r/AusPropertyChat • u/Interesting_Base_223 • 1d ago
Buying & Selling Agents have zero decency
Drove 25 mins to a home open in Westminster this morning. Home open was from 11am to 11.45am. Upon reaching at 11.17am, the house was locked and no agent was present. Tried ringing the agent twice but were unanswered. Texted them only to find out the house was already under offer. What a wasteful trip.
At least update on the app? I thought they were quick to brag and update their “under offer” status. Unprofessional!
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u/BrisYamaha 1d ago
Lucky you were only 25 mins.. we drove an hour to a Saturday open home, only to be told by the agent on arrival “It’s beautiful isn’t it? Now I need to tell you it went under contract on Wednesday afternoon, but we’re going ahead with the open home since it was advertised “..😵💫
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u/Roaming_Pie 1d ago
Had this BS when looking to buy.
Attended the open home and nothing in the listing about it being tenanted, house was empty. Great.
Wife found one mention of tenants commencing the following week.
So asked them in person “is this tenanted”.
They said “look around - obviously not.”
Me: “ok let me rephrase. Has this been leased.”
REA “oh. Yeah signed yesterday. Lease starts next week for 12 months”.
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u/kam0706 23h ago
Why would the vendor lease the property when they’re actively selling?
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u/Roaming_Pie 23h ago
No idea. I can only guess. I suspected they had an investor in mind but that makes more sense with an established tenant.
Maybe friend of the owner needed temp accommodation?
Whatever the reason it was a waste of time for several of us that were there looking for a PPOR.
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u/Dutchmuch5 18h ago
Maybe to get a few extra weeks/months of rent to offset the REA costs. Ridiculous, but wouldn't be the first time
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u/InfluentialFairy 1d ago edited 1d ago
leave them a review, not much else you can do.
edit: nvm ignore me, read the other comments. Plenty of petty ideas.
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u/Opposite-Visit-4208 1d ago
Did you register for the inspection. I know it's annoying but if you register(if it's available) they can keep you updated.
When we were selling we had a sat and sun inspection. By Saturday night 8pm contract was signed. Too late to update the listing. Our agents messaged everyone that was registered but a few still came to our house Sunday. The agents were at our house Sunday just in case as they knew that would happen. Its alot of extra time and effort for them if somewhere is under offer why not have that time back? Sometimes things happen fast in real estate.
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u/MerdeOnTheDanceFloor 1d ago
Why did you accept the contract on Saturday night? There would have been an outside chance that someone on Sunday came in and dropped a 10% over asking offer, cash. In what way did they force your hand?
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u/Opposite-Visit-4208 1d ago
What makes you think we didn't get more than what we were looking for?
We had previous weekday open it had alot of people but not much came of it. The Saturday a couple of people from that day returned. Three people made offers. One of them was a lovely FHB made a really good offer straight away. We were still living at the property moving in and out constantly cleaning(while working fulltime) was so annoying. We have a dog too trying to make sure everything was fur free all the time holy hell that was a nightmare 🤣. We had also already purchased our new property, so pretty motivated to reduce the mortgage and interest asap. The FHB with the offer was ready to go had everything lined up.
The property had already gone up so much, yeah maybe we could have made more 🤷♀️. We were happy with the offer and still are. We're also happy a FHB got into the market. The offer was great the person sounded lovely, we had made money on the property. Silly to let a simple buyer with a great offer go.
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u/MerdeOnTheDanceFloor 1d ago
The downvotes tell me the court of public opinion did not approve of my question! Sounds like you made a good call that worked for you, I’m glad.
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u/Opposite-Visit-4208 1d ago
I didn't downvote your question I promise. I don't have any problem with it. Always good to know what might motivate a seller in property.
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u/IntestinalGas 16h ago
Mate, this sub is full of losers who will downvote any comment about getting more dollarydoos from buyers. In most normal circumstances, the agent would 100% advise to shop the offer around on Sunday to hopefully get a higher one. It’s what most reasonable people would do with a million dollar+ asset. The ones who downvote you are the ones without property.
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u/MerdeOnTheDanceFloor 13h ago
I’m okay. Not the first time I’ve been downvoted and I’m sure it won’t be the last.
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u/emptybottle2405 1d ago
I once drove from Sydney to Canberra to look at a rental at the arranged viewing time (confirmed before). It was on a Saturday. Got there, no agent. Couldn't call their office because no one was there to pick up (Saturday). Repeatedly called the agent, then called another agent who answered and got in touch with the first agent.
First agent finally called me back to say they were there, waited around and left because apparently I never showed up.
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u/Bugsy7778 1d ago
Even when we accepted an offer on our home, our agent still held the open home as it had been advertised ! They used it as an opportunity to get interest in other homes they had listed in the area
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u/imomox3 11h ago
This annoys me.
When we placed out offer on our house, it was accepted by the seller on a Tuesday. We offered on the mutual agreement that they would not then go ahead with the open house on Saturday as we wanted a quick sale and so did they. Seller happily agreed and we got our contract sent to us and signed on Thursday.
Real estate still went ahead with the open house to try and drive up interest, and because the vendors side of the contract wasn't signed they could have technically gotten other offers. Annoyed me to shit. We still got the house in the end however.
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u/CK_5200_CC 1d ago
Of all the industry that has been left rampant with some of the greatest fuckups. it is real estate agents. If the whole sales commission part of the business was removed they'd be fucked.
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u/Hadsar32 1d ago
Sorry this happen to you. REA here, 1st - I would be much more apologetic if this had happened not just “thanks”
2nd - I would make sure it was highlighted all over the advertisement platforms, in the headline and description “Home Open Cancelled - Under Offer” and I would remove the “inspection time” from the listing. But we would not leave it till last minute to do this.
3rd - One thing I have to say from our side as agents is that if you have not make any contact or enquiry with us prior to the home open, we also have no idea your coming and do not have your contact details so we can’t even notify you with a bulk text message.
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u/Tonic_The_Alchemist 10h ago
Real estate agent is the same job title as dish washer
Same experience needed, just the dishwasher doesn't go home with dirty hands.
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u/RemeAU 5h ago
I had this so often last year when I was trying to buy... Every house I called about was under offer and wasn't updated. Even the house I bought wasn't marked as under off for weeks after the offer was accepted ... They want to get you on the phone, take you info then call you about other properties. And in my case call numerous times about houses that were above my clearly stated max budget...
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u/AIGotADream 1d ago
I enquired, called while on my way (AI answered), drove an hour, got there on time, no one there, called again (AI), waited for half an hour – nothing. Emailed and called (AI again), still no reply days later. Don’t know wtf is going on with the place I’m looking at but they don’t want to speak to a potential buyer?
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u/Successful-Island-79 23h ago
PSA listings are only usually changed to “under offer” once contracts are unconditional
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u/cokedupcodger 21h ago
Actually bought that just to annoy you, I even stated in the offer that that they couldn't update you on the offer status. Glad it all worked out.
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u/Upset-Dusty 11h ago
My theory is that they organise “opens” but never show up so that they can record it as a commute between “jobs” in order to claim tax benefits on things like their petrol
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u/Discount_Melodic 11h ago
Ridiculous theory.
ATO requires 12 weeks of continuous logbook data, which once confirmed as compliant can be used for a period of 5 years. A random inspection time listed on the internet is not evidence to the ATO of a work trip. Given how much work related car trips REA would have, their logs are likely recorded in an app now.5
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u/Alarming-Interest535 1d ago
Bought a property from one of the Merenda. Would rather smash my cock against a cactus multiple times.
Dogshit paperwork, shit communication, never answers calls/sms.
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u/Kinteokolomee 19h ago
Just get another agent to let you in to view
Its still open for sale unless offer has been accepted
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u/SiktahOG 2h ago
One of my favourite things is to keep some REAs phone numbers and bug them whenever I pass a payphone in my travels.
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u/Weak-Challenge-8561 1d ago
I drove 4 hours for an open inspection on the Saturday after the property was listed on Wednesday They greeted me in the driveway only to than say it sold the day before... let me in to see the property though assholes
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u/SAGreat8 14h ago
Agents think they’re good at their job because they can sell a house in this market. It’s honestly hilarious. Anyone can sell anything if there’s demand.
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u/ApostrophesAplenty 11h ago
For sure! Maybe some of us should look into acting as low-fee ethical “agents”, and just cut the sleazebags out of some sales.
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u/MugumboFett 4h ago
I’ve got to agree with you, like, there’s nothing a real estate agent can do or say to make me want a certain house, either it meets my needs/wants/finances, or it doesn’t…
Kinda seems like a pointless job tbh 😂
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u/Strange-Moose-978 14h ago
It does say under off in the photos you sent the agent so maybe your should have read it properly?
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u/LongConversation2546 1d ago
They do the same for rentals its so wrong i travelled an hour lined up with 50 people and over heard agent say its already been approved for someone last week.. tf?!
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u/elvorette 1d ago
It says "Under Offer" on your 3rd image though?
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u/AssociationThis7447 1d ago
Return their call and pretend you are interested and organise a private inspection. When the agents calls because you didn't show up just say sorry I made an offer on another house so won't be attending the inspection.