Beware the pitfall of ‘fake buying’

A new, and strange, phenomenon of ‘fake buying’ has emerged in the upper end of the Johannesburg homes market over the past five years. It’s about ‘buyers’ who submit offers on (mainly) big ticket homes that they simply have no intention of purchasing – even if they can afford to close the deals.

It is both a time- and cost-consuming exercise. And it is also downright dishonest. If my own company’s experience can be taken as a yardstick, it also plays havoc with the schedules and performance of the professional residential property sector.

This column is a leap of courage for me because, until now, this seemingly inexplicable problem has generally been kept under wraps. Why? Because of how poorly it reflects on those of us in the real estate marketing community who have fallen prey to it. At face value, it would seem that estate agents should anticipate these scenarios before they take hold. The reality is that we are led down the garden path time and time again – often at the seller’s behest – in our efforts to achieve best outcomes. Ironically, the ‘fake buyers’ go to great lengths in the process. This includes

  • their attendance at multiple meetings at the property they are supposedly interested in

  • bringing along their own experts for an on-the-spot opinion, and 

  • inviting other third party visitors – including family, friends, colleagues, and domestic staff – to view the home

  • even obtaining quotes for alterations and renovations.

The million-dollar question

This process can play out over several weeks – even months. The million-dollar question is: Why do people do it when they know it will inevitably collapse as a total waste of time. I have been a victim of this process about 20 times in the past five years. It has no boundaries in terms of financial means, ethnicity, gender, age, social structures, or personality. Some of these so-called buyers have been wealthy people who have faded away. Others have been men & women of straw. They put estate agents in extremely bad light. My personal worst experience of fake buying involved 55 meetings in a single year with a seemingly well-heeled potential buyer of a home in Linksfield. The deal simply didn’t materialise.

A form of foreplay

At its worst, fake buying can even be a form of ‘foreplay’. For instance, a man arrives at a show house with a new partner on his arm – and puts in an offer simply to impress.  It happens! Perhaps this unwelcome phenomenon is simply just another knock-on effect of the topsy-turvy, almost unbelievable, socio-economic and political challenges that confront our country right now.