Greed

I had to laugh at the latest Hell Pizza campaign promoting their Greed pizzas via mobile billboards targeting one of NZ’s most upstanding businessmen.

But I’d like to replace his picture with a montage of real estate agency signs.
The real estate industry is surely the most morally tainted industry on the planet. There simply is no regard for either the vendor or the buyer, it’s just about making money in any way they can.

We recently attempted to sell our house by auction. We met with the auctioneer and head of the company and made it quite clear of what our price expectations were. We forked out about $1,500 for the advertising and auction. Of course the highest bid on the day was $100,000 short of our lowest acceptable price. Later we find out that they were telling buyers that this figure was at the top end of our price guide, effectively devaluing our property by $100,000.

Talking about advertising, be very wary of what the real estate companies are charging you. In my current role I have been asked for a credit for a house ad that ran in our paper too dark. The real estate agency told me that the client refused to pay $1,300 for advertising. I looked through the papers and worked out that these ads, when divided amongst the others on their half page, were charged by us at $41.67 and I think there were 4 of them. Luckily the law has just changed so these rip offs can’t happen now.

The basic problem with the industry lies in the listing system. They’re all after exclusives and they are even competing within their own companies. If you list with a certain agent, it’s in his interest to sell the home. The other agents, even from the same company won’t work for you. If you’re buying, they’ll only show their own listings. If you see it advertised and ask about it, if it’s not the listing agent, they’ll steer you to their own listings.

There’s no morality, they don’t own what they are selling and they only care about what goes into their back pocket. There are exceptions, including the guy we are currently listed with, so really check out everything before you deal with these blood suckers.
Posted by Stu Baguley at 2:41 PM 0 comments
Labels: greed, real estate, rip offs
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