I'm just wondering if this ever happens, a house we are bidding on suddenly has somebody bidding against us and the circumstances are a little strange, does anyone have any experience of this.

Yes. Not much you can do about it, unfortunately. Best option? Tell the EA your bid is your maximum, then short-circuit the EA and go see the owners directly (if you can get to know who/where they are) and let them know about your bid. After that, it's down to brass tacks, but at least you'll have cut the interfence out.

somebody on here a while ago was taking the estate agents to court over this

they wound up at a barbeque with either the vendors or purchasers of a house they'd been bidding on, and the whole two sides of the story came out

sorry, I can't remember a good keyword to search on :(


we never deal direct with the agents - we deal with the vendor/purchaser to ensure no chinese whispers can take place

Used to happen all the time in Sheffield, I really wish it was easier to catch them out as it's fraudulent behaviour and part of the reason for the housing bubble that is now bursting.

Thanks for all your replies, its just a gut feeling i have. LOOb thanks for the advice about getting in touch with the seller. I think i'll do that tomorrow.

I'm just wondering if this ever happens, a house we are bidding on suddenly has somebody bidding against us and the circumstances are a little strange, does anyone have any experience of this.

Maybe there is 2 people keen on the house.

Maybe there is 2 people keen on the house.

Very possible of course but i have reasons to be suspicious which i won't go into.

Is the Estate Agent a member of the NAEA or the Ombudsman?

If you suspect that they may be playing games with ghost offers, speak with the NAEA and see what they have to say about the issue.

this happened to me, just say your not getting into a bidding war stick to your offer and wait and see if you call there bluff, if they accept your offer say you have had second thoughts and put in a lower offer and play them at there own game.

Not that EAs are all squeaky clean but watch out for dodgy bids from the owners as well.
If the agent is getting 1% of £300,000, he's not going to risk losing it for 1% of £1000.
The problem is when the going was good they thought they could walk on water, I would think now they are happy for the sale at any price.

Lola, depends how much you wish to risk it, but you could always withdraw your offer completely and gauge the reaction of the agent.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if some estate agents use these unsavoury tactics. As others have already mentioned, simply remind them it’s a buyer’s market and you’re not interested in bidding against other potential buyers when there’s so many other opportunities out there. In fact, if I were in your shoes and was sure the seller or EA was trying to play me... I’d call them back and say it’s just as well as I’m having doubts about my original offer. Tell them you’ve just seen the news on tv and they're predicting house prices could fall another 50% in the next two years. I'd then say my offer was on the table until the end of the week. Otherwise, I'm gona wait for 3 months and I may come back and reconsider putting in a new offer which I'd imagine would be considerably lower.

I know it’s easy for us to make comments and suggestions such as these, we don’t know your circumstances or how badly you want this house. I was in a similar situation to this 6 months ago and tried to listen to my head, but it’s not so easy when you have a wife going on and on 24/7 about this house she desperately wants. Needles to say she won the war and after 4 weeks of playing the waiting game with the seller/EA we agreed on a price that i believed was fair... although im not sure the seller thought the same. If i was making a offer on my house today, it would have been less than i made 6 months ago.

This has happened to me today, I'm so upset.

Have found a lovely house and put a bid in at the asking price, which is just under the stamp duty threshold. Another couple was bidding for it, but they had a house to sell and we haven't, and the current vendors want to sell quickly. I had every reason to be optimistic.

The EA have just phoned me, to say that a friend of the vendors has made another offer for the asking price, and also has no house to sell. I had no idea there was a third party. Is this a trick to make us increase our offer? We know the house is priced fairly in the market conditions, or perhaps even a tad undervalued, and this is why we offered the asking price.

Do you think this "friend", who has come right out of the blue, is genuine? The EA is Saxton Mee, Hillsborough office.

This has happened to me today, I'm so upset.

Have found a lovely house and put a bid in at the asking price, which is just under the stamp duty threshold. Another couple was bidding for it, but they had a house to sell and we haven't, and the current vendors want to sell quickly. I had every reason to be optimistic.

The EA have just phoned me, to say that a friend of the vendors has made another offer for the asking price, and also has no house to sell. I had no idea there was a third party. Is this a trick to make us increase our offer? We know the house is priced fairly in the market conditions, or perhaps even a tad undervalued, and this is why we offered the asking price.

Do you think this "friend", who has come right out of the blue, is genuine? The EA is Saxton Mee, Hillsborough office.


The trouble is only the EA and possibly the vender knows if this new offer is legit or not. Given the current state of the housing market, I certainly wouldn’t get into a bidding game. After all, it's a buyer’s market and you’re in a great position. These guys should be dancing to your tune and not trying to make you sweat.

Why not ask the EA if they have anything else in their books, in the same area and in your price range? Mention you're gonna have a look at the other EA's... If they're really trying it on and it looks like your starting to losing interest, you might find your this new offer suddenly disapears.

This has happened to me today, I'm so upset.

Have found a lovely house and put a bid in at the asking price, which is just under the stamp duty threshold. Another couple was bidding for it, but they had a house to sell and we haven't, and the current vendors want to sell quickly. I had every reason to be optimistic.

The EA have just phoned me, to say that a friend of the vendors has made another offer for the asking price, and also has no house to sell. I had no idea there was a third party. Is this a trick to make us increase our offer? We know the house is priced fairly in the market conditions, or perhaps even a tad undervalued, and this is why we offered the asking price.

Do you think this "friend", who has come right out of the blue, is genuine? The EA is Saxton Mee, Hillsborough office.I think many of us are suspicious of Estate Agents, with good reason in some cases! ( I am not happy with the sealed bid practice)and Saxton Mee are certainly no exception from my experience.

This has happened to me today, I'm so upset.

Have found a lovely house and put a bid in at the asking price, which is just under the stamp duty threshold. Another couple was bidding for it, but they had a house to sell and we haven't, and the current vendors want to sell quickly. I had every reason to be optimistic.

The EA have just phoned me, to say that a friend of the vendors has made another offer for the asking price, and also has no house to sell. I had no idea there was a third party. Is this a trick to make us increase our offer? We know the house is priced fairly in the market conditions, or perhaps even a tad undervalued, and this is why we offered the asking price.

Do you think this "friend", who has come right out of the blue, is genuine? The EA is Saxton Mee, Hillsborough office.

I doubt that this third party exists, contact the vendor direct and ask about them.

The EA have just phoned me, to say that a friend of the vendors has made another offer for the asking price, and also has no house to sell.That sounds fishy as hell. Why would the 'friend' and 'vendors' go via the estate agent? If the vendors have any nunce, and that 'friend' really exists, they'd do a private transaction and save themselves the EA's fees :loopy: And how convenient that this 'friend' is in the same circumstances as you (not in a chain)... In the circumstances explained by this EA, I expect this EA would actually be the last person to know about it :rolleyes:

I'd call the EA and tell them straight: not interested in a bidding war, and tell EA your offer is maintained but, as of today, is decreasing by £1000 per week (adjust amount/period relative to house value). Better still if you can talk to the vendors, give them your conditions too (you're making the offer, you are entirely free to 'attach strings' to it at any time ;))

I wish more people would complain to the governing body of estate agents over things like this, might start to weed out the unprofessional ones!

The thing is that the seller wants the best possible price! and most are not concerned how it is achieved,and we all become sellers at some stage,hence the continuing presence of Estate Agent wielding great power over people making huge financial life changing decisions !

The thing is that the seller wants the best possible price! and most are not concerned how it is achieved,and we all become sellers at some stage,hence the continuing presence of Estate Agent wielding great power over people making huge financial life changing decisions decisions!
There is a clear and distinct difference between looking after the client's best interests by doing a good sales job, and resorting to deception.
To an extent, this practice amounts to obtaining (more money) by deception (imaginary bidder) which, unless I'm very much mistaken, constitutes actual fraud, therefore a criminal offence.
Personally, I'd be concerned about how my selling requirements are looked after, and I'm certainly not about to tacitly condone the use of deception to 'get the best price', as you seem to suggest. Particularly as that's what got us in the current mess in the first place, to a fairly large extent.
Each to their own standards, I guess.

Its called gazumping and its standard practise

Standard to the point that I fell victim to it once when renting

Its called gazumping and its standard practise

Gazundering is also standard practice as well, especially now that it is a "buyers market".

Me and my gf just bought a house before Christmas, and would really just go with the advice of standing firm with your offer - it IS a buyers market (at least at the moment), and there's bound to be other houses out there just as nice. We also got a bit of a bargain (in our minds anyway) as the vendor had had the house on the market for 6months, been "gazundered" twice and basically HAD to sell due to moving out of the area completely - we then were able to negotiate a figure that all parties were happy with (tho I suspect we were happier than they were!) within a couple of hours of our initial bid.

When we were looking, we also had one Estate Agent "trying" (not in any kind of suspect, pressure-tactic/hard-sell stylee, may I add) to get us to put a bid in on a house that we'd viewed a couple of times - they'd not dropped the price at all at that point as it was new on the market, but when they (correclty) thought we weren't going to put a bid in the vendor suddenly dropped the price by 7-8% to see if that'd make a difference...

I'd think best advice to the person that's now in a "bidding war" with the vendor's "friend" should just hold firm, and basically pay what you think it's worth/what you can afford. Losing your dream home for the sake of saving 1 or 2k is stupid, but equally overstretching yourself. As with any haggling, the key is to a) know how much it's worth, and b) know how much you're prepared (or able) to pay for it.

And above all, be prepared to walk away if you can't afford it - there are hundreds of houses out there and, with the market the way it is, there's every chance that that dream house that you can't afford at the moment will drop to an affordable level in a few months when it's still sitting there with a "For Sale" sign outside....

We know the house is priced fairly in the market conditions, or perhaps even a tad undervalued, and this is why we offered the asking price.Hang on a minute, I've just copped this bit in bold belatedly. You offerred the asking and the EA called you with a rival bid?!? :gag:

In my opinion, with the market as it is, they are definitely taking the mick.

Don't get me wrong, it is the sellers' prerogative to choose whoever they want, e.g. given equal bids of the asking price, to choose their 'friends' over you.

But cynical-me tends to believe, the EA has copped on that they have underpriced the house (since you offerred the asking as your first offer) and now they are trying to raise it. Never offer the asking, even if you are ready and willing to go up to it: you never know, you may end up with a bargain (i.e. less of a financial chain around your neck, which can't be bad in anyone's book!)

Don't forget that whatever you'd offer on top of the asking price must be paid in cold hard cash: you can't mortgage beyond the asking price, and there's no 100% mortgages these days, so bear that in mind when considering the deposit requirements (e.g. 25% deposit plus whatever you bid beyond the asking)

I suspected an agent of doing this to me years ago, and I also suspected collusion on the part of the vendors. So I kept "bidding" up to about £16K above the asking price, then bailed out, letting the "imaginary" buyer have it. :D

It was still on the market 6 months later. Every time I drove past, I nearly wet myself laughing. Serves 'em right. :thumbsup:

Its called gazumping and its standard practise

3 years ago yes.

Edit - also, gazumping is making a higher offer on a house that has already got an agreed sale.
Estate agents making up bids is called lying and fraud, and it's not standard practice, or at least not if they get caught as they can't sell houses from jail.

Thank you so much for your advice. I'm afraid when I heard about this "friend" I panicked, and I'm embarrased to say I offered some money over the asking price on fixtures and fittings. This offer was accepted.

I know, I'm stupid. Now that I have a clearer head, I feel I've been taken in big style, as quite clearly this "friend" was probably never in the picture. In my defence, I can say there are quite few houses of this size in the area, and it is ideal for my family for a number of reasons. We really want it. Also, all in all is not really overpriced, even in the current market; but still, I feel the vendors got this price from us through deception.

Now my question. As I have only agreed to this money on fixtures and fittings on the phone, is there anything I can do anything about it now? I feel awful about going back on my word: I have never done it and it feels wrong. On the other hand, I think this is appalling professional practice, although this "friend" idea could have come from the vendors and not the EA.

And of course, there is also a possibility that this friend does exist, and that we could potentially lose the house for the sake of a small amount of money. What do you think? Should I just swallow my pride and turn a blind eye?

nah, i think you should go back with a lower than asking price offer (lower than you gave before) and tell em you have seen another property that has also taken your eye and are reconsidering over cost etc

play em at their own game.

it sounds like the friend never existed. if they refuse that offer then go back with your original at asking price and then tell em you wont budge from that.

Thank you so much for your advice. I'm afraid when I heard about this "friend" I panicked, and I'm embarrased to say I offered some money over the asking price on fixtures and fittings. This offer was accepted.

I know, I'm stupid. Now that I have a clearer head, I feel I've been taken in big style, as quite clearly this "friend" was probably never in the picture. In my defence, I can say there are quite few houses of this size in the area, and it is ideal for my family for a number of reasons. We really want it. Also, all in all is not really overpriced, even in the current market; but still, I feel the vendors got this price from us through deception.

Now my question. As I have only agreed to this money on fixtures and fittings on the phone, is there anything I can do anything about it now? I feel awful about going back on my word: I have never done it and it feels wrong. On the other hand, I think this is appalling professional practice, although this "friend" idea could have come from the vendors and not the EA.

And of course, there is also a possibility that this friend does exist, and that we could potentially lose the house for the sake of a small amount of money. What do you think? Should I just swallow my pride and turn a blind eye?

If you def wanted it I think you did right,there was a chance you could have lost it and now you have it,at the end of the day its about what your dream house is.

i am in this situation at the minute...

-rang up saturday for a second viewing on a house, also asked if there was any interest, feedback etc. EA said mainly negative feedback, and NO OFFERS.
-i look at the property, by this time EA has closed.
-ring up monday (5 business hours after last call) to put an offer in 9k below asking. i get told that someone put an offer in LAST WEEK for 7k below. So thats conflicting info already!
-i put in 6 below (got rejected) so went to 5k below.
-then i get told yesterday that i have been outbid by 100 quid!! which seems a small increment, so once again i have upped it.

However i am very suspicious of being ripped off by the EA.. some things just dont tie up and this place has been around since last October on and off. My feeling is that the EA is just trying to nudge me a bit higher. should also mention something very similar happened on a previous property which i pulled out of in the end.

any thoughts?

I would drop my price again and tell them to get stuffed- they are obviously lying to you in order to get there commission up.

You could always leave your offer on the table, but tell 'em it's for a limited time only, say a week. Gives them time to come to their senses, and for the "other buyer" to "drop out". Saves their face, and you get to pay the price you want to pay.

does not surprise me they wanted nearly £5k to sell my house!

I'd combine scottfI would drop my price again and tell them to get stuffed- they are obviously lying to you in order to get there commission up.with perplexedYou could always leave your offer on the table, but tell 'em it's for a limited time only, say a week. Gives them time to come to their senses, and for the "other buyer" to "drop out". Saves their face, and you get to pay the price you want to pay.by reverting to your £7k-under-asking level, valid-for-a-week-then-deemed-withdrawn.

As main (and single) justification, I'd be as brunt as needed and just tell the EA that the sequence doesn't tally:
(i) Offer of 9k, get told at same time an offer of 7k has been made within 5 working hours spread over a weekend, which moreover is inconsistent with the information they gave you in the first place
(ii) Improve that by £1k but get rejected (not outbid?!?)
(iii) Improve that by £1k again but get outbid by £100 (how did the 'other buyer' happen to know so precisely at what level to pitch their offer?!? I've yet to deal with an EA who will tell me what they 'other buyer' has offerred, at any rate with enough precision that I can outbid by a mere £100!)

Basically, call them liars to their face, but keep an offer in so they can swallow their pride and still go after their commission.

as said before i upped it by £500 to £4500 below asking.
couple of notes:
when i put 6 below in they said it might take 1 or 2 more grand.
whenever the 'mysterious bidder

get this: they rang me today and have said the seller wants £2k below asking 'to fit in with their budget plans'
no word of this 'mysterious bidder' either...

ive backed off at this stage.. someone is messing me about, either the seller or EA. my guess is the EA!
told them my last offer stands but they cant keep asking for a bit more and a bite more after that!

I would follow L00b's advise- revert back to your old offer and tell them that its there for a certain period.

Is there any chance you can call the seller directly and explain the situation to them and see what they say?

get this: they rang me today and have said the seller wants £2k below asking 'to fit in with their budget plans'LOL! Served with that, I'd have been very happy to inform them that £2k-below-asking "did not fit with my budget plans", and let them enjoy another month without commission :hihi:

Your deal and your life and all that, but I wouldn't have let my offer stand, I'd have pegged it back. Watch them turn around in a day or so, and tell you your latest offer has been accepted after all: they'll have made an extra £4k or so (you were going to offer @ £9k under) by lying and cheating, getting away with it again :mad: