I cannot count the number of times here on this forum that some members have bagged out RE agents for lying (even in this very thread), and here on this thread it seems to be turning into a "who can tell the best lies to get the best deal" competition.
I'm coming from a different viewpoint. My late mother was an agent, very honest, highly respected (believe it or not). I was taught not to lie and I don't lie well. Mum always said that to be a good liar to need to have a good memory.
I've never lied to get a property. I don't lie well anyway. I try not to lie but of course, we all tell white lies every day but I would never feel comfortable telling a lie to get something at the expense of someone else.
To my mind, a vendor knows what sort of money they need or want from a sale. Unless there is a dire circumstances forcing them to accept a low offer, why would they take such an offer. And I guess if the vendor has a really pressing need to sell quickly, a purchaser could take advantage of that knowledge, but as a buyer, I would not be comfortable doing that, and wouldn't do it. (I would be thinking "how is karma going to get me back?")
As a vendor myself, I've never been swayed at all by any story about the purchaser's situation. I'm interested in the sale price. If anything, lowball offers make me think "I'll sell to anybody EXCEPT that person." That happened recently when we were lowballed, but ultimately the price offered by the lowball purchaser was high enough for us to accept. There was actually another buyer ready to sign, but he had conditions (sale of his house and finance). I know his house was very saleable and finance wasn't an issue, and had we not had a lawyer breathing down our necks to sell this to settle a will challenge, I would have happily signed with the "subject to" purchaser, just to spite the lowball purchaser. He didn't just lowball, he signed prior to auction and then decided to pull out. We had a lot of stress until his lawyer told him to pull his head in.
Realty was that we couldn't take the risk of telling him where to go when we had a cash offer that was now high enough. It did remove any goodwill we had towards the buyer. Instead of handing over a very thick file of the products used in the renovation, contacts, plans and drawings, we binned them. When he wants to find out anything about "what is that cladding?" if he renovates again (as he plans to do) he can go whistle.
My MIL told me a story recently that her sister sold her property to a family who told her they could only afford to pay a certain amount, they didn't have enough to pay more, blah, blah. The aunt sold it for that amount. She is not a stupid woman but was under a lot of stress. My MIL is saying her sister sold because this family lied and she fell for it. Turns out the purchasers had just sold a development block for $3M and could likely have afforded to pay more, but who really knows?
My MILs sister made the decision to accept the lower offer NOT because the purchasing family lied and pretended they couldn't pay any more, but because her husband was very ill and her children were pushing her to move to a property closer to health care. Those purchasers probably thought they were pretty smart saying they had a budget, but the truth is the sale went through due to personal circumstances, and not the vendor being duped by their lie.
Telling white lies (such as I hit my budget) is not normally done for the purpose of having the seller sympathise with you, but to plant a seed of doubt on the sellers/agents mind as to how much they will come back with their counter offer without losing you as the buyer. If you present that there is a lot of leeway on your behalf, then more often than not they will try to squeeze that last few dollar out of you.
