Fraudulent agent selling vendor cheap. Anything I can do?

A house on the same street was recently sold for just over 50% of its fair market price (almost 1Mil cheaper then expected). Apparently the agent made the sale and pulled the ads out from realestate.com.au, all within 2 days after initial advertisement.

I located the archived ads, and found that the house description from the agent was more than unprofessional, reading from it made me feel that the agent was selling against the vendor.

The unusual swift sale and mystically discounted price suggests fraudulence or embezzlement by the agent. To me it sounds like Agent had sold the house to someone they have close relationship with.

It's bad for everybody on the same street as it brings down the median price of the street. And I feel angry that an uninformed vendor (tends to be Aged people) be cheated by their own RE agent to whom they pay a fee.

The sale was made 5 days ago, I'm wondering if there's anything I can do?

 

Try reporting it to Fair Trading/VCat etc.

 

So, can see, you have all the facts.

 

Contact the owner of property and see what they think. See if any potential capacity issues.

 

The owner is the only one who can take action

 

Not necessarily the case.

 

Ok I see, if there is a clear case of fraud...

 

Even if there is no fraud.

 

That's a tough allegation without some evidence. Have you discussed the sale with the owner and determined the true facts ? Imagine if the deal was a sale to a developer for a low price in exchange for ownership of the land and an agreement to build 2-3 villas and allow the vendor to own one.

My son is REA and encounters this issue a lot in development rich suburbs. He gets irate people accusing all sorts of things when they lack knowledge. For privacy he cant discuss it with neighbours. Public sale information arms some people with the wrong information.

 

I'd be interested to see the adv, whats the address @LyingMonkey ?

 

Fair point @Paul@PFI , all the facts may not have been brought to light or been made public.

If there has been some dishonesty here @LyingMonkey , Consumer Afffairs will be able to offer you guidance.

 

Maybe the balance was in physical cash to avoid CGT

 

Always wondered if this went on, does it happen often?
Guess it would be more the developer approaching an owner rather than an owner attempting to source through many developers in an attempt to find one interested?

If an elderly owner I know was interested in going this way what would be the least stressful way to start trying to source an interested developer?

Also, wonder how this would wash out with stamp duty, gov's new pensioner asset considerations etc?

 

Yes, is quite common, I know a few people who were approached by developers and were given options of new places or just the money in return for developing.

I know someone else who bought a place in Sydney not long ago & boy did they hit the jackpot, they bought the place at a cheap price and it basically needs knocking down, they were planning to put a new house & a developer working at the back of this place came and asked them and another if they would sell as they wanted to expand the development they were doing, they got offered near double what they paid in roughly a year. They took the money and ran !

 

Yes, it's not that unusual and it does happen. Most of the time the concept doesn't work for the seller's circumstances - but it happens. Speak to agents with large developer databases.