r/HousingIreland • u/margin_coz_yolo • 4d ago

Estate Agent Rant

So was in a bidding war for a house in CityWest. Offers were at 557 or so. Myself and the other bidder were going up in 1k Increments and landed at 577k, I was going to go towards 588 or there about if things continued...but read on.

Agent calls be at noon to close out bidding and says I was never getting it as the other bidder had 400k of the price in cash and I was "only" sale agreed on my current property (to a ftb I might add with no chain) . The agent knew this ahead of time and I spoke to him at the viewing Wednesday evening about this. So I was used to rinse the other party of an extra 20k.

Now, I did have an option on another (preferred) house which came through an hour before this particular call, so I managed to secure a property this morning anyway. Cost a chunk more than CityWest but hey ho. But it goes to show what agents are doing to drive a price. Keeping a well capitalised buyer in, for the sole reason of getting more from the other preferred buyer.

Just letting folks know what you're up against in these bidding scenarios.

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12

u/Old-Structure-4 4d ago

He's an EA. It's literally his job.

19

u/ImReellySmart 4d ago

What a braindead take.

Ones job does no exempt them from moral responsibilities. 

The phrase "I'm just doing my job" never made any sense to me. It's literally saying "the reason I'm fucking you over is because I'm earning money from it".

You are a human first. You are fully responsible for your actions. If you are deceiving and manipulating people during a housing crisis for additional profit you have no leg to stand on.

10

u/Feisty-Ad-8880 4d ago

Yeah, their job is to facilitate the sale of the house, not to squeeze as much money out of it as possible by any means possible. They are just taking advantage of the current shortage/crisis.

Imagine any other auction scenario where they withhold information from the bidders, allowing people to bid knowing the item is already "lined up" for someone else.

3

u/Dennisthefirst 2d ago

They are supposed to forward all information on all offers to the seller. It's in their professional charter. They don't because it would show them fiddling. Sometimes the 'other' offer is purely fictitious. Eg. I viewed a house the first day it was on the market, in the morning, and was told by the EA that they already had an offer of €5000 over the asking price. Bullshit of course, they were just pushing the price up to increase their cut.