Real Estate Agents - vultures in disguise?

A few musings on the real estate game.

As some of you know, my wife and I are in the process of trying to sell our house. We have a new place under contract, pending the sale of our current place.

I have personally bought and sold under the Jenman system several times and like it. It is a no sale, no cost (or minimal cost) system, with no bullshit.

http://www.jenman.com.au/

Initially the agent for the new house stated that we ?must use? her agency to sell our house. I queried her about it, knowing the agent can?t demand that. She stated that the sellers would not accept any other agency. We walked away from the house without putting an offer in. I don?t take kindly to blackmail. She rang a few weeks later stating the sellers had changed their minds, we could use anyone we wanted. Obviously there were no other players in the market for the house. I told her we would use a local company that uses the Jenman system to which she again said was not acceptable to the sellers. Eventually we settled for the agency that handles our rental properties, due to being so close to our current home and getting a discount on the % fee on sale.

I keep an eye on the local area so have a good idea of what places go for but I did more research before the agent for our place came out for an evaluation and to talk. My figure was in the middle of what range he thought we could sell for. Markets are slow at the moment but Adelaide is holding up well (basically a flat market here), better than most other areas. I knew selling would be a bit slow. Our place went on the market in late November.

We have until next week to have our house under contract.

After many open inspections we have a few genuinely interested parties but they have not put in offers yet. We dropped the price c few weeks ago to see if that would encourage them, with little effect. Our agent is now stating that there is still ?resistance? to the price. We have remained firm. We?ve told our agent a few times that if we can?t sell before our deadline, we will not be interested in selling at all. We were thinking of winding back the advertising this week (the agent knew that) and yesterday he contacts us and says he has a keen buyer, who made a verbal offer to what we would accept and that he needs to meet with us. GREAT!

In passing I wondered what the catch would be.

Well, we met with our agent today and suddenly it appears yesterdays offer is not as concrete as first thought (who would have thought). There are a few issues with the possible buyer he tells us and then he zeros in on extending the advertising campaign to be on the safe side. Seems we have had our hopes of a sale built up then dashed yet again (old real estate technique to cause sellers to panic). After agreeing to one last weekend of opens I looked him in the eye and told him I didn?t really care if we sold the place or not, the other house was just a house and another one will come up sooner or later.

It was gold. I think he realized we would not fire sale our house in panic just to secure the other one.

And here is the clincher, we ?accidentally? received a letter for the sellers of the other house addressed to us last week. Bit of psyching going on there to keep us keen. I dropped it back the agent and she went on about the ?other keen parties? still wanting to buy if our contract fell through. Interesting since their place was on the market for over 4 months and never under contract before..

My instinct tells me these agents are colluding, trying to get us to fire sale our place. It benefits both of them, ensuring they get their fees for the sales. I feel like a near dead animal being circled by vultures, just waiting to rip the flesh from my bones.

We might approach the agent for the other place next week to see if the sellers are interested in extending the contract. It will be interesting to see if they will, especially if there are ?other keen parties? who want it.

Obviously all agents are not like this but beware people!

I know just how you feel mate, been there. In reality they are there to make a buck and will do what it takes usually to look after themselves, whether you are a buyer or seller.

What bites the most is that usually they get good money for doing very little work. Eg. we sold some land a couple of years ago and I am pretty sure the agent did SFA to encourage buyers to grab it apart from the standard "advertising campaign"... gimme a break.. a few ads in the local rag, big deal.

I feel for you mate, but hang in there, hopefully it will work out in your favour.

Yeah Darksoul, your definatley not alone there. We had much the same issue's, Agent's we spoke to would only go for an exclusive contract so they wernt in competition, after the house did not get sold (after 6 months on the market).agent still made over $1500 out of us somehow :confused:. Funny thing was as soon as we decided to take it off the market the same agents where ringing us telling us they could sell our house without going on a contract period :confused:. Property is rented now with an agent and even that is a crock considering the work they do.

Unfortunatley there main goal is a quick sale, no matter what they say to you. Its really not that much different to the retail market, high turnover is generally more important than high profits. Put it this way, if an agent sold 10 houses in the last month and another agent sold 1, which agent seems better?

Maggots the lot of them, prying on people to make a quick buck Maggots I say :badgrin

and all salesmen can eat an end of my ass, that part of the world is over no one is going to listen to hype anymore (hope so anyway :lol)

When we were buying and selling 3 years ago, we had a very negative experience with a particular real estate agent in Brisbane. Now whenever I see him in the neighbourhood selling housing, I wind down the window, beep the horn and yell "**Persons Name*** Blows Goats"!. Makes me feel a little better every time I do it. :badgrin

I also have to say, my dealings with the Jenman system have been very positive and would both buy and sell with a real estate agent who subscribes to that system.

I do think it's like anything out there - someone has to do it. And there are good ones and bad ones. The problem is that in recent years when there has been no work req'd to make a sale, every tom dick and harry has jumed in to make a quick buck. Time will now sort out the real professionals and the losers, when sellers and buyers can now choose to deal with real professionals.

I'm with Dave - I'm a valuer and love what i do and take it very seriously. So many agents are all about the sell, with no real repurcussions from a professional standpoint. Those whose profession it is to pick up the pieces and give real advice are forever battling against agents who "sell the sizzle" with no basis for anything they say.

But refer point 1 - I think you'll find good and bad in any profession...

ones here are dodgy

one of the "top" ones. has a habit of listing high as they do and keep suggesting as the months go on to drop price

they still get there commission while yours drops. I know here if a real estate agent has a listing and another sells that property the outside agent gets usually a 25-40% commission cut

alot force you to sign stating that they only give 5% to the outside seller. Ive got friends that have bought a house listed thru a different agent because the one selling is a total jack ass

when i got my place im currently in part of the contract was the previous owner was to remove a radio antenna prior to leaving or soon as possible

they come back 1 1/2 years later with the old agent to get it. nice big get fucked grandma and they were on there way

Real Estate Agents shit me to tears. I spent 4 years at uni working my arse off for a degree in Surveying and pock faced little bastads like them have the nerve to try and dictate the development process. We regularly bail clients out of the shit after poor advice from REAs.

 

:x:x:x:x:x

 

Dave

Haha you sound alot like my dad. Do you also despise local councils for taking forever to process development/rezoning applications?