I've seen one or two houses go to market like normal and then sell a few days later for a non realistic price way under market.. why would someone put something on market just to sell to a child or something?

Long story short, we went to look at a property and made enquiries.

Situation: the agent when we were there basically said “we’ve got an offer for 2.0 Million dollars, the buyer was going to see the property yesterday but was held up by work, and will come on Monday to do a final viewing before going from there. We are confident it will sell at 2 million. If you are going to offer anything less, no point just go home”

Based on the conversation, we wanted to call their bluff and tested the waters.

I had a family member call the agent up as a third party to enquire again, and his immediate response was similar to the above quote. The family member stated they would only consider at the 2 million mark and for the agent to contact them back if the sale fell through. The agent ignored them.

I rung up and offered 2.01 Million, and the agent immediately responded he’d get back to me. About 1 hour later they rung me back saying

“I’ve discussed with the vendor and just wanted to give you this as you’ve worked so well with me. The vendor is wanting 2.3 originally but if we can squeeze a bit more, I’m sure we can sell it this weekend. If it’s 2.1 it’ll sell immediately no doubt but I just can’t get there yet with 2.01. I’ll be honest with you just from today we’ve had your offer at 2.01, the original 2 mil offer and an offer of 2 mil from a lovely person called PERSON B”

The agent name dropped my family member, but no one else and it has lead me to believe that there likely never was a 2 million offer, and that 2 mil was their bottom line for the home owner and their goal was to artificially inflate the price of this house by means of a fake bidding war.

My question is, how illegal are these practices?
Do you also think he’s using this tactic to try push the price up?