Can estate agents use "ghost bidders" to drive up price of house?

MrMan said:
Why automatically assume dishonesty?

If you ask me a question regarding the property and area I will answer truthfully, if the owner is dealing with you directly would you automatically assume that every detail they put forward to be the truth?
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1. Because that is the manner in which the Public portray EAs.

2. I have tried to difference you from these comments, as from reading your posts on AAM, you appear to be an honest and trustworthy member of your trade. If an owner is dealing directly, normally they would not have the suave actions of the EAs. It is just a public thing, not me, that people do not trust EAs.
 
It's not right and it is prohibited. They should not use ghost bidders but of course they can.

Some play it dirty and as some here says, get really greedy.

Of course, these agents that does not play it fair is taking the risk of being caught and having bad reputation which in the long run would ruin their carreers when they are caught.
 
Recently I've put an offer on a house. The EA came back and told me that my offer is €15000 less than the other bidders. So I told him that was my final price and if the builder was not happy with my bid what he should do is very simple just disregard my offer and take the better ones. Guess what after two weeks the EA came back to me and told me that my bid was accepted....but I told him to tell the builder I'm not interested any more and I'm looking elsewhere.
To my surprise after a week the builder called me himself and told me that at the time of my bid he instructed the EA that if my bid is short by €20000 he will take it because the bank is after him. Since than the builder changed the EA because he found out that he was trying to put up the prices so he will have fatter commission.
 
Dream250 said:
Recently I've put an offer on a house. The EA came back and told me that my offer is €15000 less than the other bidders. So I told him that was my final price and if the builder was not happy with my bid what he should do is very simple just disregard my offer and take the better ones. Guess what after two weeks the EA came back to me and told me that my bid was accepted....but I told him to tell the builder I'm not interested any more and I'm looking elsewhere.
To my surprise after a week the builder called me himself and told me that at the time of my bid he instructed the EA that if my bid is short by €20000 he will take it because the bank is after him. Since than the builder changed the EA because he found out that he was trying to put up the prices so he will have fatter commission.
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This is very foolish on the part of the EA, if this is happening. Normally it is the EA trying to persuade the seller to accept the offer. The EA fee is normally about 1%, so he'll get €200 extra for the €20k difference. He would be far better off in taking the initial offer.
 
Dream250 said:
Recently I've put an offer on a house. The EA came back and told me that my offer is €15000 less than the other bidders. So I told him that was my final price and if the builder was not happy with my bid what he should do is very simple just disregard my offer and take the better ones. Guess what after two weeks the EA came back to me and told me that my bid was accepted....but I told him to tell the builder I'm not interested any more and I'm looking elsewhere.
To my surprise after a week the builder called me himself and told me that at the time of my bid he instructed the EA that if my bid is short by €20000 he will take it because the bank is after him. Since than the builder changed the EA because he found out that he was trying to put up the prices so he will have fatter commission.
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Has it crossed your mind that the builder may have been feeding you a story to keep you on side? As complainer has pointed out the 'fatter' commission is some gamble to take and an unlikely gamble. If a vendor (the builder) tells an EA that he will accept a bid the EA will bite your hand off not try and squeeze €150 out of the deal.
 
Also, in a lot of housing development sales, during the boom time the developers did fixed price deals with EAs, e.g. a 3 bed semi might result in a €2,000 fee, €3000 for a 4 bed etc. So higher or lower prices doesn't come into it. This came about due to competition between EAs, particularly outside Dublin.

My guess is that the builder is playing "good cop, bad cop" - the EA being the bad cop.
 
There has to be a better system i have no respect for EA's & wouldnt trust them as far as i'd throw em.Ghost bids are going on wholesale.

Only recently i had a bid on on a house in cork city around 30K short of the reserve then the floods hit. The house was under 2f of water but low & behold 4 days later the EA tells me a bid 18K more than my came in! absolute Bullcrap.

Luckly i'm not starting out and can walk away but surely the system only encourages & rewards dishonesty. Personally I like the scotish system as well.
 
Mr Blue said:
There has to be a better system i have no respect for EA's & wouldnt trust them as far as i'd throw em.Ghost bids are going on wholesale.

Only recently i had a bid on on a house in cork city around 30K short of the reserve then the floods hit. The house was under 2f of water but low & behold 4 days later the EA tells me a bid 18K more than my came in! absolute Bullcrap.

Luckly i'm not starting out and can walk away but surely the system only encourages & rewards dishonesty. Personally I like the scotish system as well.
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again, your paranoia does not automatically indicate that you are right. If you are right then the EA isn't just a chancer he is a man with a detrimental gambling addiction to add 18k of a ghost bid to an underwater house.
 
well i would say most ghost bids are prompted by the seller the EA would want to be brave in this market to be doing it.
you see the problem the industry has though? the EA's dont care a jot if its bogus or not they still get paid
 
"the EA's dont care a jot if its bogus or not they still get paid "

Not if the house does not sell, they don't!

mf
 
Mr Blue said:
well i would say most ghost bids are prompted by the seller the EA would want to be brave in this market to be doing it.
you see the problem the industry has though? the EA's dont care a jot if its bogus or not they still get paid
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A little flaw to your argument is that a ghost bid produces ghost commission. Do you really think EA's get paid for not selling a house?
 
MrMan said:
A little flaw to your argument is that a ghost bid produces ghost commission. Do you really think EA's get paid for not selling a house?
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Um, the point of ghost bids is to incite other real prospective buyers to increase their bids. I presume you remember the recent Celtic Tiger were people, insane to get on the property ladder, got involved in bidding wars? It's not that long ago.
 
The point I was disagreeing with was that an EA gets paid either way, i.e ghost bid or not an EA gets paid which is obviously incorrect. Re Celtic Tiger, ghost bids were not needed when people were outbidding each other anyway.
 
canicemcavoy said:
Um, the point of ghost bids is to incite other real prospective buyers to increase their bids. people, insane to get on the property ladder, got involved in bidding wars? .
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That's the point, it's ordinary people bidding against each other, nothing to do with estate agents, no estate agent ever forced anyone to make a bid, nor did they force them into a bidding war, people did it of their own choice, their own free will.
 
Heres one can estate agents say they have had a higher offer on the asking price? 15yrs ago we had cash to buy a house and we viewed a few and made an offer for the asking price and was instantley told someone had made a bigger offer on the asking price always 2k more now today i am in a postion to purchase another house after selling my own an i phoned up to view a property to be told it has had an offer 2k over and if i still want to view i would need the 2k above the asking price and complete within 28days? but there is no mention on the website of the estate agent that the house has had an offer?.
 
If I had a euro for every recent story about someone who (a) put an bid on a house, (b) was suddenly told there was a counter-bid, (c) said "no thanks" and then (d) was told the counter-bid had fallen through, I could buy an unfinished estate in Leitrim.
 
An offer means little until the sale completes. It can be withdrawn at any time until very late in the buying process. Even if there existed a system where all bids were made public, you couldn't stop people making bids they never intended to honour.
 
I don't know how prevalent it is but I did see it happen in a Dublin estate agents office some years ago during the mad rush to buy houses. The room was packed to the gills and I was sitting with my solicitor about 5 yards behind and to the left of the auctioneer. I managed to get one bid on the house before it started rocketing up until there were two bidders left, standing at the back wall of the room. Finally one lad shook his head and stopped bidding but the auctioneer continued to bid up the property and changed his direction from one man to the other as if he was still bidding.

I was shocked at the time, that was my first house and I was annoyed at the reserve price being exceeded in about 5 seconds and the final price paid was about 50% above the reserve. My wife (girlfriend) at the time then moved to Dublin and actually got a job with the same estate agents....small world.
 
canicemcavoy said:
If I had a euro for every recent story about someone who (a) put an bid on a house, (b) was suddenly told there was a counter-bid, (c) said "no thanks" and then (d) was told the counter-bid had fallen through, I could buy an unfinished estate in Leitrim.
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Wouldn't it be great if the buyers, when told about the counter bid, replied with 'Don't even think of coming back to me to tell mat the counter bid has fallen through - 'cos my bid will be gone if you do' to put an end to this tactic.
 
Well the house went up and up just like an auction untill it was 6k over the asking price so we did not go any higher the estate agent said its because its a repossesion and the bank wants more so spotted another house not a repo asked to view not the same estate agent and they say the same its under offer you can view but it will cost more than the asking price wtf? i thought you offerd less than the asking price not more and they like to keep you hanging on no mention on any sites its under offer.
 
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