Underquoting: laws around real estate agents and their advertising tighten
New laws will come into effect next year to address the ongoing problem of underquoting by agents. Regrettably, they have been sufficiently watered down, that it is likely that agents will have little trouble stepping around them. All agents will now be required to provide 3 comparable sales to buyers. They have complete discretion as to which sales they submit, meaning they can simply submit those that best suit them. Advertising with a “+” or “Priced Above” will be banned but ultimately, so what?
A simple and comprehensive fix would have been to require the actual reserve price to be published for an auction. This solution has been advocated by an ex member of the Board of the REIV for many years but has been strongly opposed by most agents. John Keating, from Woodend, has been using this entirely transparent process quite successfully for years.
This Domain article gives some insight into what will be required once the laws are activated. It’s a disappointing solution, given that the issue will probably be deemed by the Government to have been satisfactorily addressed for at least the next couple of years.