Do estate agents LIE about there being other offers to make you bid more?

[yammajamma]

Anyone with actual experience of something uncovered as a lie? Is it allowed?

I always hear about cash buyers from London but not sure if it’s always true.

Do EAs play on how desperate you are for the property?

I think it is generally true that you should never trust an estate agent

I firmly believe you offer what you believe a property is worth and what you are happy to pay for it. Ignore the noise and any pressure. Agree with yourself what your offer is, or what your maximum offer is if you want the two stage approach, then be disciplined with yourself regarding that. You don't offer to out bid, you don't feel pressured to increase it, you stick with what you believe and if you don't get it, something more appropriate for you will come along.
I tend to 'heres my best and final offer' straight off, make that clear, justify why if it's less than its being advertised at if it is then walk away if they say no. Keep it clean, clear and with expectations set for myself and them. no games.

Yes of course they do.

Two years ago, we were selling. The agent told us that they had access to potential purchasers further afield because of their network of branches. They showed our house to a couple from Croydon, who had sold their house, were exchanging the following week and completing the week after that. They would be cash from sale buyers and would move in with family temporarily.

Twelve weeks later, we discovered that, not only had they not completed on their sale, their house had a problem with a newly installed window and their buyer had withdrawn. Not only that, they weren’t cash from sale buyers and needed a mortgage, which they couldn’t get.

We sacked them and the agent and sold two weeks later through a different agent and for more money. So yes, some are definitely not as trustworthy as they should be.

We thought one lied to us like this and then we met the other person 😂
But some others have seem to make shit up to add pressure

Yes - we were told there was an offer on the table
we offered - so that’s 2 offers - but something felt off
so our friends went round and were told “an offer “

Yes. I was in a bidding war and the agent kept saying they were going back to the seller to discuss. Only once we’d got talking on completion day did they ask me why I’d paid so much more than the intended asking price. There was never another person in the bidding war with me.

I work in property sales and whilst there isn’t currently any legislation specifically for EA’s to follow, they do have to abide by the consumer rights act. Within this you can’t mislead a customer, so a good EA who didn’t want to risk losing their job would not lie and say there is an offer if there isn’t one.
I did some EA exams a while ago and whilst I cannot for the life of me remember all the legal stuff, I know it’s definitely not acceptable for them to mislead customers. If you bought a house at a higher price because they lied about there being other offers then you have legal ground to complain etc.

Estate agents are robber barons. I would like to see more customers complaining about hem to their regulators so they got fined or banned.

Obviously they shouldn’t, but they don’t really face strict regulation here and you really don’t know whether something is made up enough.

Yes, some of tell you imaginary offers to get you to push your offer up. Sometimes they do it at the last minute. It's a horrible practice.

I think they are exceptionally sneaky and never rely on anything they say.

Yup, they lie about this stuff on the regular. Always take what the agent says with a pinch of salt - if it's something you can check with the solicitor (like whether there's pressure to exchange), then check it with them. I've several times been told things like 'You must exchange by Friday or the seller will pull out' and then spoken to the solicitor who says 'No, I haven't heard anything to that effect'

Never fully believe what they say.
When we bought our house, we were told they were in the process of moving out so it would be a quick sale, put in an offer based on this and had to faff about with insurance for an unoccupied house. They lied and it took over 6 months to get the keys as the owners were still living in it.
When we listed they made up the most random things almost to put buyers off like saying wood burners were getting banned when it was a main feature in our living room. Lied about viewing times to us, then opened patio doors when we asked them not to and left them and our kitchen door wide open when we returned home, bit insisted they hadn't unlocked the kitchen door and had locked everything up. Took ages to get our spare key back.

They are all out of lies, the market is entering correction mode, even if someone is pressured to make a silly offer, if they need a mortgage the lender will down-value.

https://www.cityam.com/real-estate-firms-going-bust-at-record-rate-as-property-market-slumps/

Yeah, they lie as easily as breathing.

When we bought our current house, the first EA (A) we contacted told us a tissue of lies involving asking price offers from cash buyers, and then said the vendor wasn't doing any more viewings. They strung us along for a whole day with this shit. We almost gave up but we'd done a drive by over the weekend and fallen in love with the place and we had horrible neighbours so were desperate to move.

DH saw that the house was also on Rightmove with another EA (B) . He called them and within the hour we had a viewing that evening. We offered asking price off that viewing.

We learned that there were two offers on the table though EA A but neither of them asking or cash and one of them wasn't even under offer themselves.

While we were waiting for our offer to be accepted I realised what had gone on. EA A's instruction period had just ended when we called. They couldn't show us the house. But instead of being honest they tried to make us go away to increase the chances of one of the two existing offers, through them, being accepted.

So we told the vendor what they'd done. And, as I hoped, she was furious and said no way were they getting her money. So the house was ours. The other two buyers were effectively locked out. ☺️

We've lived here for nearly 20 years now. EA A is still going strong. Many times I've been tempted to go in there and thank them for sealing the deal with their lies. Never had the guts though. 😁

I don't know for sure but we have bought twice, both houses that had been sat on the market for several months and been reduced a few times. Both times (different agents) offers from other buyers appeared on the table the same week we viewed, which I think is mighty suspicious!

We fell for it the first time and paid £3k over asking. Not the second time!

In other news, Pope is a Catholic and Bears shit in the woods.

Thanks for sharing all your experiences. I thought this was a buyers market but I ended up in a bidding war and won but I’m paying over the asking price…

Some (most?) of them do.
I think the offer system is too opaque. I'm not sure how, but maybe there needs to be a way that you can proof an offer is real or not.
In Australia a lot of houses sell at auction which has its own drama. But at least you can see who is bidding and interested.

Def do a survery and if it come backs over valued renegotiate.....

This is IMO a market in decline so whereas I might have over paid "because I love it" un to about 2022 ish now there is no chance.

We had prospective buyers who got caught out by NOT believing the agent. Had a previous house on the market for about 10 weeks. A few offers from non proceedable people and one couple who were very keen but anxious first time buyers.

The FTB were super cautious. Had three long visits, one with their parents and one with a builder to check every little thing. Said they were going to put in an offer later that day and were just checking their sums. Fine.

Then we had a sudden afternoon viewing from another couple. Motivated buyers and very confident. Told them we were waiting on an offer later that day.
That evening we got two offers. A 95% one from the dithery FTB and a full asking price one from decisive couple. We went with the better offer.

The FTB did not believe the agents. Agent told me they said they would wait out these mysterious new buyers and would be waiting for us to come back to them as they wanted to negotiate.

They even turned up at my door. Said they were very keen and wanted to know what had happened. They really wanted the house and would now offer asking price. I think they expected me to admit I’d been playing a game and take their offer. I just said I didn’t want to mess about my buyers and good luck!

We’re selling at the moment and I can well believe the buyers will think this of our agents! It had 15 viewers booked in the first week. The first 3 viewers offered above asking price (it was offers over) and I accepted the third offer, cancelling the next 12 viewings. We didn’t want a bidding war. It does sound bonkers but it’s true!

How do you know they’ve lied though?

Thats pretty much what happened with us. House went on the market Friday pm. 12 viewings booked from Monday am. Four viewings on Monday (first viewer came twice). First viewer offered asking Tue morning, we declined as they had house to sell and continued with viewings. First viewer offered asking again Tuesday pm having arranged a loan against their business so a full cash offer, we accepted and cancelled further viewings. The estate agents did say they'd had lots of calls from people who thought that "the seller has accepted an offer" was gamesmanship/a negotiation tactic.
We completed in 8 weeks ( mainly due to our onward purchase taking longer than expected)