Underquoting for Auctions - is it the agent's fault?

Discussion in 'The Buying & Selling Process' started by The Y-man, 10th Oct, 2019.

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  1. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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    Standard practice for me is to commission my own B&P. In Vic at least, it is not standard pracrtice for vendors to offer B&P reports.

    The Y-man
     
  2. Trainee

    Trainee Well-Known Member

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    Not standard practice in NSW either. My understanding is that a B&P report is only written for the person who paid for it, and the inspector has no duty of care to anyone else who reads the report. So to me, a B&P provided by the vendor is worthless anyway. While it's a conflict of interest, you don't know whether they deliberately hid anything.

    Goes both ways. As a seller, I would do a B&P to counter the reasons a buyer want to offer less.

    Forget the what ifs. I never feel outrage when looking at property. Worst case just walk away.
    Not the only way to do it, of course, but what are you gaining?
     
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  3. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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    I would not bother. I would just take it to auction :D

    The Y-man
     
  4. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    If you choose not to report something that you think should be reported, then you are allowing it to continue.
     
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  5. Jobin

    Jobin Well-Known Member

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    Yep this all makes sense, thanks. Definitely going to conduct my own B&P. Think I need to become less outraged when looking at property :D
     
  6. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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    Look at the end of the day, think of it as being similar to buying a second hand car from a private seller.

    The Y-man
     
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  7. wylie

    wylie Moderator Staff Member

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    It always amazes me that people think a professional B&P person would doctor a report and put their business reputation and livelihood at risk for a "mate" or even for "family". Anyone can try to hide faults in a property, but in my experience, B&P people are like sniffer dogs. They find faults everywhere.

    This vendor has used the B&P company run by a family member. I've no idea if they may have doctored the report, but really, unless they are stupid, they surely realise the risk.

    We've had B&P reports done for the last two sales. Both in Brisbane. This is not usual, but we were able to fix anything brought up on that report. Any serious buyer was quite welcome to do their own B&P but having one sitting there, with faults clearly listed, our invoices attached for the repairs we did in response to the report is probably enough for most people.

    Those who think our B&P would jeopardise his income and career for a perfect stranger are overthinking it.
     
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  8. Jobin

    Jobin Well-Known Member

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    It's not just owned by their parents. They run the business as well. But I see what you're saying.
     
  9. Jobin

    Jobin Well-Known Member

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  10. David_SYD

    David_SYD Well-Known Member

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    Last 3 properties I’ve paid for B&P inspections/ contract reviews etc etc:

    Auction Guide $1.1m - bid $1.257m - Sold $1.32m

    Auction Guide $1.3m - bid $1.462m, Sold $1.65m

    Guide $1.42m. Passed in at $1.32m - Offered $1.392m. The other offer was $1.3m. Vendor went with a lower offer.

    Under-quoting/ foul play/ frustrating/ time, money and a roller coaster of emotions - but this is the property game.
     
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  11. Jobin

    Jobin Well-Known Member

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    Man... What did this come down to? Conditions?
     
  12. Paul@PAS

    Paul@PAS Tax, Accounting + SMSF + All things Property Tax Business Plus Member

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    A cash buyer, or short settlement v standard terms ? Maybe they wanted tenancy after it sold and the lower bidder was happy to oblige ?

    I was talking to someone just yesterday who bought a handful of vacant house lots for $670K each vs the $750K market value. The seller is a developer who NEEDS cash now. Not in 30, 45 or 60 days. Settlement in 10 days. Cash. No lenders involved.
     
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  13. David_SYD

    David_SYD Well-Known Member

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    A corrupt agent
     
  14. kaibo

    kaibo Well-Known Member

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    they get around this by sussing out your number that you would offer and they then tell you "vendors are not taking any pre auction offers at the moment", . If your offer is crazy high then reply would obviously be different
     
  15. Blueshoes99

    Blueshoes99 Well-Known Member

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    Not true. You can specifically request for the price to not show up on all the online websites. Yes, gov will have the price but that’s their info which is not publicly available.

    look up mosman in Sydney - hardly any sold prices come up in realestate or domain/ other.

    agents want their prices up so they can show clients. It’s one of their marketing tools
     
  16. Trainee

    Trainee Well-Known Member

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    Can experts confirm whether you can suppress the official sales price after it settles?

    can sales price be hidden on say a rp data search or similar?

    and is there a time issue? Ie sales before a certain year cant be scraped by the usual websites?
     
  17. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    Show me? I had a look for Mosman just now for Realestate.com.au

    Edit:

    Ok, I sorted by date descending just now and I can see there are still properties from June 2020 that say "Contact agent". I wonder if something changed since we bought at the end of 2015?
     
    Last edited: 12th Dec, 2020
  18. Blueshoes99

    Blueshoes99 Well-Known Member

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    Always search by date and don’t go default by Most relevant - relevant will always show the price. Mosman prices are always secretive and it’s a mosman thing.

    when we brought our place we requested for the price to be hidden and the agent said it’s normal now. It is still hidden on realestate and domain.

    agents need to show customers how much their properties got sold for... so why would they tell you otherwise..? You can write it within the contract and they will then not be allowed to display the pricing but we didn’t - we just asked via email and it was done and this was in 2019.

    if agents are saying it must be stated, I would ask which law states this.. and watch them go silent...
     
    Last edited: 12th Dec, 2020
  19. Gockie

    Gockie Life is good ☺️ Premium Member

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    Good stuff. Maybe something changed between 2015 and 2019.
     
  20. Melbourne_guy

    Melbourne_guy Well-Known Member

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    Anecdotal, I attended an open last week and next day the REA invited me to make a pre-auction offer to outbid an acceptable offer they had received. When I heard what that offer was I urged the REA to jump at it because at the quoted price, I wasn't interested. However, it was not a surprise when I saw the final sale price a few days later - someone had outbidded the initial bid by $2k.

    Unless you are literally going to make it mind-blowing, I'm not sure what's to be gained by putting in a pre-auction offer and setting yourself up for failure. All I see is that it sets a new reserve to be played by the REA and hawked about. If really interested, probably best to make sure you are a registered bidder.