Was the “other offer” fake?

[Citygirlrurallife]

We just put an offer in on a house, about 12% under asking. We’re in a strong position as buyers and agent came back saying there had been another offer that morning for more money but weaker buyers so they were asking both parties for best and final. 30mins later they say they have best and final off from other party. A day later after much discussion we raise our offer to 9% under asking and get a call within 10mins saying it’s been accepted. House has been on the market since late October with no offers at all - was the agent lying in order to get us to raise our offer due to competition?

it does sound a bit fishy, they could have just declined your offer but said they'd accept 9% under if you were willing to increase it. But I guess you'll probably never find out the truth.

Sounds like a very similar situation to me, I had an offer from a buyer in a good position, I had a second higher offer from another buyer, I asked the first buyer if they could increase their offer, they did and I accepted even though it was still slightly lower than the other offer.

Bit fishy. They sound like chancers. Unless I loved the house I would withdraw. They don't deserve a sale. Started a fake bidding war.

We were in a position where the house was on for £375k, we went to £396k at best and final and they came back and said someone else has gone over £400k and do we want to suggest another best and final offer! To be honest I thought it was fake but I saw recently it had sold in the end for £405k so I guess there was another buyer.

Im glad it happened though. That afternoon I saw our house go on Right Move and we ended up paying less for much more house literally round the corner so it worked out well for us in the end.

Is it a reputable estate agency? If so they should be signed up to a code of conduct with someone like the Property Ombudsman, or similar. Maybe ask, or look on their website. They should not knowingly lie about fake offers….. But I’m absolutely sure it must happen sometimes. When we bought our current house we offered 5% under asking price. We were told that another offer had just come in 30 minutes before at full asking price. We upped ours to full ask but stated that it was absolutely our top offer and we couldn’t afford a penny more. We were certain the other people would up their offer and outbid us. We got a phone call the next day to say our offer had been accepted. I always felt it was a bit dodgy - who would go in at full ask first offer, but then not offer a tiny bit more to secure it. We’ll never know!

It’s possible- i have zero faith in estate agents.

Probably all made up to manipulate you into paying more.
If the house has been on the market for 6 months with no offers, the chances of another offer materialising at the same time as yours is very low. Plus the way the 'bids' were dealt with all sounds very rapid and fishy.
Do you love the house or will you pull out/ try to renegotiate?

Agree probably made up. Our selling estate agent told us after we'd accepted the offer from our buyers that he'd made up an offer from another interested party to get the buyers to increase theirs. He was really proud of what he'd done and was looking for thanks from us. I was horrified and told him so. We moved into rented after completion while we continued looking to buy and it made certain we wouldn't look at any houses to buy that were being marketed by them. Shady fuckers.

The answer is possibly.

It is obviously relatively easy to conjure up an "offer" from somewhere. However it is not without risk.

You could have said OK then, go with the better/other offer and they would have been screwed as they lost their buyer.

Ultimately you should be happy with your best and final offer though, or else you wouldn't have made it ?

I think in all these cases the best thing to do is just go in with what it is worth to you from time zero and stick with it through all the (potential) game playing. Whatever happens then you should secure (or not) the house at a price you are willing to pay for it.

Of course there is nothing now to stop you making up another house that you like just as much and telling them to lower their offer back to what you would want to pay for the made up house, but you may lose the house and it is likely to lead to bad feeling, and house purchase process is so fraught and difficult that if you are starting from time zero with bad feeling the chance it will get worse by the point of sale and that you will not end up completing is probably quite high.

Figuring out which sellers are potential game players and likely to be awkward during the sales process at an early stage can save you a lot in conveyancing fees :)

When I was looking at houses and made offers even at asking,.I'd be told there had been a higher offer and could I go any higher.

On multiple occasions I increased the offer but it still wasnt enough. I was always so suspicious and couldn't believe them, even when I'd offered higher. All those houses ended up being sold in the end for higher than I'd offered.

You just don’t know
All you can do in that situation is offer at a level you are happy with

Definitely possible but last year we had been on for 6 weeks with no offers then 2 came along in the space of an hour and a third a few hours later. I did think the people offering wouldn’t believe the agents.

The same thing happened to me when I last moved house. I was told about "another buyer".

I upped my bid and secured the property.

Then I had a survey done which wasn't good and flagged up a whole lot of problems including an unsafe chimney that needed extensive work. So I asked them for a reduction in price due to these issues . The seller refused. So I pulled out.

The property finally sold for £20,000 less than what I offered. Seems like the "mystery buyer" had disappeared up the (unsafe) chimney !

A few years ago when we were selling our old house (already moved into the new one) we got an offer ( a few grant under the asking price). We really wanted to get rid of the house and we were actually considering accepting it - told the agent we'd let them know the next day. However, the next day, before we even got to call them, we got a phone call from the agent telling us to wait until the end of the day as someone else seemed very interested in the property, was informed that we have an offer on the table (but not how much the offer was) - so we should wait to see what this person wanted to do. By the end of the day this new viewer put a better offer which we happily accepted right away (we were even happier to accept it as the previous offer came from a developer, and we preferred for the house to go to a family) . So, it can be possible....

I think I’m a bit meh about it is because our new offer was about £5-10k more than I wanted to pay and we have to do some major work on it where that extra cash would have helped. Also it’s kind of put a sore taste in my mouth and I don’t like that….but I was quite clear we wanted to see what came back from the survey as we were worried about damp etc so I guess I may end up getting that lower amount anyway