8 Estate Agent Industry Tricks (That You Should Know)

It would be wrong to assume that all estate agents are untrustworthy looking to make money from the sale of your house at your expense, but at the same time, as with any industry, there are those that will take advantage of an inexperienced seller. This could result in you paying extra fees or the sale of your house being adversely affected and delayed. While these ‘tricks’ that they may use are still within legal limits, they show an unprofessionalism that is best avoided.

Estate Agent tricks to watch out for when selling a property:

1. The first thing to be aware of is the over valuation of the property. Estate agents may overvalue your property in order to entice you into using them over another agent, while going with the ‘highest bidder’ may seem appealing in reality overvaluing your home will lead to a lack of viewings and a reduced chance of sale.

2. Similarly another estate agent trick is to undervalue your property. There are a few reasons why this may happen, they may simply have a busy portfolio and want a quick sale so that they can collect their fee as soon as possible. A more sinister (but still highly plausible reason) is that they are going to sell your home at under its market value to a third party they are in partnership with.

3. Lying about the number of viewings. In order to look better and appease the seller, an estate agent may arrange staged viewings, obviously these fake viewings of your property are of no use to you but if you are none-the-wiser it would appear that your estate agent is working hard whilst in fact they are doing a lot less. As well as the number of viewings estate agents may pretend there is interest to buy from fake viewings when in fact there is not, just to keep you happy.

4. Estate agents may also fabricate offers. These could be done when the property has just gone onto the market, the estate agent will inform you there are offers but lower than the price set, this means that while you are unlikely to find out (as you wouldn’t accept the lower offer) it comforts you that there is interest in your property and creates the illusion that your estate agent is doing a good job.

5. Selling your property to an investor. Alongside undervaluing your property, some unscrupulous estate agents may be attempting to sell your property cheaply to an independent investor for a fee, or even buying your house themselves. This would lead to the undervaluing of your property and also them withholding other offers from outside interested parties that recognise the property is listed under its market value.

6. Working in someone else’s interests. Aside from attempting to buy the property themselves an estate agent may be working in the interests of someone else. If your estate agent is accepting a fee or bribe from elsewhere then they are clearly not working in your interest.

7. Obstructing Other Viewings. In order to ensure that they make the sale an estate agent may take your property off listings websites, similarly they may delay or stall other viewings of your property. It is worth ensuring that an estate agent is using all available means to sell your property, utilising both internet and traditional high street methods.

8. If you are new to the property market estate agents may try and intimidate you with stories of the ‘market’, while it is true that the market can have it's ups and downs, it is no excuse for estate agent incompetence so don’t allow yourself to be bullied and don’t take ‘market’ explanations of why your property won’t sell.

Most estate agents are perfectly trustworthy and are working in your best interests, however it is worth being aware that there may be some that aren’t; in these circumstances you need to know what they’re trying to do and how, in order to spot tell-tale signs of your rogue estate agent and make sure you get a fair price for your property.