Under quoting, over quoting and the whole quoting debacle:
There was a ruling this week at VCAT regarding the whole under quoting issue that seems to be plaguing the real estate business in Victoria at the moment. In short it’s now a requirement for an agent to present 3 comparable sales in the area and to take the area’s median price in to consideration when fixing a quote range. Without putting too fine a point on it, when I studied for my real estate qualifications we were told we need to be able to clearly demonstrate the quote range to a vendor through market information (comparable sales) and if they wanted more than the average, well, then you listed it at what they wanted. Let’s face it though, that never happens. As an agent once said to me, “if I put it at the price the vendor really wanted…no one would show up to Auction”. (And no, that’s not a joke or made up- it actually happened less than 18 months ago…don’t ask who). So what’s changed since the ruling? Not a lot actually.
A quote range is supposed to be an indication of what the seller really wants for the place, however in the majority of instances these days the range is simply installed to give the searcher/buyer a trigger on realestate.com.au. or domain or real estateview.com.au. It rarely reflects what it sells for on the day. Most people I speak to at auction tell me they expect the price to be 15-20% higher than the quote range, because of a growing belief “listing agents never tell the truth”. So now we have a situation where the public expect the agents to lie, the agents accept that expectation, so they lie, and no one really knows what a place is worth until the hammer falls. It’s a little ridiculous really. After last week’s ruling, lest see what changes. My Guess? Not much.
