REA telling me porkies

[wobbycarly]

What rubbish. I know I am skewed by having a mother who was as honest as the day is long, who happened to become an agent later in her working life, but I know a LOT of agents and there are lots of stories I have heard that paint "some" agents in a bad light, but to just make a blanket statement like that is wrong.

I know a LOT of honest, upfront agents. They are not all BMW driving, gold chain wearing liars, like some on here like to paint them.

Absolutely correct! Some of them drive Porsches and wear silver chains.

 

[G_Man]

Wow, I was just hoping for some advice as to my initial post but it seems to have turned into a 5 page slanging match about how good/bad REA's are.

All I'll add is I'd have to agree with a few others here and say there are some good, some are bad but I think that goes for a lot of sales based industries.

G-man,

I suggest you don't ask the Vendor's paid representative questions in an attempt to try and diminish the amount of money that the paid representative can extract from you to pass onto the Vendor....that way you won't put him in a position that goes against what he is being paid for.

Fair point Dazz, I think I set myself up for it a little by letting on about my budget.
It reminds me of when my brother and his wife were getting a reno done and the first thing she tells the builder is "We've only got x amount to spend."
So you can guess what the quote came back as.....

They're not there to assist you, they're not there to get you into a bargain,and they're certainly not there to answer your research and due diligence questions.

They warrant nothing. The Vendor warrants nothing. You should know that - so why ask them questions ??

because in most cases they reply with the price (which I later find to be correct) and then follow up with further emails, contacts etc.
I'm not sure about them not being allowed to disclose prices etc, but can honestly say in 90% of cases they have come back with a price when I've simply asked "what did it go for?"

Do yourself a favour - perform your own due diligence on the property if you so wish....and that may include having to spend some money on a data program so you get the facts, rather than some free "can you please tell me ?"....and then you've got no idea if what they are saying is true or not.

I will do when I actually settle on an area and get closer to buying, still a few months away yet. Now I'm just doing my own research with whatever I can, but not willing to pay for suburb reports when I might not even buy in that area.


Thanks for the feedback,

G.

 

[Mandy Mac]

We developed a beautiful relationship with the agent who sold us our PPOR. In fact our two oldest kids would wander around the first few days here asking "Where's David?" coz they thought he was gonna live with us.

And yeah, we got a Christmas Card from him.

Not such great experences with IP purchaes, but they were just trying to wrangle extra $$ out of us for their vendor in a bit of a slimy way, but not coz they are evil.

 

[ironscythe]

The art of buying

Well now how do we know if an agent is telling the truth or Lying.

Most of the time we`d find it by doing our own research. In my case i just checked the how much the house sold for 2 yrs back and decided that a 9% increase from last sale was a good figure to pay for it. However sometimes it might take a lot more. things about legal extensions, downstairs bedroom being legal height, dead bodies and skeletons in the attic etc would probably need more investigations.

But the Key would be by asking as many questions for which you already know the answer for or have a fair idea about what the answer would most likely be. Then you have something to comapre the agents answers with and decide what is a small twist of the truth and what is utter BS.

To Let you in on a few secrets ( may not be secrets anymore), the Agents work on impulses and they will sell to your impulses.
a few examples

Buyer : oh but the other houses are selling at much lower price
Agent ( uses feel/felt/found ) : i Know exactly what u feel, a lot of the other people felt the same way before they put it their offers cause what they found was even though there are 6 dead people in the attic there is so much potential in this house that later when you do just a couple of renovations or maybe turn the garage into a bedroom it will increase the value by a signifant margin than the rest of the houses around.

Buyer: oh that sounds fair then... by the way how many people have put offers we can only afford X so dont know if the seller would really be interested.

Agent: sorry but we are not allowed to disclose those details but if i was you id put in an offer and have a shot incase the others arnt high enuf as i have to take every offer which falls in the sellers bracket to the owner.

Buyer : alrite then i will come on monday and put in my offer.
Agent fear of loss) Oh actually the owner is here only on weekends and i am supposed to take all the contracts to him tonite so if he accepts one you might miss out.

Buyer: Oh but i need to consult with my husband/grandfather/Donald Trump/SS forum/Ozzy Osbourne before i put Pen on Paper
Agent: ( give two options while maintaining fear of loss) What i would suggest is you sign the contract and consult with them and call me if you change your mind and do not want me to take it or you can consult with them and call me on monday to see if the place is still available.

Buyer: oh how likely is it that the offers would be accepted
Agent: ( the final nail) i am sorry again but i cant disclose that but from my experience in the past week properties in this area are selling faster than the new harry potter book. But i may be wrong and you might still be able to put in an offer, however i doubt it very much.


I am sure that most of the experienced buyers would see right through whats happening here. Also The agents hasnt lied about anything but has managed to force/persuade/trick/play you into making an uninformed decision by using simple impulse factors.

not too effective against investors but works like a charm with first home buyers since most of the time the purchase has a lot of emotional investment in it

 

[evand]

Well now how do we know if an agent xxxxxxxxxxxx is Lying.

His mouth is moving.