well, we sold our house YIPPEE!!

means we can (finally) put in offers on the house/s we like. we just rang the agent for our #1 preference and put in our offer.

the agent (who is pretty pushy) told us that we are #3 on the list and if we offer $10K more we will get the house. now we don't believe that there are really 2 other offers - is it legal for him to say there are if there aren't? does anyone know?

CONGRATULATIONS on the sale!!! I hope you got a really good price so that you are in a great position when you buy your next home.

And now for that purchase ....

We copped something similar when we bought our house five plus years ago. We were told that another couple that just happened to be at the same inspection as us (yeah sure) had put in an offer that was five thousand more than our offer. We stuck to our guns and said that this was our final offer (one thousand more), take it or leave it. We feigned indifference and it worked ... the very next morning we got a call to say our offer had been accepted. Their bluff to get more money out of us never worked in the end.

Now whether it is legal for them to use these tactics I'll never know. I expect not but unless you have the proof that their method of securing a higher price is on the dodgy side I'd say that it might be worth just trying to play them at their own game IYKWIM.

Good luck.

Cheers,
Helen.
<a href="http://lilypie.com"><img src="http://www.lilypie.com/pic/050424/cb8d2cf.jpg" alt="Lilypie Baby Pic" border="0" /><img src="http://lilypie.com/baby2/040422/2/7/0/+10" alt="Lilypie Baby Ticker" border="0" /></a>

Woohoo Karen. Congratulations on the house sale. I hope you got the $$$ you were after.

Re. the agent I don't know. Sounds suss to me. If they had a genuine offer that was the money they wanted, why would they try to string you along?

Good luck I hope you get your 1st choice

Susana & DH Chris[size=1] aka GoateeCat
DD Delia Jade 13/11/02 & DS Darcy Cole 2/11/04

Congratulations, again, Karen!

It's definitely unethical, but I don't know if it's illegal or not. If you don't think it's worth another $10k, or you know you can find somewhere else you'll like (remembering the market seems to be dropping, or at least plateauing), I'd ask the agent to tell the vendors that your offer stands for now.

If you want to play hard ball, look sorrowful then ask the agent what other properties he's go on his books - or even worse, ask if $x is a good price for a property in MacGregor. <grin>

Good luck!

Kristen

Hi
Congrtatulations!!!
I dont think they are allowed to tell you things like that. When we were looking for somewhere to buy I actually asked some real estate agents how much we have to offer to get the house and they always say that they cant tell us. Secondly does the real estate agent happen to be Maloney's???
We found they were constantly telling us "figures" that was the "lowest" the builder would accept. In the end we offered a price and that was it we wouldnt budge, they said no and now they keep calling us asking if we want the property as 2 months later it is still for sale. I have also found Independent quite pushy too.
Anyway it worked out better, now we are building a nice house at majura rise, Watson.
Good luck I hate dealing with real estate agents - I feel like they are always trying to con me.
Michelle

Me Shelly
DP Ian
DD Maddison Grace
13 June 2004


This message was edited by shelly1 on Sunday, 22 May 2005 @ 7:56 PM

well it's been quite a saga! i'm 99% certain he was making up the other offers but there's still that 1% of doubt hopefully tomorrow we can sort this out and the house will be ours all ours muahahahhahaah! however if not then it wasn't meant to be and we will move on

what a sleazebag though! (and no, not maloneys, though we met a shocker from there last weekend! he's from LJH, though so is our agent (different office) and she's lovely and much more ethical than he is)

YAY yay Congratulations Karen and family!

Re the house you want - offer what you are willing to pay, it's the only way of being happy with your purchase in the end. Eg if you want to pay $355k for a house and I only want to pay $325k for the same house, we would both put in offers based on what we feel comfortable with, the vendor would then obviously take the higher amount (yours) over the lower (mine). My agent was trying to hurry me along by telling me there were 3 other agents wanting to show very keen people through the house I have an offer on. Uh, yeah - so where were they at the open for inspections this weekend? Dad, Ryan and I had the house to ourselves... Mmm... ! If you really want the house - offer what you can afford to pay for it. Sure you might miss a "big bargain" by offering above what the vendor willtake, but the house will be yours, which is the ultimate goal.

Sorry, I'm being philosohphical tonight. Dad and I did a very thorough check of "my house" today and as a result I'm withdrawing my offer - I need a house that isn't going to fall apart on me in the near future! This one might.

Be sure to call on us if you need a babysitter while you pack. I'm sorry but I took all our packing boxes to the recycling depot at the tip last week, otherwise you could've had them too.

Alice

YAY YAY YAY YAY YAY!!!!

See told you not to stress about tidying

Congratulations to you and Geoff and good luck with the offers *fingers still crossed for you*

oh alice i hope the right house comes along for you very soon.....

thanks for the babysitting offer! i have told dh he needs to ask his family to help out a bit in the next few months as my poor mum is exhausted but helping more than she's physically able. (even though she won't say no)

see the thing is we'd already planned to pay what the agent's asking, it's just that he got up our noses with the way he went about it. i just hope we're not cutting off our noses to spite our face, but i'm also a bit philosophical - i figure if it falls through then it wasn't meant to be...

Hi. I don't post here often but thought I'd just say that I agree with what everyone else has said... this agent sounds very suss to me. We have had agents do this sort of thing to us in both Sydney and Canberra. It is illegal. I think it is called misleading and deceptive conduct but the problem is proving it!!
Good luck with the house purchase and stick to your guns. Mum2mads.