“My Dad’s Agent Used Misleading Data To Pressure Him To Sell His HDB” 4 Pushy Sales Tactics You Need To Know

While real estate is a much more regulated industry these days, there are always the grey areas of…well, let’s call them “aggressive negotiation tactics.” A number of buyers have even told us they dislike going to show flats or calling an agent, just because they don’t want to deal with the pressure. And whilst not every agent believes in high-pressure tactics, there are some that we keep hearing about. Here are some of the ones you’re better off walking away from:

1. Pushing you with information that you can’t verify 

One of the frustrating parts about buying is that, unless you’re in the industry yourself, you have few ways to verify what the sales team claims about availability. One reader told us a story about her buying experience, and why she believes she may have been lied to:

“We wanted a two-bedder, but we were told ‘no more, sorry’. The agent suggested a two-plus-one (a two-bedder with an optional space to add a study), which was more expensive but we went ahead as it was the last option we could still sort of afford. 

About a year later we found out one of our neighbours, who had bought in the same block as us, got their two-bedder around four months after us. 

Maybe the other units were not yet released or were returned units or whatever, I don’t know, but still isn’t it possible the agent lied to us, so she could sell the more expensive house?”

There are similar issues over claims such as units “selling out fast,” or that the developer is going to raise prices. None of this information is publicly available, so less ethical agents can use it to pressure you into buying or, worse still, pressure you into buying something pricier. 

To be fair, most agents don’t resort to such tactics but perhaps it’s time changes are made to the transaction process so that buyers also have clear, verifiable information on what or isn’t sold. 

2. Scaring you with exaggerated price “data”

There’s an old sales pitch that property prices are going up every day. This has been used since the ‘00s, and if you think it through, it is not as impressive as it sounds (most assets go up over time, including stocks, gold, etc., so the same argument can be applied to a whole bunch of things). 

But some buyers have told us how this is often exaggerated, to the point where they feel the unit is going to cost much more unless they buy it right this instant. One reader, YM, tells us how a seller’s agent presented some data in a questionable way:

“He showed us some graphs that supposedly proved the prices were rising super-fast because an MRT station had been completed next door. And while it’s not a lie, I realised there were a lot of questionable points: he would compare the mid-price six months ago to the highest price now, instead of the mid-price now; and his comparisons included things like different unit sizes on different floors.” 

Another reader, CM, said she was quite annoyed when the same tactics were used on her parents, who are financially literate:

“My dad was confused by all the graphs and articles because it looked legit, and he called me saying he wanted to sell the flat because it was going to lose money. I looked at the things the agent gave my dad, and it was just random, out-of-context things printed from different websites; some as old as 2012. Even if it’s not an outright lie, it’s still misrepresenting. And should agents be allowed to pressure older less-educated people into selling their flats this way?”

3. Promotions with vague specifics and time limits

There are a lot of promos at new launches, which don’t get announced on websites (barring the occasional property agent who bothers to make these updates). Some of the common ones are “all floors same price”, where the price premium for higher floors is removed, or a discount applied to certain layouts.

These promotions can come and go in a flash – you may be told that the promo is only valid for today, or until an unspecified time. This is followed by warnings that waiting till the promo is up could mean paying hundreds of thousands of dollars more.

It’s not even clear how much of a discount you’re getting in some cases. Even if you’re told the units one floor up are “usually around” $20,000 more, how would you verify it? Developers also have a right to change the pricing at any time, including lowering it later. 

Probably the most alarming thing about these promotions though, is the undue pressure they place on buyers. Most of us know, on a conscious level, that we shouldn’t be swayed by these; but there’s definitely a gut instinct to move fast and ignore other options, before the window closes.

4. Treating everything as a major disaster about to happen

LM, who has bought a new launch and a resale condo before, is both amused and annoyed by the way some agents frame consequences:

“The way some of them talk, everything is a big crisis. If you don’t buy today, it’s not that you will pay a bit more later – it’s that you could be priced out of the market. If you don’t put down the cheque now, it’s not that you will have to consider some alternative floors or blocks; you will have no chance to buy anymore. The consequences they tell you are all extreme and unrealistic.”

While not all agents do this, we have come across sales pitches that emphasise the “disaster” angle. These are usually exaggerated reports of the HDB and condo price gap (e.g., if you don’t upgrade now, in just a few years you probably can’t), or interpreting small signs as a warning of new cooling measures. Back when Development Charges were changed to Land Betterment Charges, for example, we also heard some murmurs that these were a prelude to new cooling measures. Well they weren’t, and it was more of an administrative change than anything. 

Another homebuyer we spoke to, who just wanted to be known as Jack, said the last agent he worked with tried to pressure him with over-the-top warnings about lease decay:

“I made the mistake of telling him our current place is quite old, from the 1970s. Straight away he was on a tangent about how HDB flats are going to be devalued, there’s not going to be SERS for our location, we’re already at a certain age so we need to think of the risk, so on. I was quite annoyed as my wife is more sensitive to these things, so she was quite affected. But I felt I was just being pressured to upgrade.”

Mind you, we’re not saying the agents are completely wrong in their arguments. It’s just that besides the exaggerated consequence, some of them have a haranguing tone that seems more like they’re bullying someone into action. Hopefully though, this lot will catch on to the fact that the average client doesn’t appreciate it, and change their tact (although some may insist it works for them, and it’s their bottom line that counts).

For more on the latest happenings and rumblings on the ground, follow us on Stacked, where we like to keep an ear out for what people are saying in the Singapore property market.