Estate Agents

[Shakespeare]

Hi there
I'm wondering if anyone has any advice about dealing with estate agents.
Myself and my husband have been househunting for almost a year now and the vast majority of our dealings with estate agents/negotiators have been fine and I believe they have been honestly representing the situation regarding the status of offers etc on the houses at which we have been looking (perhaps naively some would say!)
Anyone there is now a house we are interested in buying and we (not deliberately) caught the negotiator out in a lie regarding an offer existing on the house. Since then, I really feel I don't trust him. I genuinely feel that we are the only bidders on this house and he is merely trying to push up the price by mentioning another "phantom" bidder. I won't go into the longwinded reasons as to why I'm picking up this vibe (let's just say it's very different to anyother genuine "bidding war" we've ever been in). Is there anyway to ascertain what's really going on or are you always flying blind in private treaty sales with anonymous bidders popping up?
We may still get this house but there is a lot of money to spent on it after purchase and so ever 5-10k being pushed up leaves less for the new kitchen!!
Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks
Shakespeare

 

[stobear]

Well there are numerous threads dealing with estate agent dealings, but you could get a family member to call the estate agent, enquire as to the status and make a bid and see if that filters back to you. The bids from the family member can be withdrawn so you could try and proof it this way. Have a look through other threads here, there is plenty of reading!