Stuck with a dud agent

[Administration]

The agent promised the world, now he has it for sale i am the one chasing him.
No feedback "which was to be done religiously" on any people who come through, also not that many people as we were led to believe!
Took a week and a half to get the for sale sign up! and so on and so on!

We are almost one month into a 3 month period on the market.

We are already fed up!

Is there any way to break this agreement and go to a better agent?

bill

[Administration]

Bill,

Ask the agent if he will release you from the agreement. BUT get it in writing.

If you have another Agent that shows the property and if its the same Buyer that came with the current Agent, you could be hit with double the commission.

In my case the Agent had the office assistants showing the property, no licence or certificates. When I asked where the proper Agent was she placed her hand up to me and said it wasnt the time to talk about it.

once-bitten

[Administration]

Thanks Once Bitten

You have started the cogs turning now!!!

So if this particular agent has a personal assistant who happens to show people the property at say, an open house for example, are you saying this may not be a legal activity?

bill

[Administration]

Bill,
I dont know what state you are in.
Here in NSW its comes under the Property,Stock Business Agents Act 2002.
Any person from a Real Estate Agents office must have a licence or a certificate of registration to show any property either open house or by appointment.
They are Police checked when they apply for a certificate, as they are in peoples property and given keys.

You can check the Agent out. Find out who is the regulator in your state. Go to their website and do a check for all the staff employed at the agent.

Here in NSW it is http://www.dft.nsw.gov.au. This is the department of Fair Trading.

Just recently I found out that the Conveyancer I used for my property sale was not a licenced Conveyancer at the time of appointment. He was working under a Licenced Conveyancer who had two other places of business......Thats not within the law here.

Sometimes when a Agent lists a property they go hammer to sell it, when it cools off so do they. And there is a thing called conditioning. Its when they list at a high price to get you to sign up, and then condition you to take a lot less and make excuses that the market is down, or that they have a Buyer who dominates them and says they will not pay more than such and such. So its over to the Vendor and try to convince them to take less.

How do I know all this....Well after 6 court cases and reading and investigating them I have learned to know all their little sneaky ways.

I lost a great deal of money due to a Conveyancer and a Real Estate Agent being incompetent and the do gooders did nothing but give a caution...

Yes they would send their Grandmother to sell a house, and some would sell their Grandmother out of their house.

once-bitten

[Administration]

Thanks once bitten!

Sounds like you have been through a lot of bad stuff in your real estate dealings,

I appreciate your information and advice.

I will have a look at that site, and follow through.

Effectively what you are saying is if they dont hold the certificate they cannot legally act as an agent in NSW?

bill

[Administration]

Bill,

If they do not hold any form of Licence or a Certificate of Registration they are not allowed to show houses, open houses, advise on contract matters, talk to Buyers about the Property or their Vendors.

If they are in the company of a person who holds the above, then Yes they are allowed, but still not able to comment to any Buyers who are in the Property with them whilst they are alone with them at any time.

When the matter happened to me I then did a search of all the Agents in my area and thier employees...interesting result.

There are more who break the Law than abide by it.


If a Buyer bought a house and was told by a Office Assistant something that was not correct or misleading, then the Buyer could pull out of a Contract of Sale, if it were later revealed that information to be wrong.....Lost sale

once-bitten

[Administration]

Thanks again

So if i should discover that non certified people have been masquarading as agents i may be able to use it as a little leverage to get out of the agent contract?

I dont like to think it's blackmail, but hey, desperate times!!

bill

[Administration]

Bill,

If you are in NSW and you have checked out the site I gave you, and you have found out the person is not quailified, then you have the ace up your selve. Its a $11000.00 fine for trading in such a manner. Mention the Office Fair Trading and that a person recommended you to look up who you are dealing with.
Actually, the OFT website does say that you should check and make sure the person you deal with is correctly lienced or has a certificate.

Of interest look up the Property,Stock and Buisness Agents Act 2002 on the same site under legislation.

Please get it in writing that they will release you from the agreement.

What agreement did you sign? Is it the standard Exculsive Agent Agreement SA200. And did they give you a one day cool off form to sign seperately from the agreement?

once-bitten

[Administration]

Thanks

Yes a standard exclusive agreement. There was a one day cooling off period when i signed!

bill

[Administration]

Bill,

Is it a green colour agreement. Is there a clause down the right hand side that say's

Has the Principal waived the cooling off period in wrtiting? then there is a Yes/No box.

If the Agent ticked the box either Yes/No and then you signed the whole agreement you should have also signed a seperate Waiver of the Cool Off period.
In NSW that is the law.

If you didnt sign a seperate waiver then the Agency Agreement may be void.

Did you check the OFT website and inquire about the employees and their qualifications?

once-bitten

[Administration]

I'm not sure if we are stuck with a dud agent? We've just put our home on the market, our agent brought all the other salespeople from his office in to have a look and we overheard them talking saying our place is that far overpriced it a waste of their time! Our agent seemed confident that the price was ok. What do we do?

smally

[Administration]

Hi Once Bitten

Sorry havent been able to reply the site had a problem.

The agent has done everything above board as far as the legal requirements go.

I am seriously thinking of telling them to lift their game or i will take the place off the market untill their contract expires and then list with someone else!

Do you think that will spurr some effort?

Bill

[Administration]

Bill,

Yes I would try that approach. After all if you have time left on the agreement you may as well see if they can sell it.

Remember the longer the house is on the market the staler it becomes and the agent will try to condition you to take whatever offer comes in.....Saying look Bill its been ex months now and it is priced to high, so I think you should take this offer.

Just be careful, there is a book out to read by Terry Ryder its a classic with all the lines agents use to get a sale. They learn these from the hyped up sales pitch meetings they go to.

All the best

once-bitten

[Administration]

Hi there smally

By the sounds of what you say i may be that the agent who signed you up inflated the price to get you to sign!! Did he suggest the price or was it your request?

There are two main reasons that all the sales crew come through to have a look
1. to familarise themselves with the property
2 to give their openion on the price

If they all think it is overpriced they will not make much effort to show people through!

You may want to have a face to face with your agent and ask the question what the others thought of the place and the price etc.

You need to know where you stand, do you need a quick sale?

leroy

[Administration]

Hi leroy, I don't need a quick sale but i do want to sell. We got our agent back out to have a chat and he said that all the other salespeople thought it was that far over it wasn't funny and they wouldn't be wasting their time with it. Our agent was very apologetic and said that he would allow us out of the agreement at anytime we wanted but he was still confident. We said we'd think about it???

smally