Dirty Realtor Tricks
David Rew is a real estate agent turned whistleblower, and he wants everybody to know it. He claims to be exposing the industry’s dirty tricks. He's even taken out ads in the paper. Exposing agents' tricks and tactics, it has sent shockwaves through the industry. "There is nothing that makes the unscrupulous agent flourish more than the ethical agent doing nothing," he said. "So I think that really...if we bring this into the open, it will stop some of them using these practices," he said.
David claimed a lacklustre property market meant a lot of agents were grossly overvaluing properties in a bid to lure sellers. That lead to unhappy people and unsold properties. "Well very often they're entrapped by an agent that comes along with a very high valuation on their property and also a low commission," he said. "A lot of vendors would say its terrific: slash the commissions, it's all the better for us, but if you're going to slash your commission you can put nothing else in - you can't afford to give the service that a house demands, therefore the vendor's suffering again," he said. "The difference between getting another $10,000, $20,000 on a property is significantly greater than saving one or two thousand dollars on a commission," he said.
MORE... David said he valued one house at $750,000 but lost the sale to another agent who cited its worth at over a million dollars. David said three agents later, the house sold for $660,000, close to $400,000 less than the questionable million dollar valuation. And there were a lot of questionable things happening in real estate. You couldn't rely on the fall of a hammer - nor did it seem you could rely on those glossy brochures depicting the house and land being offered for sale. First homebuyer Shane Crawford put a deposit on his so called dream property, and all the advertising said it measured 2.5 acres. "I feel I have been very misled," he said. "I just assumed it was correct, like a lot of people would," he said.
But to Shane's horror, three days before settlement he measured up and found it was only a 1.5 acre property. Problem was the deposit was already paid, the contract signed and the agent wasn't liable. "From my understanding, the agent's basically took the vendor's word for it.""He didn't inspect the title of the place and he obviously didn't think to question their word at all." "He said he's very sorry, but basically because I signed the contract and I looked at the property, it was a case of tough luck," Shane said. So the moral of the story was caveat emptor, or buyer beware. "To everyone buying a house and land be very careful," Shane said. And we haven't heard the last from David Rew, who said he would keep blowing the whistle on unscrupulous practices.
REALTOR AT HOME RELAXING
