Estate Agents Bullshi*tting me

Spencer Winterbotham

I have a couple of bids in for a couple of properties and can't help feel that the estate agents are lying about the the other offers...

One estate agent keeping changing the story... saying there is 3 bidders and then saying only 2 bidders and just sounds like he is talking out his arse.

The second has said there is very little interest in a property but now that I have expressed an interest all these new bidders have just arrived on the scene and are bidding like crazy.

I don't believe either of them....

Do you think it is common for estate agent to invent bidders to inflate the price?

Michael D Not Higgins

Spencer Winterbotham wrote: »

Do you think it is common for estate agent to invent bidders to inflate the price?

Absolutely. Don't let them run you up.

ArraMusha

"Sure why wouldn't they" ?

They have a vested interest in doing so...the more they get for a house the more they make.

There is no control or regulation or consequences for them whispering lies down the phone.


There are more Phantom bidders than genuine ones!
Only way to deal with E.A.'s is low offers, no ping-pong offers, tell them as many stories as they're telling you. Its their job to talk it up, your job to talk it down. Dont get emotionally attached and be prepared to walk away, this is one of the hardest thing to do as you WILL get attached to a place and have dreams about the future there, tell yourself that this is my max price and if it doesn't work out it wasnt for me, There are always new houses/apts/sites appearing on the market.

Tell the EA that X is all you can afford and that you have an offer in on another place and will be deciding soon. :cool:

davo10

EAs do not have the buyer's interest at heart, they have the vendor and their own interest (not necessarily in that order) in mind when they sell a property. But bare in mind, you have offers on multiple properties so you are "playing the game" as well, which is only right.

paddyh117

Nothing would surprise me with Estate Agents - they are in my opinion stealing a living - especially now in a sellers market where supply is very limited - you could train a chimpanzee to do their job!

But I digress - EA's are obliged to keep all of the bids on a property in what's called a Bid Book - ask to see it.

BeatNikDub

Complain to regulator and get them to investigate if you feel the bids are not true.
All bids must be logged officially and be in line with the regulations set out by the Property Services Regulatory Authority.
http://psr.ie/website/npsra/npsraweb.nsf/page/index-en

cpoh1

Just to give another perspective here - when I was buying our place in late 2012 we bid on a few places before pulling out after being outbid. In all those cases the houses went for in and around the increases the EA's were updating us with. Its not always a big conspiracy, there is a lot of people out there looking to buy in a constricted supply market.

AfterHrsProp

BeatNikDub wrote: »

Complain to regulator and get them to investigate if you feel the bids are not true.
All bids must be logged officially and be in line with the regulations set out by the Property Services Regulatory Authority.


This, the industry is highly regulated now & any PSP operating within the market is required to have a licence. Anyone who says otherwise is talking nonsense.

As somebody has already said an agent is not your friend, they are employed by the vendor, paid by the vendor & build their reputation with the vendor. They are employed by an owner with the main aim of selling the property in a short space of time for the highest price possible.

Like any industry or market out there will be individuals who aren't particularly competent or honest. To try & discredit all agents though is ridiculous in the extreme.

What a lot of people purchasing property don't seem to realise is that its the vendor who often changes his/her mind or demands a higher price. Its in the agents interest to sell the property asap as they will earn their commission.

Think of it like this

Selling a property for 200,000 in 2 months time at a commission of 1% = 2,000 euros
Selling a property for 220,000 in 6 months time at a commission of 1%= 2,200 euros

Which option would you chose if you were the agent. Waiting around another 4 months for 200 euros which will be taxed for an agent would be nonsensical.

Michael D Not Higgins

AfterHrsProp wrote: »

Think of it like this

Selling a property for 200,000 in 2 months time at a commission of 1% = 2,000 euros
Selling a property for 220,000 in 6 months time at a commission of 1%= 2,200 euros

Which option would you chose if you were the agent. Waiting around another 4 months for 200 euros which will be taxed for an agent would be nonsensical.

Think of it like this

Selling 25 houses for 200k over the next year at a commission of 1% =
€50,000
Selling 25 houses for 220k over the next year at a commission of 1% =
€55,000

I think the agent will push for 10% more in commission.

cpoh1

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Think of it like this

Selling 25 houses for 200k over the next year at a commission of 1% =
€50,000
Selling 25 houses for 220k over the next year at a commission of 1% =
€55,000

I think the agent will push for 10% more in commission.

Cash flow is king! That extra €5k is worth jack if you're waiting an age to bring it in.

P. Breathnach

cpoh1 wrote: »

Just to give another perspective here - when I was buying our place in late 2012 we bid on a few places before pulling out after being outbid. In all those cases the houses went for in and around the increases the EA's were updating us with. Its not always a big conspiracy, there is a lot of people out there looking to buy in a constricted supply market.

Yes, that's also my experience: one or two went for a good deal more than the level at which we pulled out of the bidding. I don't think any went for less than we had bid.

I'm sure that some EAs are willing to play a game of bluff, but I'm equally sure that others are fairly straight in their dealings.

In most cases, the "enemy" is not the EA, but the other people who want the property.

I suspect that in a few cases the "enemy" is the EA's client. This can happen if you offer asking price in the hope that it is a pre-emptive bid. The vendor might think "Wow, that was too easy; this place must be worth more than we thought." And the game-playing starts from there.

AfterHrsProp

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Think of it like this

Selling 25 houses for 200k over the next year at a commission of 1% =
€50,000
Selling 25 houses for 220k over the next year at a commission of 1% =
€55,000

I think the agent will push for 10% more in commission.

But you wouldn't be selling 25 houses a year if you're mentality/advice was to wait around 6 months for another 20k from each sale. You'd be lucky to sell 10. Also you'd be lucky if a vendor persisted with you for that six month period & what all about all the extra costs involved, advertising,marketing, time invested in trying to sell the property.

Basically, the simple truth is that its in the best interests of the agent 9 times of 10 to sell the property at a reasonable/fair/good price quickly.

People that think all agents out there are trying to shaft potential buyers for another 10k or so because it will benefit them are wrong.

Michael D Not Higgins

cpoh1 wrote: »

Cash flow is king! That extra €5k is worth jack if you're waiting an age to bring it in.

But the cash is flowing, just not all at once. They don't just work on one house at a time. They might start working on one house that might not pay off for a few months but the one they worked on first a couple of months ago is paying off now.

Michael D Not Higgins

AfterHrsProp wrote: »

But you wouldn't be selling 25 houses a year if you're mentality/advice was to wait around 6 months for another 20k from each sale. You'd be lucky to sell 10. Also you'd be lucky if a vendor persisted with you for that six month period & what all about all the extra costs involved, advertising,marketing, time invested in trying to sell the property.

Basically, the simple truth is that its in the best interests of the agent 9 times of 10 to sell the property at a reasonable/fair/good price quickly.

People that think all agents out there are trying to shaft potential buyers for another 10k or so because it will benefit them are wrong.

The delay to 6 months is a bit of a red herring to be honest. I've seen people on here get into bidding wars where 10k is the jump in a week.

Larbre34

If you think hes b/sing you, call him out on it. Tell him thats your bid then go quiet on it.

AfterHrsProp

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

But the cash is flowing, just not all at once. They don't just work on one house at a time. They might start working on one house that might not pay off for a few months but the one they worked on first a couple of months ago is paying off now.

That's a big risk to be taking for very little gain. It doesn't make sense. Do you think it looks good for the reputation of the business either for them to have a for sale sign up outside a property for 6 months without it being sold or even sale agreed?

Michael D Not Higgins

AfterHrsProp wrote: »

That's a big risk to be taking for very little gain. It doesn't make sense. Do you think it looks good for the reputation of the business either for them to have a for sale sign up outside a property for 6 months without it being sold or even sale agreed?

Again, red herring on the 6 months, squeezing the bidder for 10k can take as little as a week.

AfterHrsProp

Michael D Not Higgins wrote: »

Again, red herring on the 6 months, squeezing the bidder for 10k can take as little as a week.

You're missing the point, squeezing the bidder for another 10k with phantom bidders & potentially jeopardizing a sale or extending the sale out for another few months is simply not worth the agents while for an extra 100 euros or 2.

Only an idiotic agent would approach a sale like this, the truth in most of the cases is that the agent is trying to convince the vendor to accept the best price they have actually received within a 4-8 period as this is usually a reasonable time to judge a properties value/interest.

Not to mention an agent could lose his/her licence & also their reputation adopting these type of strategies. An extra hundred or 2 in commission is simply not worth it.

witchgirl26

While I've no doubt that this sometimes happens & I'm not estate agents biggest fan, in the current climate of house buying, they may actually be telling the truth.

I'd gone to see a few houses and at the time we went, there wasn't that much interest but there was 2 or 3 others. House went sale agreed a couple of weeks later.

Same with the idea of the number of bidders changing, I know we dropped out for a little while on one house but looked at things again & went back in (we'd asked to be kept in the loop).

I'm not saying it's all legit or anything but there's a lot of demand at the moment. Course the estate agents are trying to get the best money for the people who are paying them (the seller) & probably don't care that much about you (the buyer).