"there's an offer of xxx..." is there a truth obligation

T

Tayto

Registered User
Messages
13
Consider me a total novice here, trying to buy a house on my own - struggling a bit, my question is, in the circumstances of EA stating "there's an offer on the table of XXX" are they obliged to have a true offer, or can this be unsubstantiated porky pies?

I never know if it's just to say 'don't bother bidding below' or if there's a genuine offer.

Thanks!
 
Sometimes there is an offer; other times (I think most times) it's an invention that is intended to give a baseline for offers. There is no sure way of telling. Buying or selling a house is like a high-stakes card game: bluffing is one of the tactics. There is no rule or law that you can invoke to prevent it.

After you have looked at a few properties and held discussions with a few EAs, you should get a feel for the market, and you might be able to make a good judgement about the likelihood of the claimed offer being genuine.

There is no reason why you should not declare an interest below the level of the offer the EA says is on the table, along the lines of "Well, if the offer of €210k falls through, come back to me and I might manage €190k.".
 
Hi Tayto. You say you are a total novice and thinking of b.uying a house. Please remember this step is probably the most important decision which will affect your future life. I would strongly advise to proceed with caution and seek as much advice as you can.
 
There is no truth obligation.

The best advice I can give a novice house buyer is to buy with the head not the heart. There is no such thing as the 'perfect house'. Look at plenty of properties - offer what you think is reasonable if any of them whet your appetite. If you're not successful, take a break for a month or so and start over again. Repeat a few times. If you still aren't successful then you need to lower your expectations or increase your budget!

In years to come you'll not regret not buying a particular house. With patience and caution at this stage you'll not regret buying one either!
 
We've been looking at quite a few houses the last while and almost every one of them, the EA finished with it has an offer of X on it. In quite a few cases this "offer" was different than the amount we got when speaking to them on the phone.

In fairness to some of them, quite a few of the houses have gone sale agreed over the last month or two but there are others that had offers 2-3% below asking which still haven't.

Best advise is to set your max figure before bidding, then don't go above that under any circumstances. 1k turns to 10k quickly enough if you get drawn into a bidding war against yourself.
 
Thank you for the replies.

I was curious if they were under obligation, as is job advertising etc, for legitimate jobs.. so OK I like that advice of saying "sure if the offer of 210 falls through come back to me, I'll make one of 190".

Believe me this is being done with the head screwed on. I've been looking to buy about 18 months now, can't be impulsive when it comes to this level of responsibility/financial burden on your own.

This site is pretty helpful - thanks again.
 
hi tayto,

its one big game and like most games the more you play the better you become.

as the EA ghost bids up, feel free to bid down and play the waiting game to see if the EA ever returns to your offer (possibly on houses where you have a half interest)

theres a great story here for some investigative journalism.

best of luck.

ps. i got ghost bid to ribbons in 2006 (but am happy as larry with my family in the right house for us)
 
In my (limited) experience they are telling the truth.

We were looking at a property, the OH and others were convinced there was no other interested party and the alleged offer was made up. We put in a lower offer and said come back to us if the other offer falls through. The "phantom" bidders bought the house! They dropped their offer then to what would have been our max, but at that stage we didn't want to get into a bidding war and knew they had the potential / willingness to offer more.

"There is a lot of interest in this property" = no offer
 
Sesed said:
In my (limited) experience they are telling the truth.

We were looking at a property, the OH and others were convinced there was no other interested party and the alleged offer was made up. We put in a lower offer and said come back to us if the other offer falls through. The "phantom" bidders bought the house! They dropped their offer then to what would have been our max, but at that stage we didn't want to get into a bidding war and knew they had the potential / willingness to offer more.

"There is a lot of interest in this property" = no offer
Click to expand...

so they offered 200. you offered 175. then you where told they had dropped to 176 and would you be interested in bidding. sounds ghosty.

did they eventaully buy the house for 176? when the register comes out, you can check then.
 
Make a bid under the asking price and tell EA this is all you've been approved for. Say at a push, you could rally 5K from family. You'll quickly find out if there is interest if EA comes back to ask you for the extra 5K

Get family to ring same EA and view house to see if the EA is telling them the same story also about offers.

It's a game of poker and the more you do it, the better you'll become and tell who's sincere or not
 
bloodyhell said:
Make a bid under the asking price and tell EA this is all you've been approved for. Say at a push, you could rally 5K from family. You'll quickly find out if there is interest if EA comes back to ask you for the extra 5K.
Click to expand...
Why bother making up stories? Decide on what you want to offer, and decide on your upper limit.

Make your offer without any discussion of how you might fund the purchase: that sort of stuff is not the EA's business. Whatever you do, say nothing about having access to further funds - that's inviting the EA to drag the extra bit out of you.
 
Padraigb said:
Make your offer without any discussion of how you might fund the purchase: that sort of stuff is not the EA's business. Whatever you do, say nothing about having access to further funds - that's inviting the EA to drag the extra bit out of you.
Click to expand...

Most EA's are now (rightly?) asking if you are mortgage approved etc to try feel out how serious you are. I've seen at least one EA cross a couple off his list after they told him they were waiting to sell their own house before placing a bid. In todays market it can take 6 months to go from putting up the sign to getting the cash in lots of cases - more if the house isn't well priced.
 
Everyone seems to think that a rival bid = a ghost bid, but is it really all that improbable that more than one person in the country is interested in a property? You have to move away from the idea of 'playing the game' and stick to what you are comfortable with financially. If time is on your side then sit and wait, if you are not prepared to bid higher, then you have to be prepared to be patient and also be disappointed. At the end of it all there is a vendor with a target price in mind and they have the last say.
 
jinx9000 said:
so they offered 200. you offered 175. then you where told they had dropped to 176 and would you be interested in bidding. sounds ghosty.

did they eventaully buy the house for 176? when the register comes out, you can check then.
Click to expand...

No they didn't tell us, after many weeks the property had not gone sale agreed we hoped they might have gone away so we called to see what the story was and heard they had dropped it. Sale agreed now. BOO:(
 
as others have said its a game or as i call it a 'blind auction'.
as a seller i see the merits of having an agent but as a buyer, an agent is definitely an obstacle.
its difficult when you have your heart set on a particular house because then emotions come into it and thats where poor decisions are made, try to keep a level head and stick to your budget, win or loose, it was meant to be!
 
Bypass the EA and go direct to the owners. You will be surprised at the lies that are told unknown to the owners.
 
I had always assumed that an EA couldn't "lie". Obviously I figured they could say there was interest etc, but always thought there would be some sort of obligation that all staetments of fact would have to be true. So started out thinking, if he says there's an offer of x, there has to be.
But having been through a lot of dealings with them in the last few months I have been assured this is not the case by a lot of different people.
As others have said, it just adds to the confusion in what is already a pretty stressful business.
Good luck!!!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top