Hocking Stuart Richmond Fined $330,000 for Underquoting

The Federal Court this morning fined Hocking Stuart Richmond (VIC) $330,000 for 11 instances of underquoting. Here's the news report from Domain.

Yes, underquoting is very annoying and wastes many potential buyers' time. But in a strong property market, bargains are rare. If a property seems cheap, there is probably something wrong with it.

Never buy a property without getting legal advice about the contract and vendor statement first. I see all sorts of hidden problems that buyers would not pick up without legal advice, such as illegally constructed extensions.

 

Good!

Hopefully if enough fines go out real estate professionals will start behaving and industry will be less frowned upon.

 

... and I never thought this would happen..about time

 

Now if only the courts would legislate tha SA agents need to answer their phones/return messages....

 

underquoting disgusts me, and yes im glad they got a fine
thank god it was $330k and not $33k

hope they get fined again

 

unfortunately they all do it, this is just he tip of the iceberg so to speak, however, it may be a wake up call???

 

Still no excuse to do it...

Penalty is still light when it was for 11 breaches - the agency may have foregone its full commission on these sales.

Although the franchisor raises the point that the problem is industry wide and whinges about the severity of the penalty they do nothing to stop it.

If the watchdog doesn't impose a penalty then what is the disincentive to agents to underquote?

 

I wish I could like this twice

 

not sure why basically 80% of agents dont get fined? i think HS richmond was probably nortorious in doing it

 

Lets look at the other side of the coin, my guess is the majority of sellers actually want their properties to be underquoted because this will bring on fierce competition. I have also had my properties go to auction.

 

of course, I agree,
but its unethical, it wastes a lot of time \, and money for potential buyers, and causes a lot of grief and disappointemnt for them,

exagerrating is one thing, outright lying is another

 

Now onto the rest: Money Wasting Real Estate Agents Bottom 10

 

Definitely. I have dealt with some on that list. I was not impressed.

 

The QLD appointment to act gives the vendor/s a choice ( tick a box ) for an agent to hand out comparable sales as price indicators for both private treaty & auctions..........

 

It is good the precedent has been set. And fair play that it has been set in a suburb where the commissions are probably high. Makes it worth the court's time having slogged it through the case to get a decent fine across the line. In suburbs where commissions are less, it would be crippling to the agency. One hopes that warning is noted.

 

I've noticed the below statement on a few ads in Qld - it's seems like the price is super secret and they're not going to give you a guide!

"Disclaimer
This property is being sold by auction or without a price and therefore a price guide can not be provided. The website may have filtered the property into a price bracket for website functionality purposes"

 

This is what happens when agents cannot underquote, you get no information.

 

Yeah, I noticed a few auctions now where there is no info and agent refuses to supply anything and, of course, blames the vendor.

All these tactics etc are NOT dreamt up nor directed by the average vendor, this falls squarely on the agents.

At least there has been some action to set an example.

 

Currently looking for a PPOR in Adelaide and have had our fair share of instances of this. Prime example was from a certain Unley based agency selling a place in Manningham listed for $450k. Have friends who live in a similar place two doors down so I knew the value of their property and this place for sale was always going to go well above 500k. My friend spoke to the agent after one of the inspections and I overheard the agent saying "If you want to see an amazing price, come along to the auction next week"... Property went for $630k. Is there anywhere you can actually report underquoting incidents?

 

View page source.

Search for "price".

Keep skipping to the next until you hit the price bracket they put in to show up in search results.