REA's, please lift your game, just a little will do

[boomtown]

And the reason that the industry is crook is because of a lack of transparency.

Every home bought and sold in Australia should be published to the public on an official government register available online to all. 95% of the population has no idea about RP Data or PDS live and that gives people like us a truly unfair informational advantage.

Eliminate the informational assymetries and you will go a long way towards cleaning up the industry. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

 

[evand]

Its not only the pricing issue (but that would clear up a lot of the crap) its the way properties are bought and sold.

And the reason that the industry is crook is because of a lack of transparency.

Every home bought and sold in Australia should be published to the public on an official government register available online to all. 95% of the population has no idea about RP Data or PDS live and that gives people like us a truly unfair informational advantage.

Eliminate the informational assymetries and you will go a long way towards cleaning up the industry. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

 

[willair]

.



I
There really is no excuse for lack of professional communication and all questions should be answered. Let me return this complaint with one in return. Once you have had a reply to an email do you send a thank you reply? Or do you like the majority of people just disappear into the ether?







The first two questions we always get are “How long has it been on the market”? and either “How much is it”? or “Are they negotiable on price”? Good agents should know how to answer and respond to these questions. No excuse here..
This is a very good example of the publics lack of knowledge of the Property Act that governs us as Agents. The problem here is that if an Agent advises a Buyer prospect that a property might sell if the price is right without a signed Form22a (Vendors authority to sell) and the sale goes pear shaped and the Prospect reports the agent to Consume Affairs – automatic loss of licence for Agent.

I hope that the time I took to reply to this interesting post is not wasted, although I’m equally sure that there are many on this site who will never get over past experiences and are destined to suffer repeat results.

Good Post John,but the problem is the contract is between the vendor not the R-E agent, the same way as the Agent is employed to act for her or his principal, not all agents act like you in a commission based world
most are only interested in their percentage of the selling price -pure and simple...willair..

 

[lizzie]

i put my hand up as guilty of sending emails off re.com.

the reason is because, as a investor and developer, the two key items i need to know are location (street) for density and block size. i can usually work out if it has a decent frontage from the photo so dimensions aren't required unless i am seriously interested.

so, if only these two items were put on the website then it would save so much wasted time for both myself and the agents. i could glance at a property and say "yes" or "no" immediately. if my interest was piqued then i'd go for a drive down the street, look at the aspect and slope and pace (measure) the front of the block. if it was still very interesting then i'd contact the agent.

and please put the prices on ... at $300k i might be interested but at $450k i can cross it off my list immediately!

but - i guess - we're not normal buyers. just wish they'd put on the block size tho.

 

[allmine]

I thought I'd update this post.
I am seriously looking for a 3rd IP, got 450k in equity to play with just from the other IP's.
So, I sent out 4 enquiries via either domain or RE.com, as I am still OS till firday.
I got 4 replies, the longest of these took 65 mins. Admittedly, I did this just before business hours so that it was on thier desk for 1st thing it the morning.
In addition, I had all my questions answered. Quite proffessionaly to be honest.
And Jon, you'll be happy to know i replied to all, even the 2 I am now not interested in thanks to the answers given, but thanked them none the less.
Now I know it would be extremely arogant of me to think for 1 second that this entry on SS had anything to do with it. I think I just found a great time to contact these people.

So much for my winge then.

 

[Perp]

Consolation allmine, may come from Dolf de Roos who said if it's difficult for you to buy it, then it's also difficult for your competition (i.e. little competition), so those crap REAs are actually a gold mine if you're willing to go through the difficulty.

Spot on! If I find a poorly marketed property with a slack agent, I check it out a little more closely.

On the matter of agents, I actually made an offer over the phone, site unseen, to an agent in Redcliffe who would not except my offer because I had not physically visited the property.

What a clown!

I have been guilty of trying to help prospects in the past by giving out addresses only to find on follow up call that “Oh Jon, you wouldn’t believe it but when we drove past, there was another agent there so we just went in with him/her and we loved the property and bought it. But hey Jon thanks for you help, you were great”.

That's OUTRAGEOUSLY unethical behaviour; I can't believe people would do that!

Agents waste a lot of time with tyre kickers.

Sure, but isn't that just part of the job? Without answering queries at all, how will they ever know which tyre kickers might turn into buyers?

 

[crc_error]

Yes PB, it doesn't read the way I ment it, but i'm sure most people got the inference. I'll try again - Properties don't sell from ads, the purpose of the ad is to spike or create interest and encourage the reader to phone for more information. If all information is given there is no need to call. I have never yet had someone say that ad is great and I want to buy the house can I come in and sign a contract now?

Have you ever seen those ads that say basically 'pug ugly on the outside but do yourself a favor and have a look inside' Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Prejudge and you may miss out.

Jon, this is a typical stupid realestate agent attitude. They think that because they get 50 people through the door, that they can justify their unreasonable fee's.

You only need 1 genuine buyer to sell the property, not wasting 50 peoples time to make yourself look good.

If you presented all the information in the advert, this would filter out 90% of the people who will not be interested in your property. if your looking for a 1000sq block, and its only 500sq, why not advertise it, so it filters out people who are not looking for such a property. If your looking for higher yield, lower price, then knowing the rent collected will help here as well..

If your looking for 3 bedroom, but its only 2 bedroom, dont you think that this is good information for people to know?

I don't know why agents are all about smoke and mirrors, thinking they are selling the fountain of youth. Its just a property, present it for what it is, and it will sell.

Unfortunately when agents are advertising a property, at the buyers expense, they are not advertising their clients property, they are advertising a agents office. So when a buyer calls, the agent will try to question the buyer and potentially recommend another property.. this is dishonest as the agents client has paid for the expensive advertising.

This is why agents have as little information in the advert as possible.. basically only saying "We are selling a house" wow, we all know this. If this is what you want to do, the advertising should be at the agents expense, not the sellers.

I personally will never use a realestate agent every again, as I can see is that they are only interested in promoting themselves at their clients expense. I am happy to sell my property myself.. I can do as good as job if not better than a agent, as I know the property inside out, and will be able to answer enquirers far better than a agent can. Agents also waste peoples time, only thinking their time is only important.

 

[crc_error]

That's OUTRAGEOUSLY unethical behaviour; I can't believe people would do that!

People would do that.. when I was selling mobile phones, I would cold call people, tell them about a great new deal, and if they are interested.. they always need to think about it. So I call back a few days later only to find they dropped into a mobile phone shop and bought the phone/plan.

So I waste my time telling them about a plan which will save them hundreds of dollars a year, and they give the comission to a shop who just signed them up.. people are not loyal at all..

however most agents will get their customers to sign a exclusive authority, so they are the only one who can sell the property during a specified time.. so this excuse isn't valid..

 

[evand]

No way. You can qualify your sales enquiries (phone calls etc) with the advertising you do as most sales people do. As mentioned in crc's post, below:

You only need 1 genuine buyer to sell the property, not wasting 50 peoples time to make yourself look good.

If you presented all the information in the advert, this would filter out 90% of the people who will not be interested in your property. if your looking for a 1000sq block, and its only 500sq, why not advertise it, so it filters out people who are not looking for such a property. If your looking for higher yield, lower price, then knowing the rent collected will help here as well..


The majority of RE agents do not have a clue how to do this. For just one eg, I've seen them try to sell a pole house with 40 steps to the driveway to an elderly couple that could barely do 10 of them. Madness!

This is because agents are taught by an industry that does everything exactly the same, sell, buy, every enquiry is pretty mush answered the same way.

Sure, but isn't that just part of the job? Without answering queries at all, how will they ever know which tyre kickers might turn into buyers?

And how often would the situation below arise? About one in a million enquiries? Pleeeaase!!!

I have been guilty of trying to help prospects in the past by giving out addresses only to find on follow up call that “Oh Jon, you wouldn’t believe it but when we drove past, there was another agent there so we just went in with him/her and we loved the property and bought it. But hey Jon thanks for you help, you were great”.

 

[wylie]

The situation described happens more times than you would believe. The problem I believe is that buyers for a house don't understand the "in house" rules in an agency. My mother had people who she had taken out for months on end trying to find the right house only to have them enquire about a house on my mum's day off, and be taken for an inspection by another agent, who then shares in the commission. So one quick inspection after mum having put in months of her time means she gives up a portion of her commission to a "lucky" agent who happened to field the phone call that day.

When the buyers are told, they are mortified because they were loyal to my mother. They just don't understand the rules, and nor should they really care, because they just want that house and when they find the right one, they want to see it that day (as I would want to). He who hesitates can miss out on the house .

So their respect for my mother and their not wanting to bother her on a day off costs her half (or so) of the commission she rightly deserved after having put in so much time with them. And this happens all the time.

In those circumstances, my mother would have happily given up her day off and kept the whole of her portion of the commission, after having spent months with these buyers, but it happens both ways.

I believe some of you who bag agents need to lighten up. Most of them are decent people, just like all professions.

 

[Perp]

So evand, you quoted my statement, but I still don't understand what your position is re answering enquiries. Are you arguing that it is reasonable to ignore email enquiries?

 

[evand]

This is a situation caused by the RE rules of listing & selling agents. The agent that received the call could have left the inspection till the next day when your mum returned. Whatever, it has nothing at all to do with the buyer.

But it is not exactly the same situation Jon describes in his post.

And re your the last line in your post:

I believe some of you who bag agents need to lighten up. Most of them are decent people, just like all professions.

I will lighten up bagging agents when they stop ripping me off, being unethical, lying, and costing me stacks of money and time as they have done previously. I'd say that applies to people bagging RE agents. Almost everyone has a bad story and you rarely hear good ones.

The fact is tho, so many people dont know they've been ripped off as underquoting, dummy bidding, buying listings, conditioning, hidden advertising rebates, etc etc are not exactly made obvious to the community dealing with agents.

The situation described happens more times than you would believe. The problem I believe is that buyers for a house don't understand the "in house" rules in an agency. My mother had people who she had taken out for months on end trying to find the right house only to have them enquire about a house on my mum's day off, and be taken for an inspection by another agent, who then shares in the commission. So one quick inspection after mum having put in months of her time means she gives up a portion of her commission to a "lucky" agent who happened to field the phone call that day.

When the buyers are told, they are mortified because they were loyal to my mother. They just don't understand the rules, and nor should they really care, because they just want that house and when they find the right one, they want to see it that day (as I would want to). He who hesitates can miss out on the house .

So their respect for my mother and their not wanting to bother her on a day off costs her half (or so) of the commission she rightly deserved after having put in so much time with them. And this happens all the time.

In those circumstances, my mother would have happily given up her day off and kept the whole of her portion of the commission, after having spent months with these buyers, but it happens both ways.

I believe some of you who bag agents need to lighten up. Most of them are decent people, just like all professions.

 

[josko]

To be fair ....

I have recently had a realestate agent advise me not to put my IP on the market as he didn't think he could get me the price I needed. The market is KING. he also gave me some free tickets to see AUSTRALIA.

Regards JO

 

[crc_error]

To be fair ....

I have recently had a realestate agent advise me not to put my IP on the market as he didn't think he could get me the price I needed. The market is KING. he also gave me some free tickets to see AUSTRALIA.

Regards JO

now why do you think he did this? Probably he has to many listing on his books, and not enough buyers.. so he looses nothing by giving you this 'free' advise... and actually makes you think he cares for you..

Having your house on his books will only cause him to have to show more properties to the same amount of buyers.,. extra work for him.. only to get the same amount of sales.

 

[evand]

No, just that they are very lowly qualified enquiries. Agents do a hell of a lot of work dealing with all the tyre kickers to find a buyer.

Thats why they generally dont answer email enquiries.

A successful salesperson will qualify their enquiries so they deal with less people but people more likely to buy. Very rarely happens in the RE industry.

So evand, you quoted my statement, but I still don't understand what your position is re answering enquiries. Are you arguing that it is reasonable to ignore email enquiries?

 

[wylie]

This is a situation caused by the RE rules of listing & selling agents. The agent that received the call could have left the inspection till the next day when your mum returned. Whatever, it has nothing at all to do with the buyer.

But it is not exactly the same situation Jon describes in his post.

Maybe not exactly the same, but similar and same outcome.

 

[evand]

We could reinterpret that as saying:

I have recently had a realestate agent advise me not to put my IP on the market as he didn't think he could get the price he needed to get his commission.

To be fair ....

I have recently had a realestate agent advise me not to put my IP on the market as he didn't think he could get me the price I needed.

Regards JO

 

[josko]

We could reinterpret that as saying:

I have recently had a realestate agent advise me not to put my IP on the market as he didn't think he could get the price he needed to get his commission.

Oh dear Evan,

Definately not so. Do you really think he would say no becasue he wanted an extra $1050.00? Do you think he would forego over $10,000 for the sake of $1000?

Hm-m-m.

DO you guys think that when you walk into a shop and buy a shirt that the shop owner is selling you a top quality product for nearly cost price? What do you think of the 75% Mark up? When you stand there in your nice shirt and the shop owner tells you how wonderful it looks on you......do you believe her?

My point is: Maybe you do and maybe you don't, but come on. Agents are dealing with alot of money and are therefore going to be more savy at selling. The chances of coming across unscrupulous individuals in this industry would be extremely high. Please don't colour all agents with the same pen.

There are good and bad agents. I have had both and am quite happy to admit so.

Regards JO

 

[crc_error]

There are good and bad agents. I have had both and am quite happy to admit so.

Regards JO

yes there are good and bad agents, but most seem to be dirty.. thats why the whole industry is considered dirty.

Its like saying there are good and bad used car salesmen!

 

[josko]

now why do you think he did this? Probably he has to many listing on his books, and not enough buyers.. so he looses nothing by giving you this 'free' advise... and actually makes you think he cares for you..

Having your house on his books will only cause him to have to show more properties to the same amount of buyers.,. extra work for him.. only to get the same amount of sales.

CRC- I am not that naive to think he would not be wasting his time listing it.

However, if I had told you all that this agent had listed my property 40k higher than what he thought market price was - you would still be berating him for wasting my time and giving me high hopes when all he wants to do is sell it for bottom dollar!

Regards JO