The best real estate agents in Canberra

While I understand your stance pelican, I think with real estate, in some cases (perhaps most), the quality of the actual agent is of more importance than the “brand” they work for.

Also, while brokers might present you with five home loans from five different banks and recommend the best loan of the five, how do you know that you couldn’t have gone to those same five banks and gotten a better deal from each bank yourself?

I’ve had many friends get terrible deals from mortgage brokers. My advice is to do the legwork and comparisons yourself, most banks will offer you 0.5-0.7% off their standard variable rates, plus knock off some of their application fee, if you ask. Just walk in and say “What can you do for me?”

I agree with everything you say, and I’ve heard similar. This is the reason I have been so impressed with Scott. He looked at our financial situation, offered us several options and suggested a couple that would best suit our needs, but never pressured us into making any decisions. In fact, what he suggested just confirmed the leg-work personal investigations we had already done with the banks. When it came to suggesting banks, he gave us a list of around 6, and pointed out a couple which offered services that we were after, but sat back and let us decide.

Once that decision was made he was very open with the commissions that he receives from every bank (a fairly large list of banks), and guaranteed we could not negotiate a better rate independently. As cautious people we approached the bank of choice and attempted to negotiate a better price, but the best they could do was offer the same rate that the broker presented to us.

I have heard horrific stories of brokers, and was always very sceptical of them, but in Scott’s case he made our life so easy by managing the paperwork, submitting first home buyers doco and doing all the let work for us. On top of that, he was just a genuinely nice bloke.

I thought the following from Kirsty Dunphey’s blog today was pertinent:

What I would look for when choosing a real estate agent:

The dream agent shows me the price
An agent who can SHOW me why they’re saying they can sell my home for a certain price. The way they would need to show me would be by showing me what comparable properties had sold within the past 3 – 6 months (I’d want to see addresses, photos and sale prices). Even better if they have personally or at least their company have been responsible for some of these sales.

The nightmare agent tells me the price
I don’t want an agent who:

Finds out and then tells me the price I want to hear
Finds out the other agent quoted prices and then quotes a selling price higher to get the business
Plucks a price out of their head
Bases their price on properties that are not comparable to mine
The dream agent’s marketing is first rate
I want to look at your website, your property presentations on real estate portals (like realestate.com.au), your brochures, your sign boards, your newspaper advertisements and see:

Consistency of branding
Quality
Readability
Descriptive eye catching wording
The nightmare agent’s marketing isn’t flexible
I want options and I want to know why you recommend that marketing option for my property, not a one size fits all approach.

The dream agent talks with me
Their presentation is question based and they take time to find out about me and what I’m looking for. They know their stuff, but they find out what areas I’m most concerned about before launching into a recorded message-like presentation.

The nightmare agent talks at me
Their presentation is said at me and they speak more than 80% of the time.

The dream agent is a natural negotiator
I can test this out by asking them to drop their commission (if they don’t negotiate hard for their money, what are they going to do when it comes to negotiating for mine?). I can also test their negotiation skills if I’ve ever bought from them before – did they get top dollar out of me then?

The nightmare agent is a natural regurgitator
The other agent offered you 20% off? Well we can offer you 25%… The other agent said they’d do that? Well I can do better.

The dream agent cares
I can test this out by showing up 10 minutes before one of their scheduled open homes and watching them arrive, set up and conduct the open. I can test it by taking note of any promises they make (they’ll call me Monday, they’ll find that information out by Wednesday) and see if they live up to it.

The nightmare agent talks at me
The nightmare agent screams in at the last minute for an open home, doesn’t tell me their name and doesn’t follow up.

The dream agent has fans
And they’re more than happy to let me know about their fans by showing me testimonials (lots of glowing ones) and by allowing me to contact people they’ve sold houses for in the past month.

The nightmare agent has people fanatically trying to track them down
(to complain)

The dream agent remembers me
Long after the sale.

The nightmare agent develops acute amnesia
As soon as they get paid.

Jenman might offer some good tips here and there, but am I the only one who thinks he’s a bit of a nutbag?

I think he’s a little bit on the nutty side too

Jenman might offer some good tips here and there, but am I the only one who thinks he’s a bit of a nutbag?

fox said :

+1 for Ajay Mehta from LJ Hooker in Belco… same goes for Simon Mugford and Dennis Vlandis (principal of Belconnen and Kippax LJH)

Can’t say that the info from the following link was my experience, but it’s interesting all the same:
http://www.jenman.com.au/news_article.php?id=224

Thanks. The internet piece on LJ Hooker in Belco was very interesting. I’ve found most real estate agents panic when they hear you have read one of Jenman’s books.

2604 said :

Mortgage brokers have a massive conflict of interest. Anyone who gives you financial advice to the effect that Home Loan A is better than Home Loan B, while receiving a commission from the originator of Home Loan A for giving that advice, is conflicted. Unless of course he or she is getting the same commission from the originators of Loans A and B. But then, how would you find that out?

Also, while brokers might present you with five home loans from five different banks and recommend the best loan of the five, how do you know that you couldn’t have gone to those same five banks and gotten a better deal from each bank yourself?

I’ve had many friends get terrible deals from mortgage brokers. My advice is to do the legwork and comparisons yourself, most banks will offer you 0.5-0.7% off their standard variable rates, plus knock off some of their application fee, if you ask. Just walk in and say “What can you do for me?”

I agree – a broker who referred me work for quite a while always seemed to get the borrowers loans from a particular bank, yet supposedly offered loans from a large range of lenders. I later found out that the bank that usually got the loan also happened to be the one that paid the highest commission to brokers..

Mortgage brokers have a massive conflict of interest. Anyone who gives you financial advice to the effect that Home Loan A is better than Home Loan B, while receiving a commission from the originator of Home Loan A for giving that advice, is conflicted. Unless of course he or she is getting the same commission from the originators of Loans A and B. But then, how would you find that out?

Also, while brokers might present you with five home loans from five different banks and recommend the best loan of the five, how do you know that you couldn’t have gone to those same five banks and gotten a better deal from each bank yourself?

I’ve had many friends get terrible deals from mortgage brokers. My advice is to do the legwork and comparisons yourself, most banks will offer you 0.5-0.7% off their standard variable rates, plus knock off some of their application fee, if you ask. Just walk in and say “What can you do for me?”

tylersmayhem said :

If anyone ever needs a mortgage broker, Scott Baker who is an independent broker, but works through LJ Hooker in Kippax is actually brilliant. He’s experienced, open, honest, non-hard sell and full of great advice. If he organises a loan for you, it doesn’t cost you anything. He makes a commission from the bank, but not as a cost to you.

Never heard of a broker where it actually costs you before?

As for brokers, Phil Smith and Nick Fyfe @ Clarity Home Loans

DANG!

tylersmayhem said :

If anyone ever needs a mortgage broker, Scott Baker who is an independent broker, but works through LJ Hooker in Kippax is actually brilliant. He’s experienced, open, honest, non-hard sell and full of great advice. If he organises a loan for you, it doesn’t cost you anything. He makes a commission from the bank, but not as a cost to you.

Scott has, very sadly, just left Canberra for the presumably greener pastures of country NSW. Great broker, great guy.

If anyone ever needs a mortgage broker, Scott Baker who is an independent broker, but works through LJ Hooker in Kippax is actually brilliant. He’s experienced, open, honest, non-hard sell and full of great advice. If he organises a loan for you, it doesn’t cost you anything. He makes a commission from the bank, but not as a cost to you.

Fox, that is hilarious!!! I guess Dodgy is their motto at LJ Hooker Belco..
Simon Mugford was my PE teacher at Campbell many many years ago.. this article doesnt surprise me, I think Ill forward to it some old class mates for a laugh.

To avoid: Maloneys – particularly Dimitri Georgalis. Rent or sale. Personal opinion – from personal experience.

Wright Dunn is useless full stop. Selling, or renting.

Mark Wolens, Independent Property Group

Stick the property on Allhomes yourself, and drop the price by the 10k or so the agent would want to charge anyway. Take calls on a case by case basis. Anything priced right will sell easily anyway.

If you really want to use an agent, I use Capital First National in O’Connor and have found them to be excellent.

Deckard said :

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

How about Thomas Sorahan of Wright Dunn?

I’m sure he could ferret out a buyer.

I hear he has some real estate out Goulburn way.

I hear he’s a financial adviser, and knows exactly what to inject into the economy to stimulate growth

+1 for Ajay Mehta from LJ Hooker in Belco… same goes for Simon Mugford and Dennis Vlandis (principal of Belconnen and Kippax LJH)

Can’t say that the info from the following link was my experience, but it’s interesting all the same:
http://www.jenman.com.au/news_article.php?id=224

I read RiotAct almost daily, but have had no need to comment UNTIL NOW
Also one to avoid – Ajay Mehta from LJ hooker belco..

+ 1 for a no to Robyn @ Wright Dunn – my parents had a hell of a mess with her.

Katie said :

To avoid: Robyn @ Wright Dunn in Ainslie. You couldn’t find a more unprofessional, unreliable or unreasonable real estate agent if you tried.

um, Thomas Sorahan?

To avoid: Robyn @ Wright Dunn in Ainslie. You couldn’t find a more unprofessional, unreliable or unreasonable real estate agent if you tried.

Jazz, many parts of the inner north are just as close to Gungahlin as Belconnen, so I reckon you can add Dickson/Civic agents to your list too.

Jazz said :

Being a property in gungahlin i’d be more inclined to choose a real estate agent from either belconnen or gungahlin over one from a tuggeranong office. For two reasons. Firstly that they’re likely to have better familiarity with the area cause they sell properties in those areas week in week out, and secondly, in doing so their buyers list will contain those people they come into contact with – ergo buyers looking to get property in those areas. The only exception to this would be if the agent really is exceptional and your property is something unique (and no, i dont mean to you. this is just an asset you’re tring to sell here)

I used to work with a guy who became a real estate agent, after leaving the IT industry. I don’t know when he struck out on his own, but his info can be found here, he lives in gungahlin….

http://www.dlook.com.au/business/711728/Ian-Dempsey-Real-Estate-Sales

Being a property in gungahlin i’d be more inclined to choose a real estate agent from either belconnen or gungahlin over one from a tuggeranong office. For two reasons. Firstly that they’re likely to have better familiarity with the area cause they sell properties in those areas week in week out, and secondly, in doing so their buyers list will contain those people they come into contact with – ergo buyers looking to get property in those areas. The only exception to this would be if the agent really is exceptional and your property is something unique (and no, i dont mean to you. this is just an asset you’re tring to sell here)

Gordon Perry at Elders in Jamison Centre, Macquarie. Hardest working real estate agent in the city. Don’t have contact details on hand.

+1 for Kaylene King, LJ Hooker.

post#41 MissPeaches is spot on the money, sold my house and offered nothing but exemplary service, and are very negotiable with their fees

peterh said :

PsydFX said :

How about Thomas Sorahan of Wright Dunn?

…maybe not

don’t think he is there, anymore…..

Spotted still driving the Wright Dunn car in Civic in approx December last year…

tylersmayhem said :

When driving down Kingsford Smith Drive towards Melba the other day, I saw a sign which indicated something I haven’t seen or considered before. It said something like:

House For Private Sale – No Banks – Competitive Interest Rates – Low Deposit etc etc.

My only way to understand this is that the owner is prepared to exchange his property, and have the buyer pay them back over time with interest.

Does this happen very often. With the understanding that you can have pretty much anything in a legal document if you have solicitors draft it up and all parties agree.

I just haven’t seen anything like this before.

This is called “vendor finance”. It is not all that common, but certainly does happen. Although generally whenever I have seen it, it is a developer doing it on a big development, rather than an individual as in this case (?).

And from the legal point of view it is pretty simple, you prepare some sort of loan contract along with the standard housing contract, and then register a mortgage over the title to the person/s lending the money.

When driving down Kingsford Smith Drive towards Melba the other day, I saw a sign which indicated something I haven’t seen or considered before. It said something like:

House For Private Sale – No Banks – Competitive Interest Rates – Low Deposit etc etc.

My only way to understand this is that the owner is prepared to exchange his property, and have the buyer pay them back over time with interest.

Does this happen very often. With the understanding that you can have pretty much anything in a legal document if you have solicitors draft it up and all parties agree.

I just haven’t seen anything like this before.

Betty Wark at Lanyon Real Estate

Michael and Jenny McReynolds – Richard Luton Dickson office.

+1

No such thing as a decent real estate agent 🙁

A big vote for LJ Hooker Woden (Helen McKenzie). The most on-the-case property manager out of the last four that I’ve relied on over the last 8 years.

James Cook and Ces Hogdkinson at Tuggers.

Top notch service, reasonable fees and most important, bloody great result for the buyer… ME.

it works okay on some other forums jb……one that i frequent has a 2 minute window to edit your posts….this allows spelling to be fixed but usually isn’t enough time to change context after viewing following comments

Vic Bitterman said :

I wish I could edit my post above to remove the italics. Sucks be to crappy wordpress sites.

As noted you have a preview button, plus the ability to read what you’ve typed.

Can you imagine how confused arguments here would get if embarrassed idiots could go back and redact their comments? No thanks.

me threw

Me two.

Vic Bitterman said :

I wish I could edit my post above to remove the italics. Sucks be to crappy wordpress sites.

i wish i could taken time to edited my posted before i posted it by first used previewed.

here is lanyon’s website: http://www.lanyonrealestate.com.au/

I and a friend have had good experiences with homefinders in Campbell.

I wish I could edit my post above to remove the italics. Sucks be to crappy wordpress sites.

MWF said :

trevar said :

The Real Estate Shop in Erindale are brilliant. I wouldn’t touch Independent with a 10 foot pole.

My last interaction with them, as a seller, was a dodgy as hell real estate agent who came around and gave me an hour or two sales pitch. He simply wouldn’t leave and wanted me to sign forms on the spot. I had to ask him to leave, quite firmly, had to raise my voice. Would never recommend the real estate shop from erindake to anyone.

As a buyer (and I own quite a few IP’s), I hate how they never list an address of a place on allhomes. You have to phone them up, wait for an agent to call you back, you get an intense sales pitch, and then, if you are lucky, they give youu the address such that you can do a drive past to see if it’s ok. I really don’t like their sales practices.

Vic Bitterman said :

trevar said :

Lanyon RE in Calwell.

They’ve closed up and it’s all vacant.

I thought that they had moved to lanyon?

trevar said :

Lanyon RE in Calwell.

They’ve closed up and it’s all vacant.

trevar said :

Having rented in Canberra for many years, and having recently bought a house, I would recommend The Real Estate Shop in Erindale, and Lanyon RE in Calwell. Never had any good experiences with any others.

The Real Estate Shop in Erindale are brilliant. I wouldn’t touch Independent with a 10 foot pole.

Kaylene King, LJ Hooker Canberra City.

We’re currently negotiating the sale of our investment property in Gungahlin with her. Looks like we have found a buyer inside two weeks. Not completely finalised yet, but (fingers crossed) only the formalities remain.

This is the second time we have used Kaylene to sell a property in the Gungahlin area (first time was back in 2004) and this is the second time she has found us a buyer inside two weeks. I get the feeling she makes buyers feel at ease and presents well and is therefore a good person to have representing your property.

That said, in my rather uneducated opinion, selling a house is not rocket science and no matter how much value a real estate agent may or may not add, paying someone in the vicinity of $3000-5000 per week to sell a house will always stick in my throat (depending on commission, sale price and assuming a four week sale time). I concede a really good agent is possibly worth it, but that’s a lot of bloody money for a few weeks work!

If a vendor is prepared to set a fair asking price, and not chase over the odds results, and is capable of presenting the property well enough to attract buyers through the door (like the experts keep saying on all the real estate shows), then, potentially, you’re offering money for jam to real estate agents.

Sites like allhomes, as mentioned, also do a great job of making properties accessible to potential buyers.

I’m happy to concede I am probably over simplifying things, but I’m also not a complete muppet.

VYBerlinaV8_the_one_they_all_copy said :

How about Thomas Sorahan of Wright Dunn?

I’m sure he could ferret out a buyer.

I hear he has some real estate out Goulburn way.

How about Thomas Sorahan of Wright Dunn?

I’m sure he could ferret out a buyer.

@PsydFX I got a giggle outta that =]

PsydFX said :

How about Thomas Sorahan of Wright Dunn?

…maybe not

don’t think he is there, anymore…..

i use lanyon real estate for the tuggers side, and elders for northside.

How about Thomas Sorahan of Wright Dunn?

…maybe not

I don’t see how it hurts you Mr Evil. If you don’t think the thread is interesting then don’t read it.

I for one quite like these threads and think it is cool that the collective RiotACT community knowledge can be used to find out these sorts of things.

It is hard to find a good sandwich or whatever in a new town or even in a town you have lived in for years, it is just one of the benefits of having a site like The RiotACT.

The only thing that gives me the shits is that every time we have one of these threads there is someone who whines about it.

What is happening to RiotACT – suddenly we’re becoming the site for advice on where to find a good gardener/real estate agent/plumber/brain surgeon/pizza/massage/coffee????

It’s been going on for a while – and personally, as long as it doesn’t get too out of hand, it think it’s brilliant. Particularly when it comes to services and consumers looking out for consumers.

If some of you don’t like it, just don’t read, and don’t post. I’ve found some of the suggestion here gold, and this knind of knowledge is power at times in our fair town! 🙂

Yes, but these requests seem to be almost taking over. Previously, there’d be one of these once a month, but now they seem to appear just about every second day.

Has RiotACT become a victim of its own success? 🙂

Sorry, Was happening WHEN

Mr Evil said :

What is happening to RiotACT – suddenly we’re becoming the site for advice on where to find a good gardener/real estate agent/plumber/brain surgeon/pizza/massage/coffee????

What’s this ‘suddenly’??

Was happening I started checking this place out a couple of years ago.

Er, this sort of thing has always been in the editorial mix.

What is happening to RiotACT – suddenly we’re becoming the site for advice on where to find a good gardener/real estate agent/plumber/brain surgeon/pizza/massage/coffee????

Having rented in Canberra for many years, and having recently bought a house, I would recommend The Real Estate Shop in Erindale, and Lanyon RE in Calwell. Never had any good experiences with any others.

James at LJ Hooker Q’beyan is a top bloke

MsCheeky said :

The ‘sell your own’ people are CanReps. I used them when I sold my last house in 2000. I thought they were good, though you do have to be prepared to put in some time yourself for open houses. Also worth noting that, as the ads say, everyone goes to allhomes.com these days. You’re reaching your audience easily there. I strongly question the value an agent provides when you’re selling your house, particularly at what they charge. I guess a lot depends on the property – if its a good one, I would definitely be inclined to give it a go myself first. It doesn’t cost much to do that.

That’s the one. I sold my house via them after 1 weekend of open house.

Debbie Maddigan from Peter Blackshaw Manuka is brilliant.

The ‘sell your own’ people are CanReps. I used them when I sold my last house in 2000. I thought they were good, though you do have to be prepared to put in some time yourself for open houses. Also worth noting that, as the ads say, everyone goes to allhomes.com these days. You’re reaching your audience easily there. I strongly question the value an agent provides when you’re selling your house, particularly at what they charge. I guess a lot depends on the property – if its a good one, I would definitely be inclined to give it a go myself first. It doesn’t cost much to do that.

Tim McInnes or Peter Walker from Peter Blackshaw Belconnen – both great!

Oh yeah names – Maree van Arkel at Peter Blackshaw Dickson and Andrew Chamberlain in Manuka.

What’s the name of the group where you do the open house work, and the company puts an ad on allhomes, and gives you a sign for open house day.
You save thousands, and it’s not that difficult to do.

Unfortunately, I can’t recall the name of the group. 🙁

Oh names – Maree Van Arkel.

Having recently gone through the buying experience, I can say that should we sell Peter Blackshaw Dickson will likely be getting our business.

I’ve sold through Peter Blackshaw Manuka and Dickson – very happy with them, but I wouldn’t recommend LJ Hooker Belconnen.

About to have another crack at selling a home (in Gungahlin too). It is an investment property and we’ll be hitting the market the weekend after next. Promising signs so far this year, with plenty of people out and about checking out what is on offer.

If it was our primary residence I would contemplate selling privately, but we need a quick sale and the fees paid to agents etc are tax deductible, so full steam ahead on the agent bandwagon, haha.

Auction was recommended to us, and having it explained, albeit one sided, I can see a few benefits to taking that path. However, we’ve decided on the $4xx,000+ option. Let’s see how we go…

I agree with andym.

Ive bought and sold quite a few properties in the ACT and Robert Peaker was by far the best/most professional to deal with! Cute Mrs too. Most canberra agents I have to say arnt that smart…!!!

Auctions are sendings-from-the-Devil.
The reason why auctions are so popular here in Canberra is that the lazy agents have got the market sewn up, or so they think.
If you’re going to sell a house then an auction is the worst possible way of doing it.
Just ask Jenman.
Of course, if you’re buying, well, auctions ahoy!
The Canberra market (and elsewhere) is flat-lining. Prices are collapsing as the agents/”investors”/speculators “biggest fool” Ponzi scheme has now run out of fools. Even your room temp IQ bogan tradies are beginning to whinge about petrol, food, interest rates. Pity their half dozen brain cells didn’t fire up a few more times 5 years ago….”Hang on, why exactly am I buying a house for 500k now that was 200k a year ago ?….deeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr”

Just remember, RE agents and the RE Institutes only care about one thing, RE agents and the RE Institutes.

Well, an auction locks you in to around 4 weeks of advertising for a start, so therefore that pretty much rules out a truly quick sale. Further, if an acceptable offer was made on a house prior to auction, I’d be very surprised if the agent concerned would be willing to renegotiate their fees based on the fact the house did not complete the proposed advertising/auction cycle.

I can see situations where auctions are fantastic for vendors, but that may not be the sole reason for agents pushing such a sales method. I’m guessing, the fact such an approach is a better means of boosting an agent’s own revenue is probably not something that will make it to an agent’s proposal when trying to clinch a new listing.

I’d disagree that an auction is any more expensive than any other type of campaign, and in several cases significantly less if you’re looking for a quick sale.

lets agree to disagree

Jazz: my point is – as effectively removed from your selected quotation – that a) the market has cooled considerably in the last few months and b) therefore your average punter considering an auction at this time is simply looking for somone to open a big can of whoop ass on their wallets. Yes, a private treaty sale is also going to bring less now than a few months ago, but at least that form of sale doesn’t expose the seller to the (proportionally higher) cost of an auction.

We sold our home a year ago ourselves.

We put it up on allhomes. Within the day it was online, we had an offer of $25k more than we hoped for. We advertised it as $XXX+

I organised the reports and we went to our solicitor to do the conveyancing (that is a bit tricky to do yourself).

We even still get letters from the person we sold to about how the house is going.

I wouldn’t bother with an agent.

Whats your point reprobate?

Reprobate said :

Dec 07 (private seller) asking $435,000
Jan 07 (Agent, private treaty) asking $428,000
May 08 (Agent, auction) sold for $381,000

Given that it sold for just over $380K there must have been some heavy duty “conditioning” done by the agent to get the owners to set a low reserve rather than have the property passed in and remain unsold. Now, although the owners were dreaming with their original listing prices, if you take away the standard 3% commission, auctioneer’s fees, the “intensive marketing campaign” ie saturation advertising over 4 weeks from the price achieved at auction, the owners would have got about $365,000 in the hand at the end of it all(not taking into account legals and building report costs etc). Looks like the property was bought by investors/speculators judging by the activity of tradies at the place since.

THere are heaps of variables that explain the price difference. The market changes over a period of 15 months, or that maybe the property didnt sell the first two times becuase the owners were still asking too much, maybe the property was in considerably worse shape than the first time round.

An agent will recommend a price based on comparible sales in an area. Its still up to the owners to agree to it. You also dont know the circumstances surrouding the auction, maybe the owners just needed a sale at that point and may have been in a position where they had to accept that price.

Special G said :

Don’t deal with Marie van Arkyl at Dickson. She stuffed us around no end when attempting to purchase a property. Ended up pulling out as dealing with her was not worth the effort and a similar place came on the market.

She showed me through a cheapish apartment once. Showed up late and didn’t even PRETEND like she was interested in my business. Suited me fine.

Peta Barrett, LJ Hooker Kippax.

The girl works hard, knows her stuff and she looks good.

I was happy with her…..

I’d like to Thumper.

Out of interest, as both a guide to how the market is at the moment and how “auctions will get you the best price for your property*” a house (3br, ens, seperate flat, white bread suburb) in my area was recently listed as follows:

Dec 07 (private seller) asking $435,000
Jan 07 (Agent, private treaty) asking $428,000
May 08 (Agent, auction) sold for $381,000

Given that it sold for just over $380K there must have been some heavy duty “conditioning” done by the agent to get the owners to set a low reserve rather than have the property passed in and remain unsold. Now, although the owners were dreaming with their original listing prices, if you take away the standard 3% commission, auctioneer’s fees, the “intensive marketing campaign” ie saturation advertising over 4 weeks from the price achieved at auction, the owners would have got about $365,000 in the hand at the end of it all(not taking into account legals and building report costs etc). Looks like the property was bought by investors/speculators judging by the activity of tradies at the place since.

*-Quote taken from http://www.perterblackhsaw.com.au:
Auction is the only method of gathering all interested buyers in one place at one time. Qualified buyers compete against each other instead of against you. The stimulation and excitement of an auction ensures you get the best price for your property.

Jason Hall @ LJ Hooker at Gungahlin. The LJ Hooker name helps, just avoid the guy I mentioned above

Tandu, you need to get out more, you’re beginning to sound like you have no clue, and certainly have no idea about the real estate market.

Here’s a tip. Someone who does something far more than someone else (selling real estate in this instance) IS far more experienced in doing said thing, regardless of their motivations, ethical standpoint or any other view you’d care to impose upon the assessment.

99 times out of 100 the more experienced person will get a better result at doing said thing than the clown who thinks he knows better (That would be you btw)

Its easy to apply stereotypes. but they do not hold true in all cases and in this industry as in every other walk of life there are those that do not deserve the stereotype that you so easily heap upon them.

btw, I think advertising executives are the reason most of us have a job. I’d explain why but i suspect i’d be wasting my time & you wouldn’t understand.

Now back on topic please. The question at hand is if you have any recommendations for someone who does think they have some value, or know if commission rates are negotiable. not your personal views on the value of real estate agents as a profession.

Mælinar said :

I remember when we were buying houses, there was this indian rep who drove a hot little red car with personalised plates with his name on it, and his business card had some kind of gold 100’s club logo on it, alongside whichever firm he was working for.

Look him up, he seemed kinda legit.

Ajay Mehta, wanker. Personifies the stereotype of real estate agents portrayed above

Ask him why he doesn’t work at the LJ Hooker office he did prior to being at the one he is now

Now for the double post.

Michael Rabey is good value and I have purchased two properties through him and continue to receive regular updates on properties that he lists that I may be interested in.

Moneypenny says she wouldn’t sell her own mother although I reckon she’s got a mother-in-law going for a bargain price ;P

Don’t deal with Marie van Arkyl at Dickson. She stuffed us around no end when attempting to purchase a property. Ended up pulling out as dealing with her was not worth the effort and a similar place came on the market.

Agreed. Well said Tandu.

Tandu’s rants are excellent! Well-written, good use of idiom, passionate, and to the point. And funny. Nice work. I always appreciate a good rant.

A big part of getting the best price for your property is exposing it to the greatest number of potential buyers. RE Agents can do this (but not all can be bothered), and likewise private sellers rip themselves off if they think its simply about putting an add in the paper. The greater the number of potential buyers that are aware of your property the greater the potential competition to acquire it and the greater the possibility of obtaining the best selling price.

tandu said :

Jazz is full of it. I read with interest higher up that he’s married to an agent…pffft.

“Oh look, because agents lie, steal and cheat people 25 times a year they are obviously much more qualified than someone who lies only once every 10 years”.

Here’s a hint..Real estate theivery isn’t a “profession”, they are not “professionals”. They’re just grubby flotsam washed in with the real estate bubble tide. Once the tide goes out (as always happens) they’re left in their multitudes gasping in the sunlight, floundering around blaming the “market” for being caught out in their lies.

There is a REASON that the only deluded idiots who believe agents are respected members of the community are other agents. Most people wouldn’t p*ss on them if they were on fire in the gutter. It’s like Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy said, they’re part of the Useless Third of the population, along with used car salesmen and advertising executives.

Belray, if you put your house back on the market for $10 , do you think it would sell? So, if it didn’t sell at your original price then you asked too much, thus it was over priced.

See how simple it is ?

The only way more sales will complete is when vendors start to realise that they can’t just buy a house, stare at it for 12 months, mow the lawn and then expect to make a 300k profit by flipping it onto the next clown.

The happy days are over my friend, watch and learn.

Oh, silly me, I forgot, property never goes down, it always doubles every 7 years yadda yadda yadda…..

You’re all about to get burnt, badly.

Teach me oh wise one.

Professional: Engaging in a given activity as a source of livelihood or as a career, Performed by persons receiving pay, Having or showing great skill; expert.

Because something doesn’t sell doesn’t necessarily mean that it is overpriced, maybe supply and demand eg, “Yep, fair price, but I am just not in the market for that at the moment”. People don’t buy things they don’t want or need. That is the reality. I would suggest that there is not a demand for the type of property I was trying to sell. Of course, if there is an absolute bargain to be had, of course it would sell. Reatailers move stock that way all the time.

Someone should introduce Tandu to Pottsy – I reckon they’d have a ball.

Jazz is full of it. I read with interest higher up that he’s married to an agent…pffft.

“Oh look, because agents lie, steal and cheat people 25 times a year they are obviously much more qualified than someone who lies only once every 10 years”.

Here’s a hint..Real estate theivery isn’t a “profession”, they are not “professionals”. They’re just grubby flotsam washed in with the real estate bubble tide. Once the tide goes out (as always happens) they’re left in their multitudes gasping in the sunlight, floundering around blaming the “market” for being caught out in their lies.

There is a REASON that the only deluded idiots who believe agents are respected members of the community are other agents. Most people wouldn’t p*ss on them if they were on fire in the gutter. It’s like Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy said, they’re part of the Useless Third of the population, along with used car salesmen and advertising executives.

Belray, if you put your house back on the market for $10 , do you think it would sell? So, if it didn’t sell at your original price then you asked too much, thus it was over priced.

See how simple it is ?

The only way more sales will complete is when vendors start to realise that they can’t just buy a house, stare at it for 12 months, mow the lawn and then expect to make a 300k profit by flipping it onto the next clown.

The happy days are over my friend, watch and learn.

Oh, silly me, I forgot, property never goes down, it always doubles every 7 years yadda yadda yadda…..

You’re all about to get burnt, badly.

Reprobate has some reasonable advice all up until the last line which i reckon is a crock of shit. Holier than thou attitudes exist in every industry and not exclusively mortgaged by real estate agents as some posters on this thread would have you believe.

Everything else being equal its worth remembering that a good agent will sell upwards of 25 homes per year. That gives them a fair bit more knowledge and experience than joe public who probably only does that once every 10 years.

Definitely don’t do an auction at this time.

And do ask about their advertising policy.

For my recent sale the agent did allhomes, and a weekly listing of the time of the open home, and that was enough.

For my last house sale a different agent convinced me I needed to buy large sized colour ads in the real estate pages, at 700-350.00 a week!

Some hints for those about to enter the shark infested waters of engaging a real estate agent:

Come up with a short list of say 5 or 6 agencies you might engage. Maybe two big national agents, two of the bigger local ones and two smaller “boutique” local agents. Before you get them in, go to some homes on sale through those agents – preferably at least 2 different people from the bigger agencies. Ask some typical buyer’s questions – why are they selling, how much room do they have to move on the price, how long has it been listed, do they want a quick settlement etc. If an agent is prepared to divulge these details and potentially increase your bargaining position straight away, chances are they don’t give a stuff about getting the best price for the vendors and just want their commission – fast. I suggest you cross them off your list equally as fast.

When contacting an agency, don’t just ring and say I want someone to come and sell my home. The receptionist will just choose the first available agent. Big agencies have lots of agents who usually have a big spread of experience between veterans who know how to screw everyone over and newbies out to earn their first big$$$. Either use your knowledge to say who you want to speak to or, if you havn’t done the earlier step, at least look at the wording of their ads. Then get a selection of agents in to your home to do a valuation; ask them all the usual questions, and find out about their fees. Most importantly, ask for a copy of their standard contract to read through. This is where there can be a huge difference and is as important as the agent’s skills (such as they may be).

Be very wary of any agent who doesn’t want to provide you with the contract at this time. What have they got to hide? Some agencies have contracts that bind you to their agency for more than 90 days. If you have issues with how your property is marketed or you lose confidence in the agent, too bad – you willingly locked yourself in for 3 months when you signed. Further, agents can also have grandfather caveats whereby even if the contract period ends and sign up and sell with another agent or sell privately, you still have to pay them their full commission! Peter Blackheart is a good example of this. The other biggie is advertising fees – advertising is the absolute cream on the cake for agents. It should be included as a selling tool but it isn’t and the rates are usually non-negotiable. Some of the smaller agents include it in their fees.

Bargain hard on commissions. If an agent says “if I drop my price for you now, won’t I just do the same for buyers of your house?”, remember: a) you are engaging them as your negotiator, so they should show they have those skills; and b) THEY don’t accept any offer from a potential buyer – YOU DO!

Any agent who pushes auctions hard and fast – particulary in this environment with low clearance rates – should be avoided like the plague. The risk (lots of additional costs for an auctioneer, extra advertising etc, pressure into setting a low reserve) is all borne by the vendor. And nothing stinks like the failure of a house passed in at auction, which is then listed by private treaty…

DIsclosure – I am not, have not and (God willing) will never be an agent nor do i kbow of anyone who is. Just someone who can’t stand the holier than thou image agents believe in…

tandu said :

Real Estate agents are lying vermin, right up there with used car salesmen.
The sooner this market crashes and burns the better!
Oh, Belray, the reason why your home isn’t selling is that it’s probably over-priced. Yes, bank managers and real estate agents will give you an accurate representation of the market?..pffffttt…

Here’s a clue, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And don’t get your hopes up about some miraculous market “bounce” happening soon, prices are only going to go down, and down and down.
House up the road from me in Torrens went on the market in March for $780,000…..sold a week or so ago for low 600’s and it has a view. Your brick veneer McMansion up there in Cowboy Country is now on a low, slow slide to hell. You’re fortunate you didn’t sign a contract.
Just remember, agents care for nothing except agents. Considering most of them were selling dodgy washing machines 5 years ago they havn’t done too badly. Of course, in a perfect world they’d all be at the bottom of the harbour, that’ll always be the dream.

Tandu, you are either a know-it-all or a psychic, I am not sure which. You clearly have issues with people who live on the Northside in a brick veneer McMansion. Is it envy? How do you know my house was overpriced? You don’t know what I was asking and you certainly don’t have the faintest clue what I was selling. Never once did I say that the bank manager or agents gave an accurate representation of the market did I? .. pfftt.. I do recall however, saying that they believed that the price was realistic (rarely do bank managers give funds to people who will not be able to dispose of their property when that is part of the loan servicability). Please get your facts straight prior to making yourself look like a goose as the two suggestions are very different.

I agree that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay. That is called common dog fcuk (clearly it is not common though). I don’t expect any market bounce… what I suggest will happen, is that confidence in the market (read interest rates) will increase, thus more sales will complete, maybe not at the advertised price, but they will complete. Clearly from your wide and vast experience you must already know that.

You my friend are the kind of person that makes this forum so entertaining at times!!!!!!!

Meeeeeoooooooooooowwwwwwwww!

Real Estate agents are lying vermin, right up there with used car salesmen.
The sooner this market crashes and burns the better!
Oh, Belray, the reason why your home isn’t selling is that it’s probably over-priced. Yes, bank managers and real estate agents will give you an accurate representation of the market?..pffffttt…

Here’s a clue, something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And don’t get your hopes up about some miraculous market “bounce” happening soon, prices are only going to go down, and down and down.
House up the road from me in Torrens went on the market in March for $780,000…..sold a week or so ago for low 600’s and it has a view. Your brick veneer McMansion up there in Cowboy Country is now on a low, slow slide to hell. You’re fortunate you didn’t sign a contract.
Just remember, agents care for nothing except agents. Considering most of them were selling dodgy washing machines 5 years ago they havn’t done too badly. Of course, in a perfect world they’d all be at the bottom of the harbour, that’ll always be the dream.

el said :

Yeah, I’m sure there was no ulterior motive at all Jazz…;-) I’m sure she’s one of the ‘good’ ones rather than being a lying, filthy scumbag like the rest of them.

i guess thats up to crabb to decide isnt it?

Yeah, I’m sure there was no ulterior motive at all Jazz…;-) I’m sure she’s one of the ‘good’ ones rather than being a lying, filthy scumbag like the rest of them.

Just so happens that i am but that doesn’t discolor my views on the subject and there are as many supportive comments on this thread as your obvious negative experiences. Just saying it takes all sorts. My experiences have all been good, even before my wife started working in that industry.

Personally i think anyone who doesn’t use an Agent to sell their biggest asset is a dead set loser but to each their own. You dont like them, don’t use one. However I’d wager that not everyone is comfortable negotiating the sale of their house, let alone have the objective position and experience to know how to present it for sale or what process they need to follow. You’re also a bigger fool than i think if you reckon houses sell houses (I can just see it now, my house waving at passers by yelling that its for sale).

El, unlike most on here, moneypenny at least seemed to attempt to answer crabb’s question.

I wouldn’t feed LJ Hookers at Dickson, including Mr Swarmy Tim Russell and his colleague in crime Bunday. Bought a house through them once and caught them lying big time.

Suggest for inner north using Marie Van Arkell – from Peter Blackshaw – bought a house through her once and everything went well, she called things as they should have been and had a good rep amongst people I know who have also used/dealt with her.

DO NOT use Hookers at Dickson unless you want to be ripped off.

Skidbladnir said :

Totally off topic, but does anyone know why the Canberra chronicle only has a realk estate section for Queanbeyan?

Interesting. There’s a Queanbeyan Chronicle, that has qbn real estate and Canberra news (with a pointless Qbn front pager, usually). Might be you’re getting the Qbn version by accident?

As for bad RE agents, the huge problem with the sector is, they’re mostly working on commission, and they’re desperate. Any job where people are on commission sees the greed, the desperation, the facile incompetance, the dreadful service. You’ve got real estate agents, car salespersons, recruitment consultants, some financial advisors, and the then poor people in Amway, Avon, Kirby,… people on commission are usually horrible to deal with. It’s depressing and embarrassing and unpleasant. Any industry relying on people on commission has major problems.

Get a recommendation, but better still, do it yourself.

Because Queanbeyanites can’t afford to pay $1.20 for the CT? hehe

Why the hell would anyone pay $1.20 for the CT – have you seen it lately?

I would go with

Tim Russell, LJ Hooker
Jenny and Michael McReynolds, Richard Lutons,
Peta Swarbrick, LJ Hooker.

Although they are all mainly inner north type agents I think. But looking at home on the inner north these are the ones that made a real effort at the properties, and made follow up calls etc to see what we thought. And we used one of them to sell our house.

In the current slow market I would use an agent. Six months ago properties sold themselves and doing it yourself would have been good, but not now.

Also if you do it yourself you have to have a thick skin. You have to stand around your cleaned up house watching people snigger at the curtains etc.

Good luck!

Felix the Cat said :

Skidbladnir said :

Totally off topic, but does anyone know why the Canberra chronicle only has a realk estate section for Queanbeyan?

I’ve always wondered that too!

Because Queanbeyanites can’t afford to pay $1.20 for the CT? hehe

Skidbladnir said :

Totally off topic, but does anyone know why the Canberra chronicle only has a realk estate section for Queanbeyan?

I’ve always wondered that too!

I remember when we were buying houses, there was this indian rep who drove a hot little red car with personalised plates with his name on it, and his business card had some kind of gold 100’s club logo on it, alongside whichever firm he was working for.

Look him up, he seemed kinda legit.

ROFLMAO at comment #14. Someone comes to the defence of those poor, misunderstood widdle real estate agents…who just happens to be one.

And then makes an attempt to get the sale…

Its little wonder most people would rather step in fresh dog turds with bare feet than shake a real estate agent’s hand.

@jazz: I cant find this reference you make to an agent stealing customers from a vendor. which comment are you referring to? and in any case i fail to see the relevance of this.

God, you’re slower than hingo. It’s here. If you can’t see the relevance of an agent getting my parents to pay to ferry buyers to her house rather than theirs, you’re even slower again.

Look, the rest of what you wrote is ‘he said, she said’. They’ve all happened to me, and people I know. I’ll give you a few obvious ones, though:

– about phantom bidders – an agent in Queensland offered my brother-in-law to have his offsiders push up bids at his auction in February this year – completely nudge nudge wink wink, of course. Who’s going to catch them – as you said, how would you know? What’s my BIL to do – report them and throw a month of marketing down the drain? They know they can get away with it – it’s why there’s a law against it.

– about real estate agents flat out lying. The property my sister-in-law is currently renting is on the market (well, it just sold – and yes, the manager was the agent) but it’s still on allhomes. The property is advertised as having a two car garage and two car carport. It doesn’t have a two car carport at all – the carport belongs to me, and they’ll be taking it with them when they leave. The agent knew this, but advertised it as such anyway, and every buyer was surprised when my SIL told them as much.

– about conveyancing – if somebody falls for a real estate agent’s dishonesty, they’re to blame? D.ckhead.

– about door-knocking – it’s not a coincidence, it’s f.cking rude. Are they so stupid they don’t know what time it is? Do they think hassling people in their homes for their own person gain does anything for their reputation as an industry? Even used car salesmen know to stay in the lot.

– about fees – what part of ‘they tell you one thing, then change it later’ don’t you understand? Now: this is all we’ll need to charge. Later: if you want to sell, you’ll need to pay $000 for more advertising. This has nothing to do with caveat emptor, and everything to do with downright dishonesty. They know you’re over a barrel, and they exploit it.

I’m a tradesman, all tradesman are lazy slobs, ergo so am i

Nice straw man. Married to a real estate agent, are you? You seem a bit precious about the topic. What are the odds that every…single…real estate agent I, my friends and my family have dealt with since the 1950s are all incompetent crooks but that that they’re all really great people and we just got the bad ones? Why isn’t this thread ringing with endorsements – “call Fred, he’s great! Call Jill, she won’t steer you wrong!” The only people sticking up for agents are you and an agent.

‘Go to open homes and see how the agent behaves”? Yeah, I can tell a lot from somebody about how they stand in a doorway with a clipboard, stare with idle disinterest at passers-by, then pack up their sign into their BMW and drive off. Agents don’t sell houses – houses do. Agents are just blood-sucking parasites who feed off a deal that more or less sorts itself out.

They’re in it for themselves. Not buyers, not sellers – they’re just pawns to be played off against each other til you squeeze the most you can out of both of them -and then you drive the Beemer to the next sucker.

OzChick said :

While on this topic, can anyone recommend a good conveyancer?

I recommend O’Connor Harris in the City for conveyancing.

On the whole “property management” thread, I would suggest anyone thinking about letting out a property to stay well clear of Elders in Jamison.

If, however, you are a prospective tenant and don’t wish to look after the garden you are responsible for, clean bathrooms or own up to badly patched holes in the wall and clipped carpet where you tried to hide where you have spilt red nail polish, then they are the agents for you.

I was very happy with Paul Corazza from the independant property group in Gungahlin when I sold my house earlier this year. Very low BS and a hard working bloke

Yet another real estate agent failed to lodge our bond or condition report with the Office of Rental Bonds. Tried to make us sign another condition report. We laughed.

Yes, this sounds familiar, except the laughing occurred (thankfully) as we moved out. And I believe they *did* lodge a report with the ORB, one describing the property as absolutely perfect and wonderful (when it was, quite frankly, a run down old shithole renovated by amateurs).

Wouldn’t have been an agent in Kingston with a name that rhymes fairly closely with ‘Feeder’ by any chance, would it?

Agree with WMC. They’re all scum.

I think I saw an ad in the paper offering a fixed commission of under 10k. Maybe 8. Maybe it was 12 I can’t really remember.

Just another indicator that the market has gone a bit soft. A lot of news articles are saying its hard to sell, and as I’ve been in the market on the buyer’s end recently, I have noticed a lot of houses staying on allhomes a fair while.

With this in mind perhaps an agent won’t help you too much more.

Best of luck.

Bill maloney – Richard luton real estate in woden, downstairs from sky plaza. very good.

LOL – there’s a google ad appearing on this page now saying ‘Don’t buy from Jenman’, with a link to a website about his general dodginess. So who knows Crabb! Good luck with your search.

Reply

Skidbladnir said :

From family experience, if you’re a landlord, avoid the rental agents from LJ Hooker Tuggeranong as if they were bleeding from their eyes.

We had a five beroom house that they were the agents for while the owner was out of town for a year:
the tenants put holes in the walls and doors, seemed to prefer to tear out the light fittings instead of replacing lightbulbs, filled the underfloor spaces with garden waste and lawn clippings, cut down the Hills Hoist with an angle grinder, and then stole the curtains and showerheads at their end-of-lease.

According to the agent, the end-of-lease inspection was fine, and there was never any indication of ill-care for the premises for the duration when they did agents inspections.

apparently flour and water is one way to fill holes, my father in law found out when he was repainting one of his rentals after the police had to evict the tenant….

we were surprised by the bloodstains on the ceiling as well… no-one knows where they came from.

Jazz, I wouldn’t necessarily say all tradesman are lazy slobs, but they are all unreliable, haha. 😉

I’m not actually a tradesman, but you get my point 🙂

From family experience, if you’re a landlord, avoid the rental agents from LJ Hooker Tuggeranong as if they were bleeding from their eyes.

We had a five beroom house that they were the agents for while the owner was out of town for a year:
the tenants put holes in the walls and doors, seemed to prefer to tear out the light fittings instead of replacing lightbulbs, filled the underfloor spaces with garden waste and lawn clippings, cut down the Hills Hoist with an angle grinder, and then stole the curtains and showerheads at their end-of-lease.

According to the agent, the end-of-lease inspection was fine, and there was never any indication of ill-care for the premises for the duration when they did agents inspections.

I’m a tradesman, all tradesman are lazy slobs, ergo so am i? its pretty easy to tar an entire profession with one brush

Turn up on time to an appointment and you’ll be a very unusual tradesman indeed!

Watch out for LJ hooker tuggeranong, they don’t seem to take no, I don’t need another valuation as your office has already done one as the right answer…

Woody, I’ve got a fair few experiences with real estate agents & can’t say that i’ve had ANY of your obvious bad luck in who you’ve been dealing with.

in response to your particular points though

– I cant find this reference you make to an agent stealing customers from a vendor. which comment are you referring to? and in any case i fail to see the relevance of this.
– Phantom bidders at auction is illegal and you should report someone you know is doing it. but seriously, how do you know there were phantom bidders? If you’re referring to a vendor bid, it is legal and must be clearly announced as such.
– A price given by an agent is only an estimate based on the same information that you’re likely to have access to yourself. if you, as the vendor decided to go with what they say, who’s fault is that???
– How do you know what commission an agent is getting on another property they’re selling??? I’d love to see the evidence on this one.
– Can’t say i’ve seen many lies, plenty of marketing blurb. but would be interested to know why you think that every agent flat out lies as you claim.
– Agents knock on doors at all times of the day, that they happen to knock on your door when you are having dinner is coincidence. Have you considered that you’re often calling an agent when they might be having dinner??
– Selling fee’s – if you’re not happy with what your agent is proposing go with another one. you should be asking about what sort of fees, hidden or otherwise you’re going to be up for.
– Using their solicitor. if you bought into that one, then you really are a fool
– I can see that your attitude to kicking heads is pretty pervasive to all of your dealings with said profession. No wonder you’re not having a lot of love in return.

I’m a tradesman, all tradesman are lazy slobs, ergo so am i? its pretty easy to tar an entire profession with one brush which i think you are unfairly doing. Far better to say that you haven’t had much luck and seem to have drawn the short straw on a few occasions. Also worth baring in mind that the industry hasn’t been regulated for very long and given the nature of the product, its not something you go through particularly often.

Widdershins makes a good point. if you’re thinking of selling you should start going to open homes. not so much for the house being sold, but to gauge the behaviour of the agents representing them. Think about it from the sellers perspective. Would you want this person to represent you. Are they professional, approachable, knowledgeable about what they are selling, and as widdershins also notes seemingly selling out their vendor?

Crabb – what about a Jenman-approved real estate agent (www.jenman.com.au)? There are a few in Canberra I think. I have had no personal experience with them but Neil Jenman is supposed to be very big on ethical practices and such…but don’t take my word for it, they may be just as shonky as the next guy.

We had some hilarious experiences when house hunting. For the property we ended up buying, the agent took us into the back yard and said “they want a quick sale, they are only looking to recoup the cost of the renovations they’ve done”. So, we checked the last sale price on allhomes, added an estimate (low) for the cost of the new front and back decks, and bingo, it was ours…and we loved the house and would have probably offered more if the agent hadn’t given us the inside scoop.

Another house we looked at (which we hated and immediately said ‘not for us’), the agent said, “look, they’re asking $X, but they’ve told me they’ll accept $Y” – the difference was around $100K (!!!). We hadn’t even asked about the price. We just said ‘ok, cheers’ and left. What if we’d loved the house and were willing to pay $X?

What is good about buying a house is that you know who you definitely WON’T go to when it’s time to sell.

The person you are describing there is a Property Manager.

…who were also all real estate agents. They never hesitated to tell me as much (are you qualified? Yes, I’m a licensed real estate agent, and so I know what I’m talking about). In two cases, the property manager became the agent selling the property I was renting. It was always amusing to see the looks on their faces when you then said you were thinking about drawing their illegal conduct to the attention of the Office of Regulaotry Services and the Commissioner of Fair Trading to see whether it constituted a breach of their ‘suitable character’ requirements.

If you want some experiences about ‘real’ real estate agents:

– see the above example of an agent stealing customers from a vendor;
– agents who put phantom bidders at auctions;
– agents who bully or threaten vendors to accepts lower prices so they can get a property of their books;
– agents who grossly overestimate a sale price so they can get a job, then lower their estimate and berate the seller to ‘be more realistic’;
– agents who steer buyers to properties that will get them a higher commission, rather than objectively representing each property in their portfolio;
– agents who lie about properties in their descriptions – not marketing speak, flat-out lies;
– agents who think it’s ok to knock on your door at dinner time to harass you about getting a ‘free valuation’;
– agents who quote a fee for selling, claiming they can easily get a particular price in the current market, then when it doesn’t sell trying to sell you additional advertising and marketing packages; and
– agents who lie about you having to use their solicitor for conveyancing; and my personal favourite that happened to us with out current house:
– an agent who says they’re legally able to charge a ‘key collection fee’ for a property you’ve just settled on, and only hands over the keys when you basically threaten to kick their f.cking head in unless they hand over your keys to your house that you own right now.

Try Robert Peaker – Peter Blackshaw Real Estate.

Hamilton,

around 30 days in this market

I reckon real estate agents, like anyone else I guess, are just out to do the best for themselves. If a vendor or buyer happens to be the beneficiary then that’s good luck for them.

I’ve only been involved in selling one house, and while I was pretty happy with the service provided by the agent, I felt that our needs/wants were secondary to the service the agent gave prospective buyers (ie. I’ve already got the listing, I’ll just do what it takes to get a sale, if that means asking the vendor to roll over and take the first offer so I can get my commission then so be it…).

With the power allhomes gives sellers I would be willing to consider selling privately if I were to sell again, but I’d do a lot of research first just to make sure there are no nasty surprises involved in the process.

The used cars comment is a good one. A couple of times after trading in a car I’ve gone and found the old one I owned on the lot, and asked the sales guy about it. Apparently my cars are all owned by local older ladies who service their cars fastidiously!

You can only hear this sort of thing so many times before you have to say it’s not a small minority, but a majority. Thus a generalisation is born.

moneypenny said :

happy client is worth far more for my business than the quick sale.

Does a happy client pay the bills? I have purchased and sold 4 houses and I can say with evidence that my dealings with each agent has been the same – All the promises in the world before signing the contract and all down hill once the contract is signed. BTW these were all referals. At the end of the day it is a comodity business that relies on turn over of houses. If an agent is having a good year then they may be a bit more professional – if they are having a sh!t year then “happy clients” aint going to pay the bills.

I know that there are dodgy people in every industry, it’s just unfortunate for you that most of them have gravitated to your industry – oh, and selling used cars. I’m sure that you are a great agent and have your clients best interests at heart but the other 99% of your industry don’t.

Can I ask what the average time from signing a contract to sale is for you?

Totally off topic, but does anyone know why the Canberra chronicle only has a realk estate section for Queanbeyan?

Woody Man Caruso. The person you are describing there is a Property Manager. Property Managers are NOT Real Estate Agents, are not required to be licensed and do not have the same legal covenants binding their behavior. Not all real estate agencies offer property management services although a lot do as it is a very complimentary businesses. likewise not all property management businesses offer sales services.

As renters and potentially purchasers, we certainly had very poor experiences with one particular local agent that now has an office in Gungahlin. The sorts of experiences that beget much of the negative comments above apply to this bloke.

It has always amazed me the crappy treatment that some agents dish out to renters, absolutely failing to realise that they are quite likely to become purchasers in the future.

Hamilton’s description above of the minimal additional commission resulting from substantially better sale prices, plus moneypenny’s explanation that it’s all negotiable, got me thinking how you could use that to skew things back in your favour.

How about proposing a sliding scale whereby there’s a smaller base %age up to your “reserve” (maybe 10% below an independent valuation as suggested above)and then progressively higher %ages for each $5,000 they achieve over and above that? Perhaps to a point where if they manage to squeeze that last $5000 into the buy price, they get an additional $1000 (20%) of it.

I can’t beleive noone has mentioned it yet.

Pottsy.

I must agree with Moneypenny. The agent I had was great. I have/had no problem with her whatsoever. I would however, be interested to hear why some posters have such negative and dare I say derogative and defamatory comments?

Are they founded or are these people just jumping on the anonymous bandwagon?

MoneyPenny – don’t take it to heart. The fact is that lots of people have bad experiences when buying/selling property, for a variety of reasons. The agent is an easy target for blame. That said, I’ve bought a number of property and have, frankly, seen some pretty poor agent behaviour.

Crabb – keep asking around for recommendations, and interview 2 or 3 of them. The biggest issue will be pricing the house sensibly. Try to get through this part of it by thinking more about how the numbers need to work for you, and use that as a baseline.

Can so many people have such truly horrible experiences to elicit such hate towards people just because of the industry that they work in?

Yes. Here are some of mine:

Real estate agent insisted they were entitled to inspect the property I was renting every three months. When shown relevant legislation and our tenancy agreement, claimed they could vary this because “we’re the agent”.

Another real estate agent said we could rent with a cat. Later, during an inspection when said agent saw said cat, they insisted on us paying a ‘pet deposit’. We laughed.

Different real estate agent, upon taking over a private rental agreement, insisted we pay another lot of bond, as well as a ‘security deposit’. When shown relevant legislation and our tenancy agreement, threatened to make sure we ‘never rented in Canberra again’.

Yet another real estate agent failed to lodge our bond or condition report with the Office of Rental Bonds. Tried to make us sign another condition report. We laughed.

All of the above tried to increase rents by amounts that were excessive as defined by legislation. We took the last through the Tribunal. They lost.

Real Estate agents are just used car salesmen without a drivers licence. Scum of the earth who happily lie to everyone and anyone.

Do it yourself, save some money and (more importantly) send less money to those useless morons.

[Ed. (Jazz) Real Estate Agents are required to be licensed in order to sell property in the ACT]

Firstly i need to say that I’m a real estate agent, and that I find it really sad to see such horrible comments about real estate agents. Can so many people have such truly horrible experiences to elicit such hate towards people just because of the industry that they work in?

Secondly, Moneypenny is a play on the Bond girl of the same name, not because i’d sell my mother. If you think that I would, you are a clown of the first order.

Most real estate business comes from referrals from previous clients. About 80% of mine is probably pretty close. That means if I’m not doing my job for my client (the seller) then I’m out of a job. Hamilton’s claim that i’m going to push for a quick sale is failing to recognise that a referral from a happy client is worth far more for my business than the quick sale.

I wont be stupid enough to make the claim that the same rules will apply to all agents. In every industry there are shonky operators. My advice is to ask around for references to find a good agent. Interview a few to find one that you think you can TRUST and RELATE to. Real estate agents are now governed by a very strict set of legislation with both financial and criminal penalties if they don’t comply.

The commission from any agent is negotiable and nowhere near the 3.75% of the sale price suggested by ponkygirl. Some agents may be open to a flat rate commission, percentage of sale price (2.5 – 3%) or combinations of both, but you shouldn’t be afraid to ask you agent what they’d consider. If nothing else you’ll be able to test their negotiation skills first hand.

Personally, I am not interested in a quick sale, I am interested in the best sale for my clients – Agents have a legal obligation to work in the best interests of our clients and I take this very seriously. A good agent will generate buzz, introduce buyers and use their specialist negotiation skills to get a sale at or above the asking price, Something I, and other good agents are able to do in a tight market. I work hard for my clients and I know that there are other good agents out there that do the same.

I’d be happy to sit down and have a chat about the sale of your property & its entirely up to you if you’d want to employ me to do so. Obviously i’ll try to make a compelling argument 🙂 I’m told that if you get in contact with a Riot admin they’ll pass through any details.

Get a professional valuation done, it will cost a bit but will ensure you know what price you should be selling at.

The way I see those Go Gecko cars behaving on the road, I’d never patronise them.

All real estate agents are scum
But if you’re talking Gungahlin specifically, the Go Gecko people are scummier than the rest

The key thing is to set a realistic price for your property and stick to it. If you set an unrealistic price the you are going to wait forever and the real estate agent is going to loose interest in marketing your property. Do your own research (all homes is great for this) and have a look at data for similar properties to yours in the same area.

The real estate agent will try and pressure you to sell it for less because it is a quick sale for them. If you are selling your property for $500,000 and the commission rate is 3% then the commission for the agent is $15,000. If s/he pressures you to sell at $490,000 then the commission at the same rate is $14,700. The net result is you are down by $10,000 and the agent is down by $300 in commission. If you do the same exercise at $480,000 you are down $20,000 and they are down in commission by $600. So basically there is little incentive (a couple of hundred dollars)to get you the price you are after.

As I said before, set a reasonable price and don’t get pressures or fu(ked about by the agent. They are all sharks and would sell their own mothers if there was a financial gain.

Good luck!!

I saw a privately-being-sold house on Allhomes last night, and it all looked the same as with an agent. Difference being, you’re contacting the owners. I think that sometimes, agents can lose sales by not getting back to people fast enough, or being poor time managers/multi-taskers so they can’t juggle a bunch of different things going on.

Allhomes is a great resource, I figure any place not on there is going to have a hard time being sold. Plenty of pictures and a realistic price, what have you got to lose?

Oh, my apologies – I obviously skipped over the “No time to muck around trying to save commission doing it ourselves”. I guess you can disregard my advice then 🙂

Mun Ng is a great conveyancer if you’re on the south side – Cowlishaw St, 6293 1577 / 0414 736 474.

I have a dream that one day the whole world will look up simultaneously and say “why do we actually *need* real estate agents?” then burn them all at the stake (“cozy timber open-plan cottage with rustic fireplace and great views of the surrounding landscape”).

A real estate agent put my parents’ property on the market, then told people who came to see it that it was no longer for sale and _took them to see her house instead_. Her little plan came unravelled when a Sydney buyer was driving round the village and saw that the ‘for sale’ sign was still up, headed up the driveway and knocked on the door. Her excuse: “I didn’t think they were the right buyers for your home.” Just flat-out useless mercenary scumbags.

While on this topic, can anyone recommend a good conveyancer?

Best of luck with that. We just took ours off the Gungahlin market, because firstly, we re-evaluated what we want to do, and secondly, the market isn’t paying what we were asking (all agents and bank managers agreed that we were asking a realistic price). In fact, the different agents we spoke told us that it will sell in no time. We made an offer on a house and it was accepted. Fortunately, gut instinct told me not to sign a contract, thus I didn’t.

If I had, we would be bridging around the $1Mil mark at the moment, with no prospect of a sale, as the open houses we had brought the usual “maybe drop $100k off the price and I may consider it” or the ever faithful “I can get the same thing down the road for way cheaper”. All I could say was go for it, as this current market brings out those who think that we are at their mercy… When the market improves, it will be a different story.

We were selling because we wanted to. Our mortgage is minimal, thus interest rates don’t effect us greatly. All I can suggest from experience is don’t sign a contract until you have a signed contract for the sale of your property.

Cheers….

“No time to muck around trying to save commission doing it ourselves”

Well, clearly you are not short of a quid then.

Look mate, if you’ve already decided to use real estate agent you’re about to jump into a pool of sharks – what advice could I give you other then to pack a bandage? No matter which one you choose, you are going to bleed.

IMO they are selfish narcicists whose only interest is to increase their commission. They will do anything they can to achieve this goal. I think that they are partly responsible for the ridiculous increases in housing prices in the past 5 years, fanning the flames in order to warm their fat behinds.

If the reason that you have “no time to muck around” is that you don’t want to pay interest on a mortgage on the new place for a few weeks – you may find once you do the sums that a few weeks of interest payments is cheaper than what an agent will suck from you.

Put in the effort and learn what is required to sell the place yourself. If nothing else, you’ll have a new skill and the next time you sell it will be that much easier.

Whatever option you choose, I hope it goes well for you.

All the best.

Go private – save yourself tens thousands (I believe) on commission. That way you know nobody’s screwing you around for their own ends. We bought through a private sale, and both the seller us and were more than happy with the way everything went. It’s not like we had any trouble finding the place, either (nor did the numerous other people who put an offer on the place) – I can’t back this up with any data, but I suspect once you’re listed on allhomes, you’re probably going to be seen by upwards of 90% of prospective buyers. People may still look in the paper, but who doesn’t look on the web these days?

Bargain, and bargain hard. They tell you that the 3.75% (or whatever it is, can’t remember) is industry standard, but if you have set a realistic price for your house and it looks like you’re an easy sale, they will fall over themselves to get you signed up. Don’t forget the old “Really? LJHooker said they’d do it for a $12000 flat fee, including advertising” and see who comes to the party.

As to individuals – I don’t think it matters that much. Despite what UK renovation shows tell you, houses sell houses, not agents.