Agents and Privacy

[Lily House]

Hi all,

I rang a real estate agent this week to enquire about a house that was going for auction in 3 weeks. He told me it had sold. Part of our conversation went something like this:

me 'Could you tell me what it went for?'
him 'no'
me 'why is that?'
him 'the privacy act"

Is this true?
Every week the newpapers list auction results and Saturday's Age has a whole section on what celebrity/sports star sold/bought which house and for how much. So I take it the information is out there somewhere??

I'm wondering about the 'privacy' versus 'freedom of information' angle.

So can someone tell me about the rules in Victoria.
Are property prices protected by the Privacy Act as stated by the agent I spoke to?
Is there a difference as to whether the property is sold by auction or not?
Where could I find the sold price of a house if this information is available?

Thankyou to anyone who can enlighten me.

Lily

 

[Andrew]

I've been fed this line before too. One approach I've
used is to tell the agent that you've got a similar
property in the area that you're thinking of listing,
and then ask them how much they think it could go
for.

Lure of a listing is a bit too much for some of them I'm
afraid.

andy

 

[Aceyducey]

Lily,

The agent doesn't know what he's talking about or is evading. The privacy act is about sharing personal details, the price property is sold for is considered public domain information, which is why Residex is allowed to sell it & Allhomes gives it away.

I generally have found that agents won't tell you the exact price if a property has not exchanged yet, basically because the exact price isn't yet agreed & they have an obligation to their client not to muddy the waters by talking a price when negotiations are still proceeding.

However, you can generally get a range out of them & using the strategy Andrew suggest does work a treat (of course, I only use it if I have a similar property in the area I am revaling/selling). You can also say you want to buy a property like that one in the area and good agents will suggest what you are likely to pay based on a figure very close to (or slightly north of) the sale price for that property.

Cheers,

Aceyducey

 

[mitch]

Gday Lily
so what if the purchaser said to the Agent " l dont want my sticky beak mother in law to know how much l paid for this new home of ours, please respect our privacy and dont reveil the price we paid to strangers over the phone" ?.If you asked that of me,what would you have say to the enquiry ?

If that request was put to me,l wouldnt tell but l would only give an indication of the price that l had ok with the purchaser.

MITCH.

 

[Peter Parker]

The two times I have enquired (one a private sale and the other an auction) I've never had any problems with getting a price.

An auction is a public event and anyone can go along and know the price it was sold for. Therefore how can someone
claim the Privacy Act as a defence?

Peter

 

[geoffw]

Originally posted by Peter Parker
An auction is a public event and anyone can go along and know the price it was sold for. Therefore how can someone
claim the Privacy Act as a defence?

I guess a property can be passed in at auction and a sale negotiated with the highest bidder.

I've phoned a couple of times about prices after an auction and receeived results.

I guess it becomes public at some stage anyway. Certainly in the ACT I can see sale prices in www.allhomes.com.au about 3 months after the event.

 

[Lily House]

Thank you everyone for your replies.

The house in question was definately sold. (not under offer as I had already checked that).

Mitch I take your point about the purchaser requesting privacy. But if that was the case I would have preferred the agent just said so. A simple 'Sorry but the purchaser has requested we not release that information' would have been preferable to me. The way he did respond I felt was quite abrupt.

If it wasn't the purchaser requesting discretion then I can't understand why the big secret? I am ready to buy in this area, but due to his manner would be reluctant to ring this agent again (though I suppose I will if he lists the 'perfect' property).

geoffw - I liked your allhomes site. Does anyone know if something similar exists for Victorian data?

Thanks
Lily

 

[sbe]

The purchaser can request the results not be published - hence the entries in the auction results - undisclosed amount or undisc.

It's nothing to do with the privacy act, just the vendor or purchaser doesn't want it common knowledge.

Sounds like the agent was just plain rude or stupid....

 

[XBenX]

as mentioned before - its just another RE hoax - the info is public domain - the reason they didnt tell you is because they didnt want to (or was misinformed)

 

[asy]

Hi Lilly,

The guys are right, the info is public domain, but having said that, sometimes we have people who ask not to disclose the sale price.

This may be the vendors who don't want the neighbours to know what they got, or the purchasers who don't want the neighbours to know what they paid. (I have one like this at the moment)

In the end, yes the neighbours can find out, but not until the info comes onto RPData or the like... And by then the stickybeaks have forgotten...

The agent should have been nicer to you and said they were sorry but one of the parties have asked for the information not to be disclosed.

Take them to task on their rudeness.

asy

 

[saskatoon]

Asy,
my impression (from my conveyancer?) is that the selling price is not in the public domain until settlement, since until then there has been no sale?
Terry

 

[asy]

Yep Terence, you are right, I was trying to go along with the simplistic approach...

The info becomes public once it's registered, but the time between signing and registration is a moot point.

It's true that it's still private, but it will be public very soon...

asy