Let’s face it. Estate Agents don’t have the best reputation for integrity and ethics. Whether it’s tricking the buyers by underquoting or quoting high to get properties for sale, this sort of behaviour damages the view of all agents. But not all agents are dishonest.
So when decent agents see others consistently behaving badly, it’s very frustrating. The Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) have Rules of Professional Conduct that govern what agents can and can’t do. They define what is considered to be ethical and acceptable behaviour and try to set a high professional standard. But some agents simply ignore this and recognise that the worst the REIV can do is kick them out of the Institute if anyone can be bothered pursuing a complaint against them.
A number of agents that have clearly decided that ethics and standards do not apply to them are at Ray White – Burwood. Whilst it is a breach of REIV ethics rules to contact owners that have exclusively listed with another agent, they don’t really care. These agents are sufficiently lazy and apparently feel above the law, that they clearly have a policy of immediately contacting the owners when they come on line with another agency. And keep on in regular contact when requested to stop by both the listing agency and the owners.
New laws require that agents must list 3 comparable sales for every property listed for sale and publish them in what is called a Statement of Information. The intent is to force agents to be honest with their pricing. The agent gets to choose which comparable properties to list. We were stunned this week to see a new property come up for sale that had a comparable sale listed where the price had not been disclosed publicly. So, what did this Ray White agent do? Simply made a price up. Yep. Just invented a figure. Quite unbelievable.
Rather than lodge another complaint with the agency about their behaviour, we have decided to out them for their unacceptable and illegal actions. Business at any cost is not OK. Time for people to know what sort of ethics agents like this stand for and enable them to decide who they want to represent them when it comes time to sell.