent with the EA acting for both parties. Scottish system is so much better!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER · 17/11/2020 09:29

I’m 100% sure this happened to me, but of course short of walking away, and having them come back saying the other offers had magically disappeared, there was no way to prove it.

Some EAs (not all, I know) are definitely up to all sorts.

Another time, a very pleasant and plausible EA went through the ‘official’ motions of having a property on the market, showing it to viewers, etc., when in reality it was going to be sold very cheaply to someone already designated. (The property - a rental - belonged to one of the EA staff - they did say this in the blurb, since they’re obliged to.)

I do know this, because when I made an offer, very close to asking, he said yes, but only if I could exchange that same day! WTF? Of course I couldn’t - I’d never heard of such a thing, but he very smoothly told me it wasn’t unusual.

I was still nonplussed until about 3 months later, when I checked sold prices and saw that it had gone for WAY below my offer - it was about £180k compared to my offer of £220k - ish.

Evidently it had gone to a mate or a son/daughter of whoever it was, and the relatively low price meant avoidance of a lot of the CGT that would have been due, since it had been a rental and prices had shot up during the previous few years.

The best joke was, while we were standing outside, waiting to view the place, he told me during his very friendly chat, that his father was a vicar!!

Nowadays I’d take anything an EA may say with a colossal pinch of salt.

SuperbGorgonzola · 17/11/2020 10:06

I think it was patter.

My house had been in the market for about 18 months and had been reduced twice. Strangely, as soon as we started showing an interest in it, there was another "very interested party" as well.

Africa2go · 17/11/2020 10:13

Its why the whole system needs to be transparent.

It's so frustrating that regardless of whether its "patter" or "part of the spiel", EAs shouldn't be allowed to do it. The fact that they can invent these sort of bidding wars, or even allude to them, playing on the people's uncertainties around the buying process - its just wrong.

PowerslidePanda · 17/11/2020 11:06

It is a common tactic - but be careful...

We made an offer on a house that had been on the market for 2 months already. As soon as we told the estate agent the amount, she said, "Oh, well just to let you know, they received an offer yesterday (Hmm) that was higher than that, and rejected it". I asked how much the other offer was - she said she couldn't tell me. Then came back with a counter offer, which she said would be enough for the vendors to choose us instead. We refused to go that high, but did up our offer. Went back and forth for a couple of days - up to the maximum we were prepared to pay. Over those days, the "other buyers" were supposedly just sitting on their hands, waiting while the vendor negotiated with us. Absolutely nothing about it rang true. But after we said we weren't going to increase any further, the estate agent said the vendor had chosen the "other buyers" - and sure enough, the house went to Sold STC!

DespairingHomeowner · 17/11/2020 12:34

@PowerslidePanda: sorry to hear that. There may also have been other factors at play eg position/chain free and so on

SillyCow6 · 17/11/2020 12:41

They definitely do. Happened to us on 2 houses, both of which supposedly had numerous other offers over asking price, and our offer of asking price, and they are both still up for sale months later after we refused to up our offer and pulled out.

PowerslidePanda · 17/11/2020 13:16

[quote DespairingHomeowner]@PowerslidePanda: sorry to hear that. There may also have been other factors at play eg position/chain free and so on[/quote]
Yes - they did say that part of the reason was that the other buyers were in a slightly better position. But we genuinely thought it was an estate agent tactic and there were no other buyers!

Mildura · 17/11/2020 13:37

It really makes no sense.

Typically the firm of agents charges roughly 1% - 1.5% of the selling price.

The individual might get 5% - 10% of the fee.

For an extra £10,000 that's £100 - £150 to the firm, and £5 - £15 to the individual.

It really isn't worth inventing an offer from a fictitious buyer and all the agro that brings for such relatively small sums of money.

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