The games Real Estate Agents play.....

Morning all,
I've noticed of late, through personal experience and of others that the current market had created a sense of arrogance from real estate agents and lack of communication and finally under quoting.....so my question is how do I level the game out?

Examples
1) property is advertised for offers above $260,000, I make an offer of $268,000, noting that next door sold for $250,000 in November 2014 which was completely renovated and subject was unrenovated and needed about $10k to bring life back into the property. Offer was made in writing on Saturday, then a few counter offers were made yesterday to $278,000 and I asked them to keep me up to date with any changes.....to finally receive a text message to my surprise, it looked automated, that the property was sold that morning for $311,000. This is surely low balling the value of the property if it sold for an extra $51k than what was advertised! What options are there to report this type of behavior?
2) property is advertised for offers above $290,000 and again is sold for $325,000! I called the agent up after inspection on the Monday and asked him what would take the deal off the table? His response was well an offer above the $290k, so my offer was $306k to which he said that he was expecting it to sell for $315k. I said based on previous sale of the property and comparable sales; courtesy of RP Data, I noted to him $306k with 66w was a strong offer. He said put this in writing....so my mother in law puts the offer in writing within 2minutes, he then calls her in about 10 minutes, they discuss the property and he then indicates that he already has an offer of $315k in writing....my mother in law then explodes and questions why he didn't mention this to me a few minutes earlier....to his surprise he had no legs to stand on and obviously caught out that there was no offer of $315k in writing, as he was stumbling with an appropriate response....he didn't have anything. Again this is terrible experience and believe we definitely have a system of agents under quoting to get buyer interest. How does one protect themself?

Thank you in advance for your assistance.

Amativus
 
The vendor can accept any offer they want.

The agent (is meant to) work for the vendor and get the best (or at least a satisfactory) price for them.

The best way to protect yourself is never pay too much by doing your research and walking away if the price exceeds your budget or what you think it's worth.

Don't cry over spilt milk & move onto the next one. Console yourself by thinking the buyer paid too much and there's better deals out there.
 
The worst under quoting I've seen so far was offers over $145k, comparable sales around $220k, sold in a week for over $210k.
I'm sure the differences are much greater at the higher end of the market.

As others have mentioned, stick to your price or walk away.
 
you can report it to the real estate institute and to the fair trading.

In Vic an agent is unable to quote a price less than what the vendor has on their authority although most will get away with TBC for the vendor's price. If investigated the authority form is the first thing they will look at then ask for comparable sales that they used.

End of the day if someone is willing to pay more than you congrats to them there is always another one around. If you keep looking at the same market you will get a good idea on what price a property should sell for and notice patterns with certain REA.

I've seen properties go more than 150k above what similar properties have sold (usually sells for around 500k) for and it was on a corner block with a major road (not a development site) as a builder would typical pay 180-200k per site and he would struggle to get 3 on the block (due to land size) and no way of getting 4. Not to be racist but it was two Asian buyers competing at auction for it and the under bidder said he went 100k more than what he was willing to pay but really wanted the house.
 
Put in your "walk away" offer, if someone bids higher then so be it.

We never disclose other peoples offers!
In Adelaide most are selling very quickly.
 
Put in your "walk away" offer, if someone bids higher then so be it.

We never disclose other peoples offers!
In Adelaide most are selling very quickly.

Very good point, an agent that tells you what the other person has offered is breaking privacy but also not getting the best possible price for their vendor and can burn a lot of buyers.

Put forward your best offer and what you feel it is worth to you and if someone puts in a higher amount or better offer move on :).
 
And try not to take things personally with agents- it never helps. You will get far further being civil and stating facts rather than losing your cool with them. Keep in mind it's a business/sales transaction and what goes around... :D
 
My wife once made an offer in a hot market and the agent who was rather rude said "you have to be joking". It was only slightly under the asking price on a >500k property
 
My wife once made an offer in a hot market and the agent who was rather rude said "you have to be joking". It was only slightly under the asking price on a >500k property

However in a cold market, they get offended when you say "youve got to be joking"when they advertise something thats worth 500k for 650k+
 
I'd add an expiration to the offer to force them to act. Why not play their game a little too. You can also add a few psychological tactics, like they do.

As previously mentioned, don't get too emotionally involved in it. Look at the numbers, then make your offer and add an expiration.

If they start playing games, move on to the next property. In some cases they will call you up again after a few weeks if the property didn't sell to check if your offer still stands. If that happens you could negotiate a lower price.
 
Thank you for all your feedback.

Yes I agree with the sentiment that if someone is prepared to pay more, so be it; there are more properties in the market.
 
Very good point, an agent that tells you what the other person has offered is breaking privacy but also not getting the best possible price for their vendor and can burn a lot of buyers.

Put forward your best offer and what you feel it is worth to you and if someone puts in a higher amount or better offer move on :).

I think a lot of people, and that includes agents, forget, that the process is called "private treaty" so all discussions should remain private. For an agent at any stage to pass on the position of other buyers is inappropriate, as well as foolish. While an offer may be on the table and the agent is trying to establish the position of other buyers prior to presenting them all to the seller, offers can be withdrawn, and the agent then has lost other buyers by foolish comments.

I also believe that too many agents forget, that todays buyers will be tomorrow sellers, so treating them badly today, will not help build possible business for tomorrow.
 
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