Dodgy Estate Agents

godtabh

I've been looking to by a first home for the last couple of months.

I came across a property that was nice and I bid on it. The estate agent was pushing me and pushing me to make a higher bid saying the owner wanted more and if I went higher the owner would sell straight away.

I had a budget in mind and bid what I felt was reasonable. Estate would ring back every day saying I’d been out bid forcing the bids closer and closer to what the owner wanted but out of my reach.

I get a call saying the owner had agreed a price and that this was the last chance to bid (price was €5k more than what the over wanted and €20k over the listing price) and I said I’d leave it.

On subsequent chats with the estate agent (about other properties) I find out that the apartment had been sold.

About a week ago I pass the apartment and see a sign out side again with another estate agents and I enquire bout it. House was never sold and it seems that the first estate agent was making up bids to force the price up.

Is this practice wide spread and if so how can you tell if bids are genuine? It’s all very off putting. Is there anything you can do about this?

P.S found out some stuff about the apartment block so decided to leave it so I’m back to square one!

Dan_B

There was a program on the box last night showing similar practices in London. It was a real eye opener.

Estate agencies are unregulated and can pretty much do what they like.
A lot of it is un ethical but not against the law.

In order to secure a commision to sell a property they will over value it, they then try hard sell tactics similar to what you have experienced to meet the over valuation.

Hagar

The industry is rife with practices like that. My wife worked for 3 different estate agents, two of whom were household names, and they all conducted business like that. Property was commonly sold to cronies at knock-down prices and the owners were told there was no interest in the property and that was all it was worth.
She was so digusted with the tactics in the last place she just left.
Joe Public is being screwed left, right and centre.

Tazz T

Name and shame.

godtabh

Tazz T wrote:

Name and shame.

I dont want to do that incase its against the rules.

All I'll say it was in Lucan

Hagar

Tazz T wrote:

Name and shame.

Just check the Golden Pages.:mad:

Beruthiel

kearnsr wrote:

All I'll say it was in Lucan

would this be the agency with an american working for them?
cos when I went to buy a house that he was selling, I could see the slime from 50 paces and the amount of 'other bidders' shooting the price of the house up was unbelieveable.
I told him where to stick the house in the end.
I felt durty just talking to the fecker.

lesson from that bbc programme last night is don't ever, ever trust an estate agent

godtabh

Hagar wrote:

Just check the Golden Pages.:mad:

Is there any good ones out there?

A family friend is an estate agent and any properties I look at I run it by her. What she tells me and what the estate agents tell are often very very different.

Really p!sses me off

godtabh

Beruthiel wrote:

would this be the agency with an american working for them?

lesson from that bbc programme last night is don't ever, ever trust an estate agent

Dont know if they had an american working for them as I was dealing with a woman but from what people have being saying it could be any one of the companies working in Lucan.

Wish I had off seen that bbc program last night.

Hagar

If I find a good one I'll let you know. Don't hold your breath in the meantime.

MikeHunt

Seriously, give us the name, raise awareness rather than letting them continue to rip even more people off. It is the Internet after all ;-)

MorningStar

The only thing you can know for sure is the estate agent wants you to pay the most so he gets the greatest commision. That can mean he will sell cheap to a regular customer like a developer or a potential regular customer. Effectively you can't trust them as there is nobody actually checking on them.

godtabh

MorningStar wrote:

The only thing you can know for sure is the estate agent wants you to pay the most so he gets the greatest commision. That can mean he will sell cheap to a regular customer like a developer or a potential regular customer. Effectively you can't trust them as there is nobody actually checking on them.

So your saying he'll sell cheap for bulk customers and expensive for one of buyers? Its poxy. Its so hard to get on the ladder and then there are fcukers like this that make it even harder

Cantab.

Dan_B wrote:

There was a program on the box last night showing similar practices in London. It was a real eye opener.

Estate agencies are unregulated and can pretty much do what they like.
A lot of it is un ethical but not against the law.

In order to secure a commision to sell a property they will over value it, they then try hard sell tactics similar to what you have experienced to meet the over valuation.

I thought it was an excellent program too.

My friend (who has incidently just started out as an estate agent) just bought a small house in Dun Laoighaire. His brother is a commercial property developer and so is well connected. Basically my mate got his house at a knock-down price because he got his brother to give the agent dealing with the house €5,000 cash + future business in return for duping the sellers into selling way below the market price (three sons and daughters of the former owner who all live in America).

The sons and daughters were happy cos they got their share of the will and had no idea as to the actual cost of the property. The € $ exchange rate was also pretty good. My friend got his house for about €50k less in the end.

Everyone was happy you might say, but I think there's an inherent dishonesty in these kinds of dealings.

Moral of the story: don't believe anything an estate agent tells you. Bribe them if you can, but certainly do not let them take you for a ride.

Victor

Tazz T wrote:

Name and shame.

I would prefer not to libel people, but can one tarnish the reputation of an estate agent?

One little bit of hope is auctioneers, they can't / won't mess about as easily because the have a licence to protect.

Cantab.

Victor wrote:

I would prefer not to libel people, but can one tarnish the reputation of an estate agent?

One little bit of hope is auctioneers, they can't / won't mess about as easily because the have a licence to protect.

I wouldn't dare say anything bad about an estate agent or accuse them of duping you. They'll simply call up their solicitors and you'll have a letter dropping in your door before you know it. They are extremely careful about their 'reputation'.

godtabh

Cantab. wrote:

I wouldn't dare say anything bad about an estate agent or accuse them of duping you. They'll simply call up their solicitors and you'll have a letter dropping in your door before you know it. They are extremely careful about their 'reputation'.

I thought to libel some one what you siad about them would have to damage their reputation? Estate agent's reputations cant get any worse!

But as I said its a well know estate agents in Lucan village but based all over the country. If people know lucan village they'll be able to work it out.

thenobody

Stay well well away from Douglas Newman Good

lomb

kearnsr wrote:

I thought to libel some one what you siad about them would have to damage their reputation? Estate agent's reputations cant get any worse!

But as I said its a well know estate agents in Lucan village but based all over the country. If people know lucan village they'll be able to work it out.

Id believe it i heard a very dodgy story where a property in lucan was sold cheap to a person who was also selling their house through the same agent. i believe she got it for 5% under market value. there was alot of interest but people were told to basically bugger off...

MorningStar

Remax in the states are known for quick selling but not best price. So if you want to buy a house you go to a Remax agent but if you want to sell you go to a different agent. The Remax model there is apparently based on many commisions rather than few larger one. As it is a world wide franchise I would doubt it is much different elsewhere.

godtabh

thenobody wrote:

Stay well well away from Douglas Newman Good

Haha spot on!

They had 2 houses on sale last month and now other estate agents are dealing with them. Something dodgy there!

Oral Slang

Stay well away from Castle Estate Agents - I've dealt with dozens of estate agents in the last while & I've never come across one as bad as Castle.

I started a thread a few weeks ago about my experiences with them, don't know if I named them though!

speriamo

thenobody wrote:

Stay well well away from Douglas Newman Good

Amen to that. The "agents" in a certain branch in the city centre, with one exception, were the most unprofessional ever. Had not a clue about prices, location or turning up on time......

lomb

frankly and this is not libelous as there is proof, dng are/were selling a house on haddington road ballsbridge, belonging to that famous 'architect' (primetime) david grant. basically dublin corporation had a demolition order against the back extension of the house, done by david grant without planning permission and there was a registered court order pending for demolition.
on DNGs website, they were listing the extension as a FEATURE!!!!!!
they can sue me if they want but dng are cowboys and i think any court in this land would agree..

The_Conductor

From previous experience add Gunne Residential to your list here too. They are handling all the Adamstown Clondalkin development (though they call it Lucan for some reason......)

Sponge Bob

smccarrick wrote:

They are handling all the Adamstown Clondalkin development (though they call it Lucan for some reason......)

Certain parts of Clondalkin are ONLY called Lucan because Liam Lawlor bribed the post office years ago. The post office are investigating this ...for at least 3 years but have not concluded the investigation yet . As the issue is still under investigation it is misleading of Gunne to call Adamstown 'lucan' although calling Adamstown 'adamstown' on its own is correct .

An Post have already agreed with the main developers to provide a separtate postcode for Adamstown but only when that investigation is complete , Dublin 26 or Dublin 28 IIRC . A few suspects in An Post may not have retired yet though.

Peace

Well when i was buying about 6 months ago 2 seperate agents for an Agency that has its roots in the US and a bog ballon on their signs offered me houses unde the stamp radar if i paid extra in cash in an envelope.

Both times the house was 317,500 and they were asking for 2k-2.5k cash in hand to keep it at that price. Fvcking crooks. Complete scum.

The_Conductor

Peace wrote:

Well when i was buying about 6 months ago 2 seperate agents for an Agency that has its roots in the US and a bog ballon on their signs offered me houses unde the stamp radar if i paid extra in cash in an envelope.

Both times the house was 317,500 and they were asking for 2k-2.5k cash in hand to keep it at that price. Fvcking crooks. Complete scum.

They are not normally that blatant about it.
The usual is they charge you for any furniture or fittings seperately (this can be sizeable, I'm aware of one guy who paid 20,000 for fixtures and fittings). Revenue must have copped on to what was going on.

If you have proof of a request for a cash payment (as opposed to an allegation) report it. At the end of the day it is tax evasion, and every tax payer pays for frauds committed by estate agents in this manner.

Peace

No other proof than he said she said...

I didn't take the deal they were offering on either house, the first house wasn't close enough to city centre/commuter route. The second I bought but i said no to the dodge deal.

Strangely enough about 10 minutes after i turned his cash deal down, there was another bid on the house pushing the price from 317,500 to 320,000. I eventually got the house at 326k.

Sponge Bob

the bidder was probably the estate agents brother , tough luck there peace.

had you stuck to a price ceiling you coulda made it under the 317k barrier and saved yourself 9k (asking) and 10k (stamp duty) . One should catch the estate agent on the last day of the month and watch them try to make their sales targets . If they appear 'very eager' on the 29th then screw them. If they made their target they will screw you .

MorningStar

Peace wrote:

No other proof than he said she said...

I didn't take the deal they were offering on either house, the first house wasn't close enough to city centre/commuter route. The second I bought but i said no to the dodge deal.

Strangely enough about 10 minutes after i turned his cash deal down, there was another bid on the house pushing the price from 317,500 to 320,000. I eventually got the house at 326k.

To be honest it sounds like you were a little nieve. Up to 10K on fixtures and fittings is standard around the lower stamp limit. The tax office know about this as common practive.
Your solicitor should have told you this was standard practice. I have paid a lot of money for terrible furniture over hte years. How much did this cost you in the end? €10K?

I have managed to get see property first and then buy it for a €100 tip on seeing the property first. Not that is a lot less moral than fixtures and fittings.