Suspected fake house offers

[Feebee2]

I had this with a shop I tried to buy last year. It hung about empty for months. I offered the asking price then all of a sudden they wanted highest offers with proof of finance etc. All due to "unprecedented interest".
I reduced my offer by £25k. The shop still stands empty.

[ERICSMUM]

I’ve bought and sold 3 properties in my lifetime and my decisions on all 3 have been mainly based on my ‘gut’ feelings. Once I’d made the decisions I never once felt I’d made a mistake, in fact I knew I’d done the right thing.

Sounds like “gut instinct” played a part in your decision too and really that’s all you can go by.

[ERICSMUM]

Originally Posted by Feebee2

I had this with a shop I tried to buy last year. It hung about empty for months. I offered the asking price then all of a sudden they wanted highest offers with proof of finance etc. All due to "unprecedented interest".
I reduced my offer by £25k. The shop still stands empty.

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They played a silly game and lost. That will teach them to treat ordinary people with disdain.

[3disneykids]

Originally Posted by mitch84

I agree, it does need a lot of work, but we wanted it to be our home, not sell it on.
We could have gone a smidgen higher, but we just didn’t trust that it wouldn’t happen again once we’d started spending money.
We’ll keep plodding on...

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Hopefully for you this will go in your favour...I would take £500 less to see it go to someone for their personal home with some people it will just be about money but hoping it all works out for you. You are being sensible not getting drawn into a bidding war.

[shack69]

This is what i dislike about the English system. if you make an offer and its accepted that should be binding on both parties subject to survey.

[NikNak]

We had a similar thing happen when we put in an offer for a house. The sellers tried to get more money from us but we didn't believe their story so we stood our ground and walked away. It wasn't easy because we loved the house but we refused to pay over the odds for it. Low and behold a few days later they got in touch with us to say "things had changed" and they would accept our offer if we were still interested! We were, so we ended up buying the house (and we still love it 6 years later!) but we're so glad we didn't cave and give them what they wanted because I don't believe for a second that there were ever any other offers on the table!

[walt4it]

Originally Posted by mitch84

I agree. Do you know it didn’t feel right. The agent told DH after our first offer of £114k that it was a no no but that if we offered £118k it would be accepted. I considered asking them to meet us in the middle but DH didn’t want to just get in a bidding war.
We had our £118k accepted, then rejected minutes later with this magical new offer.
Back to the drawing board for us

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Just read through all of the great advice on this thread.
There are few moments in life when you really do have to trust your own instincts, I think you did exactly the right thing. Something will come along soon that has the right feel to it and will probably prove to be an easier deal.
Good luck and keep going

[catherinesian]

It's a difficult one. The agents I used told me they couldn't falsify other offers (we weren't for one moment considering asking them to, it came up as we were discussing another property which we were interested in). But I am sure some agents do. We had two interested parties when we sold our house and waited for both their offers before deciding who to go with.

I would avoid that agent in future, also expressly tell other agents when you give the offer that you want the property withdrawn from sale immediately if accepted and no prior interest being contacted. They clearly took your offer, accepted it (!) and then rang the other people, which is wrong IMO. What they should have done is taken your offer and then rang you back advising of the higher offer - same end but much more professional way of handling the situation and not misleading you thinking your offer has been accepted.

[mitch84]

Originally Posted by catherinesian

It's a difficult one. The agents I used told me they couldn't falsify other offers (we weren't for one moment considering asking them to, it came up as we were discussing another property which we were interested in). But I am sure some agents do. We had two interested parties when we sold our house and waited for both their offers before deciding who to go with.

I would avoid that agent in future, also expressly tell other agents when you give the offer that you want the property withdrawn from sale immediately if accepted and no prior interest being contacted. They clearly took your offer, accepted it (!) and then rang the other people, which is wrong IMO. What they should have done is taken your offer and then rang you back advising of the higher offer - same end but much more professional way of handling the situation and not misleading you thinking your offer has been accepted.

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We’ve just had another offer accepted with a purple bricks property, I can’t say I enjoyed the purple bricks experience, trying to get to view it for example, but they have been very cut and dried with offers etc, went to under offer immediately, and then Sold STC as soon as I provided solicitors details etc.
We have since heard some info re the other agents from local builders/developers as DH runs a sandwich shop so feeds them all every day.

What we believe happen is that it was on the market for a long time, letting the sellers lower and lower the price and expectations.
We offered £114k as we were willing to take on a real project. We phoned the agents to offer it, and they came back to us saying the minimum was £118k. We don’t believe the £118k was necessarily real.
We think that the agents were going to let the vendors know we offered £114k then a developer friend offers £114.5k, as they didn’t think we’d go that high on a property with no central heating, no inside toilet etc.
When we offered £118k, I think they phoned the developers straight away, and they went in at 118.5k.
We don’t know for sure, but we have heard rumours of dodgy practice, so we have a sneaking suspicion
Anyway it got a sale for the vendors of over what we were willing to go to (even by a little bit) so not all bad

[3disneykids]

Originally Posted by mitch84

We’ve just had another offer accepted with a purple bricks property, I can’t say I enjoyed the purple bricks experience, trying to get to view it for example, but they have been very cut and dried with offers etc, went to under offer immediately, and then Sold STC as soon as I provided solicitors details etc.
We have since heard some info re the other agents from local builders/developers as DH runs a sandwich shop so feeds them all every day.

What we believe happen is that it was on the market for a long time, letting the sellers lower and lower the price and expectations.
We offered £114k as we were willing to take on a real project. We phoned the agents to offer it, and they came back to us saying the minimum was £118k. We don’t believe the £118k was necessarily real.
We think that the agents were going to let the vendors know we offered £114k then a developer friend offers £114.5k, as they didn’t think we’d go that high on a property with no central heating, no inside toilet etc.
When we offered £118k, I think they phoned the developers straight away, and they went in at 118.5k.
We don’t know for sure, but we have heard rumours of dodgy practice, so we have a sneaking suspicion
Anyway it got a sale for the vendors of over what we were willing to go to (even by a little bit) so not all bad

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Glad you are all sorted now and think you did the right thing. Congrats on having your other offer accepted