Property listed without permission....

Hi Ladies and Gents,

So I'm in the process of getting a plan together to carry out some renos on my IP and went googling for images to find that it is listed for sale!! WTF?

I contacted this agency 18 months ago after tenants did a runner, to get an appraisal. It was terrible so we decided we'd hold onto it, reno and then look at offloading it. It was never listed, we never signed anything. They contacted me out of the blue about a week ago wanting to know if I wanted to sell at which point I said no.

Surely they can't do this?

Cheers

 

Correct - they can't. Ask them to remove th ad.

 

What?

I was selling 2 parcels of land with an agent and I had builders selling land and house packages using my address/blocks without my permission.

Not the same scenario but still very weird

 

I will be calling first thing. The write up is correct so it is for my property. It's on both domain and realestate.com.au. I'm surprised they would spend the money listing it. I wonder if this happens often.

 

Out of curiosity how did they price it's? Is it at same appraisal price ?

BTW I would be furious

 

When we spoke 18 months ago we talked about $265k It's listed at $259k Which is about right for the market there at the moment (worst house really good street) That said a house 4 doors up with the same floor plan sold 4 months ago for $390k difference being it's had a truckload spent on it. Yes I am ropeable.

 

Well I did not really care in my scenario because I was getting free marketing if someone wanted the builders package they would have to buy my land at the sale price, still cheeky

 

I'd think they are in breach of the Act. They are offering it for sale without a correctly executed Form 6 , appointment to act. Something for the Office Of Fair Trading .

 

Is there any chance that they are doing it to get people to 'call in' with interest, only to tell them that the property is already under contract, or similar, (so the agency does know that they really aren't/can't be selling it).

It could be some form of marketing ploy - just trying to get people to contact the agency, so they can try and entice them to look at other properties that really are for sale.

Just a thought………….

 

Ring and ask the agent then scream bloody murder and Fair Trading for dodgy practices.

Take screen shots for your backup information.

 

I had this happen to me. Complicated story and involved family.

One quick and.... er....informative call to the agent and it was removed.

 

I had a dodgy agent using photos of my house to sell a house being built down the street. It was similar design except mine was quite a bit bigger.

 

I'd ring first and pretend to be interested in the property and see what game they're playing at then I'd give them the what for.

 

I rang the agent, told him my name and asked if he'd had any interest in my house over the weekend. I could tell he was very uncomfortable telling me had no idea what I was talking about and he'd been on holidays. I then pointed out he had it listed he was very surprised and apologetic and claimed to know nothing about it but was going to take it up with his admin lady and get it removed. I really wanted to get someone to call and low ball it and see how he reacted but decided against it.

 

I'm currently selling a block of land and the agent has sent off the plans to a number of builders to see if any of their clients could be interested. If it sells through this process so be it. Cheers

 

Almost sounds like the start of this

http://www.canberratimes.com.au/act...ernment-for-compensation-20160623-gpqhwp.html

ACT government to pay Canberra property scam victim more than $540,000

 

thats what I was thinking too

maybe they have a realestate.com package where they get so many ads per month and they had spares so they put yours up as lead geneartion

 

I would suggest an interview with the owner of the agency to uncover exactly what happened.
Fraud definitely an option.
Unless satisfied, lodge a formal complaint with the relevant RE authority.
Marg

 

I would also make a complaint against their agents license. Perhaps even allow the relevant authorities to "catch" them offering the property without an agency agreement Their practices are illegal if they misrepresent:
1. that they act for you and are selling a property which they are not and
2. that they are seeking buyers who may enquire about what appears a genuine listing

Their practices are dodgy and they should be accountable for their lies. At least you just found out which agent NOT to use if you sell. REAs may only show listings for homes that are for sale or those that are clearly already sold by them.

Fair Trading
ACCC

 

@John Fish - would be very interested in following up with the agent for a possible news story (I work as a reporter at Domain). Sounds completely out of line.

Would you be able to share the details with me? I'm [email protected]

Thanks.