Anyone else come across them?
I've bought and sold about 8 properties and have never had cause to complain about an agent but a recent experience has really opened my eyes to how dirty and low down they can get.
We tried to buy a property and the agent prevented us from making an offer so he could sell it to a friend for nearly $50k below what we were prepared to offer. I am totally dumbfounded about it, we did everything but beat down the agents doors and camp out in the office to try and get an offer presented but he just wouldnt do it.
I am so totally dejected by the whole experience, I've even lost sleep over it. Who do they think they are playing with people like this? Its disgusting.
Anyone had this happen to them, the more people I tell the more I realise this is almost common practice for them.
No - but
Paid a Valuer to value house & property.
35 years experience - charged $385 :
Valuation arrived - according to it I now live 5 doors up in a larger residence.
Hello - wrong address - and - still looking for the 4th bedroom.
Only been here 28 years - perhaps I missed something.
Its certainly against the law, its not an easy thing to prove though. I have made a complaint to consumer affairs but I doubt much will come of it. The vendor would have a better chance of getting action than me.
The bigger problem we have now is that its a pretty small town we want to buy in and there are only really 2 real estate agents listing most of the properties. How do we deal with them again if they end up listing another house we want to buy? We certainly cant trust them to be honest, especially after a couple of verbal atercations and a couple of offial complaints.
We did have contact with the vendor which prompted him to reopen the negotiations as there was still no contract in place. Consequently he ended up with $25k more then he would have, still $25k below what we would have paid. The agent prevented us from making an offer even at that time by lying to us about the availability of the contract. At the same time they were denying its existence they were signing up his friend and convincing the vendor to take that offer over ours.
Contracts are all signed now so there's really nothing we can do. I've sent a letter to the vendor saying I'll back him if he wants to take action, but I feel that he is probably over the whole ordeal and just wants to move on.
