Agent trying to make me panic buy..?
I'd love some advice on a situation I'm currently navigating with a real estate agent.
So this is what has happened so far.
* Last Week: Enquired with the agent. He told me he already had "a couple of offers on the table" and was closing offers next Monday (today).
* Saturday: At our second inspection, I asked about the process of putting in an offer and wanted to confirm the Monday deadline for offers. He seemed to have forgotten the "deadline" story entirely, looked at me all confused and said, "It’s a private sale, offers can be taken at anytime."
* The Offer: We put in a written offer over the weekend of $1.46M (price guide was $1.4M–$1.5M). Given the condition of the house, solid but old. Needs all flooring redone, needs repainting, there is some rotting wood on the exterior of the house, bathrooms, kitchen and laundry all original from when it was built in the 90's so I thought the offer was quite fair.
* Today: The agent replies with just a "I'll call you later today to discuss." In the meantime, I get a notification and the listing has been updated with a price increase to $1.5M–$1.6M. No heads up from the agent, nothing. I just find out from realestate.com.au.
Finally the agent calls and says he "adjusted the range" because multiple people who inspected the house last week gave him "verbal offers" well above $1.5M so the adjustment was to reflect that. Then asks if I'd still be interested in making an offer in that range. When I asked him whether he had any other offers in writing, he said we've had a few other verbal offers. I said but do you have any other written offers and then admitted that ours is currently the only official written offer they have got.
I think he's trying to play me and get me to offer more now that he knows we are a serious buyer but I thought I'd get other people's perspective and see if they have dealt with anything similar.
Edit to add it was listed in the middle of April. So it's been on the market for just under a month.