I am about to step into the world of investment properties for the first time, my wife and I are very excited.
We have found a property that we believe is a great start and have engaged the responsible RE agent. To date this has been a very frustrating and unrewarding experience.
The first contact with the agent, he was extremely unhelpful and couldn't get off the phone quick enough. This was even after I had indicated that I was keen to see the property and had made enquiries about the price.
I then spoke to another agent as the agent I had dealt with in the first instance had gone on leave and made arrangements to meet this agent and view the property. He did not turn up.
I then enageged the principle agent had a little success with more information regarding the property, some of which was extrmely inaccurate.
Finally another party from my side who will be involved in the purchase arranged time off work along with his wife to see the property and again the RE agency failed us , apparently the agent was sick but did not communciate anything.
Is this common behaviour, from my dealings with them I cannot for the life of me understand how they can still be in business.On the surface it appears that the agent is not particularly intersted in selling for teh vendor. I know for a fact that if the property that I was looking at was in the area where I live, all of the RE agents would almost move into my home in an effort to complete the sale.
This experience certainly hasn't dampened my enthusiams to start investing however it is extremely frustrating.
If this type of post is not allowed please remove as appropriate, I have purposely left off any names for obvious reasons.
Chris
Hey Chris,this is very unfortunate however even more so unfortunate is it happens more often than it should!
In my experience, given you have taken lengths to speak to the agent, his colleague and the principal, what I would do next is go to the vendor directly.
If I was a vendor selling my property through an agent or agency, I would want to know whether he was working for me and doing his job properly! I would hate to be sitting there wondering why my property was sitting there for sale then to find out the agency was not assisting potential buyers.
So the opportunity now is to let the vendor know about it and you may even be able to deal directly with them!
Good luck with that! And yes don’t let this stop you!How incredibly frustrating and unprofessional. Is it a small town? I’m not sure of the legalities, but is there any way you can find out who’s selling it and approach them directly? If the seller gets wind of this, they may be able to get rid of the REA and sell directly (win-win). I’m sure it’s not that simple though.
Cheers
Jamie
Jamie Moore | Pass Go Home Loans Pty Ltd
http://www.passgo.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeMortgage Broker assisting clients Australia wide Email: [email protected]
Hi Chris,
Like Jamie M & PositiveMindSet, i agree that you ought to contact the seller directly. Do you know if the property is owner-occupied? If so you could simply knock on the door and ask. Or if it’s rented the tenants may be able to provide more information such as the property manager or maybe even the owners contacts as it may be privately leased.
Other than that, if you have access to RP Data or equivalent you may be able to find owners name and details.
When i have done this before the sellers were shocked to hear but at the same time very appreciative of the feedback and have preferred to deal directly with me on the purchase so it ended up working better for me in the end (we negotiated directly and secured the property at a cheaper price taking into consideration no agents commission was payable).Names ,company, city, state. I want to know which agent to avoid!
But seriously, I’d suggest that the agency had a vested interest in buying it themselves when it goes stale.
If you can, contact the owner.
Also lodge a written complaint with the licensee & follow up for resolution. If you get no response, take it it to cat or fairtrading
Further to this, the other party finally go a viewing.
We promptly made an offer, this was taken back to the vendor by the REA.
The response was that the vendor was looking for considerably more.
The thing that puzzles me was that the item was listed as $XXX + and the Vendor wants 10% more than the advertised price.
I find this very unusual for a property that is listed as for sale.
Anyway we aren’t interested in the place attar vendors asking price, so onto the next opportunity for us.
Suffice to say I will never deal with the REA again not recommend them
Rant over
ChrisHey Chris,
What an anti climax! Though I am glad you were able to get stuff off your chest and I’m sure you’ve gotten something from the postings here for next time you meet an unhelpful REA. Unfortunately, in my experience I have come across way more than I would like!
On another note, the vendors may simply be playing the negotiation game. Rather than walk away I would ask them what their counter offer is and then go from there. I always expect some counter offer because if they accept on first go I’ve probably offered too much!
At the end of the day, if they are not really motivated to sell you’re then wasting time and move on to the next. Good luck!
chappy1970 wrote:The thing that puzzles me was that the item was listed as $XXX + and the Vendor wants 10% more than the advertised price.Ah – I suspected as much. They know that the seller has unrealistic expectations and probably regret taking on the listing…..and know that there’s bugger all chance of selling it. Even if this was the case, they still need to uphold professionalism when it comes to potential buyers. I bet that same real estate won’t be the listing agent for that property in a few months time.
Cheers
Jamie
Jamie Moore | Pass Go Home Loans Pty Ltd
http://www.passgo.com.au
Email Me | Phone MeMortgage Broker assisting clients Australia wide Email: [email protected]
I went to an open in an area I wanted to buy the agent never mentioned the house around the corner they had listed , so I went and knocked on the door the vendors wondered why they never had any inquiry for the many weeks it had been listed and where staggered when I told them of the atitude of their RE . They were desperate to sell as they were relocating for employment ( the next day) and could not make their motrtgage payments. offered a fair price with the condition of acess with in one week and a 3 month settlement, accepted imediately. Deal done in a few minute, as it was positive cashflow I went to a devolper to look at other oportunities found he was keen to to tidy up and finish a devolpement as he had ran out of funds to finance his next project to keep his workers emloyed and stop them running off, so I bought 2 proprties in about 2 hours. Idiot RE lost a lot of commission.
Nice one crusty. That’s what I’m talking about!
As a general rule I won’t cut out the real estate agent because I find it’s always good to have them on side to refer you more deals as they come across it. However I don’t mind getting a REA to miss out on commission / work especially when he is not doing his job and failing the vendors interest.
Appreciate all the great feedback.
We didn't think it was going to be a simple process, so we have learnt from it and have moved on.
Hi Chappy,
Would be interested to know what the selling agents were thinking, perhaps they had you tagged as not a serious buyer for whatever reason? Then their actions might make more sense whilst being very unprofessional still. No matter how you slice it there are always two sides
Be careful of any advice suggesting you might try and cut the selling agent out of commission whilst contact is made during a listing agreement, there are legal issues to consider here and you should tread carefully.
Regarding is this common behaviour, when you deal with as many agents as I do you could say it's not surprising, probably not common as most agents can rustle themselves up with the smell of an offer in the air but not surprising. Glad you have got over it and moved on, you have to kiss a lot of frogs in this game to find that prince of a deal sometimes!
By the way I think it's worth repeating, the selling agent does not represent your interests as a buyer, they are legally required to represent the best interests of the seller.
They have no duty to you as a buyer to help you with your goals so you aren't really being let down technically speaking, if you were the seller of this property then that would be another matter.
Andrew whilst I see that you are in the industry I disagree with your comments.
Firstly my repeated requests to the agent to get a viewing of the property along with my numerous queries regarding the price were evidence enough that I was serious about buying the property. I have enough to do without wasting my time chasing the agent on something that I had little or no interest in.
Secondly, I understand that the agent first and foremost represents the buyer, but part of that obligation is to engage with buyers who display a genuine interest in the property For Sale. In this instance I don't believe this occurred.
As a follow up to this, my wife drove past the property on the weekend and the sign has been taken down.
Chappy
Chappy,
I agree with your comments, don't see how my comments would change? So I think we are disagreeing to agree! Anyway what you said is spot on.
Cheers,
AndrewFor clarity this statement
Secondly, I understand that the agent first and foremost represents the buyer, but part of that obligation is to engage with buyers who display a genuine interest in the property For Sale. In this instance I don't believe this occurred.
Should have read
Secondly, I understand that the agent first and foremost represents the vendor, but part of that obligation is to engage with buyers who display a genuine interest in the property For Sale. In this instance I don't believe this occurred.
Sorry for any confusion
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