Fictitious offers?

[ANH89]

Has anyone had any experience of an EA making up an offer to drive up prices?

We saw a property that was ideal for us but a bit overpriced in our opinion as it needed a lot of work to modernise. Was on the market for £375K, we offered £350K which is what we could afford at the time. Apparently there were 12 other offers and went to best & final, we missed out. We called to check the progress of this property as we found ourselves in a position to offer more but stopped short of formally offering as there seemed to be a bidding war and didn't want to get involved. We asked the EA to keep us updated if it fell through and to also let us know if similar properties came up with them, we emailed once about this and called once to check on the progress of the house we missed out on. A couple of months later another property on the road came up with them, smaller property, less desirable location on the road, despite this was on for more at £395K. I think the EA sensed we were keen on the other property. We booked to see this new one but truthfully we weren't feeling it as much, thought we'd see incase it felt different on viewing. Anyway the previously very cagey EA called us the morning of the viewing before we'd seen it saying that they've already had multiple offers on the property and that we'd have to offer over £420K to have a chance and 'by the way the previous property has now gone through and it went for £430K'. We found it strange to be told this over the phone before the viewing and said we'd decide if we would offer once seeing it. We viewed the property and 15mins after the viewing before we'd even got home the EA called and left a voicemail asking us if we were putting an offer in. Again very strange as the last property we had a day at least before being asked to put in a best and final and if anything we were chasing the agent. We emailed them the next morning to say we wouldn't be offering.

So now, 3 weeks later the property is still on the market - was this just an elaborate plan to get us to offer over asking and to bid against a fictitious offer? All seemed very strange and makes me very dubious about viewing with this agent. Has anyone experienced anything similar to this?

I think it’s cagey that they are disclosing what other properties went for. On the one or two times I have tried to eek this information out of an EA, they diplomatically tell me there is no way in hell they will disclose what they sold for.

Do you have property log so you can see how much this agent is having to discount all the houses they have for sale?

I have no doubt that on occasion it happens. But generally my feeling would be that's it's not especially common.

Whether a house sells for £400k, £420k or £430k makes very marginal difference the the commission received by the EA. It's not worth jeopardising a genuine chance of a sale by chasing a very small amount of additional commission.

Yes this is what I found strange, I've never been explicitly told what I'd have to offer to 'beat' another offer. I think it used to be more common to be told what competing offers were in the past but it hasn't been for a couple of years at least. Yes thanks use property log, this agent usually overprices and drops eventually.

I see what you mean. I just find it strange that there were supposedly multiple competing offers and it's still on the market. It just feels like they were over playing their hand a bit thinking we were very keen on the road.

Hard to say what’s going on here, the PP is spot on about commission.

Perhaps they have a strategy to price far lower than sellers want to start a bidding war, which would explain the over the top pressure re you offering.

Re the house not marked as STC. I once got an implausible explanation: the vendor hasn’t found a house to buy and doesn’t have memorandum of sale in place doesn’t want it marked as STC til the paperwork is in order. So I put a note through their door. By this time it had been on for three weeks. A week later, with no contact, it duly goes STC.

Sellers themselves can be strange with their requirements.

Yes, it sounds strange and was probably all made up to try to make you bid over asking. The pushy phone calls sound as if he is a bit desperate, rather than managing a sale where he already has multiple offers. If this was the case, he wouldn't waste his time. Either way, I would be very put off by these tactics.
With regards the first property, you can always check the land registry in a few months to see what price it sold at.

@KievLoverTwo hmm maybe a seller thing but with an offer apparently £25K over asking I'm surprised the supposed buyer isn't pressuring for it to be taken off the market or marked SSTC. @rainingsnoring my thoughts exactly. I'll be keeping an eye for land registry sold info but with the glacial pace they're updating I'm not holding my breath.

Thanks for your thoughts!