How to Spot a Fake “Other Buyer” (and Save Thousands)
There is one thing I hear all the time:
“There is another buyer.”
“I have another buyer at X price.” (which, conveniently, is always just above where you are).
“You need to get an offer in by XX time or I’ll sell to the other buyer.”
Lies, lies, and lies.
Now, don’t get me wrong—Sydney real estate is competitive. There are plenty of genuine multiple-offer situations and real bidding wars. But being able to spot when an agent is bluffing about “another buyer” is an art form. If you call their bluff and get it wrong, you need to be prepared for the possibility that they really do sell the property to someone else.
So, how do you pick up when the agent is bluffing?
A Real Example
Recently, I’ve had this happen a number of times—each time, the agent was bluffing. Let me walk you through one scenario.
I called an agent (let’s call him Fred) about an off-market property. The owner wanted over $2.2m, but I believed it was worth closer to $2 - $2.1m. At the time, my client’s budget topped out at $1.9m, so we let it go.
Weeks later, my client’s budget increased to $2m, so I called Fred back. Here’s how it played out:
Thursday 1pm: Fred told me, “Yes, the property is available, but we have an offer of $2m that the owner is considering. It will likely sell in the next 24 hours. Can you inspect today?”
Flag #1: He said the other buyer’s offer was unconditional, but there was no building report. Rarely does a buyer go unconditional without one, unless they’re a builder. This didn’t add up.
Friday: My clients inspected and liked it. We ordered a building report for Saturday.
Monday midday: No sale had happened.
Flag #2: If there really was an unconditional $2m offer on Thursday, why was it still unsold on Monday? No seller risks losing a real buyer like that.
Monday afternoon: I submitted an unconditional offer of $1.88m with terms less favourable than this supposed “$2m buyer.” Fred came back with, “I have $2m, you need to be above that.”
Flag #3: He then said if we matched $2m, he could sell it to us. But if two buyers are equal on price, the one with better terms usually wins—and that wasn’t us. The logic collapsed.
Tuesday: We had our offer of $1.88m accepted on our terms.
The “other buyer”? Pure fiction.
Spotting the Bluff
Here are some classic red flags:
Unconditional offers without due diligence reports. Highly unusual.
Delays in accepting a supposedly strong offer. If it was real, why wait?
Shifting narratives. First it’s “they’re paying $2m,” then it’s “if you match, it’s yours.”
When I see these signals, I know the agent is trying to create urgency and pressure. I get it, they work for the vendor, they are doing their job. But I am also doing mine!
The Risk Factor
I always tell my clients when I think the agent is bluffing. Because yes, one day I might get it wrong. I want them to know the risks up front. But more often than not, the bluff saves them thousands.
Just last week, I saved a client $50,000 by calling out a sales agent’s “phantom buyer.”
The reality is: one day I might call a bluff and get it wrong. That’s why I’m always transparent. If my client doesn’t have any appetite for that risk, and prefers to offer higher just in case, that’s their call. I’ll advise against overspending (real estate decisions get emotional fast), but at the end of the day, it’s their money and they decide how to spend it.
Bottom Line
Agents bluff about “other buyers” all the time. The key is knowing how to read the situation, identify the red flags, and weigh the risks.
My role is to protect clients from overpaying while helping them secure the right property at the right price. That means sometimes we call the bluff—and sometimes, it pays off big.
