Showing posts with label real estate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label real estate. Show all posts

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Selling without an agent

A new service has just launched, to allow property owners to sell without an agent.  Some real estate agents are so hopeless, and don't return buyers calls, so there is some appeal here if you know what you are doing.  See www.noagent.com.au

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Rent Without An Agent

If you engage a real estate agent to look after your property rental, the costs can be rather high compared with the service actually received.  Typically, the cost is a weeks rent to find a tenant, plus GST, and then 8.8% to collect the rent and do the ongoing management.  On rent of $550 a week, assuming that you have a tenant change once a year, the cost is over $3,000 a year.

If you live near your rental property, and don't mind learning how to legally comply with rental laws (the RTA website has good information), then Rent My Estate is a good service for landlords.  It helps manage the realestate.com.au advertising process, and is expanding into other programs for landlords (such as recording rents received).  Readers of this blog will receive a $20 discount via this link shared by a reader - thanks John.  The savings year on year could be substantial, if you are prepared to put in the time yourself to do things properly.  There is also a good blog on that site.

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Selling Your Apartment

When reading a recent story in The Times (from London) titled "How to avoid house-sale hell", about a lady who went through a series of real estate agents, and taking 18 months to sell her London house in a rising market, it reminded me of many stories I have heard about bad real estate agents in Brisbane.

Some common complaints about Brisbane agents:
  • Not returning phone calls and emails.  (This always amazes me.  As as cash buyer, I often have trouble having agents return my emails when I am wanting to buy an apartment that they have listed for sale.)
  • Pushing expensive advertising packages on the seller.
  • Pushing auction sales on the seller.  For most properties, an auction is the less desirable way for the seller to sell a property, often leading to higher sales costs and a lower sales price.
  • Using a "front man" who sells the agency's services, but who is never seen again.  Young inexperienced sales agents then do the open house and deal with the buyers and sellers.
  • Having an agent give a misleading impression as to how long it will take to sell the property.
  • Listing the property at too high a price.
  • Conditioning the seller, with unreasonably low (and sometimes fake) initial offers.
Many sellers are often surprised at how few people come to inspect, and that those who do are often completely disinterested.

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Rent My Estate

For landlords who do not like real estate agents, a new service -- Rent My Estate -- allows landlords to list on real-estate.com.au.  It provides a good interface for landlords to create and manage online advertisements.

Where the rent is about $650 a week, an agent will typically charge more than $4,000 a year for property management services.  Most agents, in my opinion, do a poor job on the rental side.  So if you have the time and skills, and live near your rental property, you can save a substantial amount and get a better result using Rent My Estate.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Bad real estate agents

I heard another story about real estate agents ripping off a client.  It is worth considering this story, especially if you are thinking of selling, as it is not uncommon.  The agent, who is well regarded, advised the seller of a potential sales price, lets say $900,000.  The agent then sold an advertising and promotional package to the seller, at a cost of more than $20,000.  The agent recommended an auction.  The highest bid at the auction was about $700,000.  The agent then bullied the seller to sell at that price.  The seller refused, and the property did not sell.  It is still on the market.  The agent over-estimated the sales price to get the listing, and made a good profit from the advertising package.  The seller is unhappy, as she would never have tried to sell the property if it was only worth $700,000.

Take care when an agent recommends an auction and an expensive advertising package.

Ask the agent to provide you with a CMA (Competitive Market Analysis) to justify the agent's view of the selling price, and get that in writing.  Study it careful.  And take care!

Recent quote from Warren Buffett:  "It is a lot easier to buy than to sell."

Real Estate Rort

The Courier Mail recently had a story regarding a real estate rort that is said to be ruining the lives of thousands.  An extract:

"Using cold calls, home visits and high-pressure seminars, marketing agents ramp up fear of an impoverished retirement to push gullible mum and dad investors into buying investment real estate.
They promise a low weekly cost to negatively gear properties, high rents and the certainty of strong capital growth in suburbs well outside of the Brisbane CBD.
But many of the units and townhouses' capital growth has been largely absent, with most buyers only learning the sad truth if they go to list the property for re-sale.
Investors have also found their weekly costs are higher than expected, putting pressure on household budgets. Rents are often far less than predicted and supposed waiting lists of tenants never materialise...."

Saturday, December 29, 2012

Google Trends Shows Downward Trend

It is interesting to look at Google Trends -- how many searches are conducted on Google for various topics.  Google Trends shows that there is a big jump in January each year for people searching terms such as "Brisbane rent" and "Brisbane real estate".  There was also a temporary spike in July and August this year.  Over the past five years, the trend has been downwards.  See this data set for example.


Monday, December 3, 2012

HouseNet - real estate social media

An interesting new website is HouseNet -- a social media site for property people.  The cost ranges from nothing to $79 a month, depending on what you want to use the site for.  The site is promoting itself as a replacement for Domain and RealEstate.com.au.

As an aside, RealEstate.com.au only takes listing from real estate agents.  If you are looking to rent, then don't forget to look at Domain.com.au, which also takes listings from private individuals.  So there are different opportunities available on Domain.

Friday, November 23, 2012

Agents Touching Up For Sale Photos

An article in a Fairfax publication about agents editing and manipulating photographs in real estate listings.  See Article.  So take care when looking at listings online.  The property may not look as good in real life.  Maybe such agents should be called Unreal Estate Agents?

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Resiprofile - matching buyers and sellers

Here is an interesting website, that aims to cut out the middleman (e.g. real estate agents):  See Resiprofile.  I have many examples of real estate agents not returning my calls or emails when I want to buy.  So I move on.  I wonder if the seller knows how hopeless their real estate agent may be.  It is always good to do a "mystery shopper" experiment on your real estate agent.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Holiday Letting Agent Investigation

An interesting article in the AFR on 9 August (page 45) about StayMint (or Mint?) real estate letting agent, and how (it is alleged) they were renting out apartments on a short term basis, but not paying the owners for the rentals.  It seems that the government is investigating.  This is not a rare problem -- I have heard similar stories in the past about apartment buildings in Brisbane that are rented out on a short term basis, and holiday apartments on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts where the real estate agent or onsite agent pockets the money and tells the owner that the apartment is vacant.  This same business manages Skyline in Brisbane.

See "Stay Mint Faces Complaint"

"The Queensland Office of Fair Trading is investigating holiday letting company StayMint, a wholly-owned subsidiary of listed property group Ariadne, following complaints from owners of a Gold Coast apartment block about financial irregularities. Fair Trading officers raided the StayMint office at a Broadbeach apartment complex, Carmel by the Sea, last Thursday and seized financial documents.... The owners said they had discovered people had stayed in their apartment but the stay was not recorded in the monthly statement to the owner, and the rent not paid."

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Domain or RealEstate.Com.Au ?

When looking for a property to buy or rent, it is worth looking at both Domain and REA.  Note that for REA, advertisements can only be placed by real estate agents.  If an individual landlord or seller wishes to advertise, then only Domain will accept the advertisement.  Accordingly, Domain will have different (and possibly more) listings than REA, and often at a better price or rent (because agents fees are not being paid.)

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Project Marketing Blog

A new blog has recently been launched by Colliers Real Estate dealing with project marketing.  That is, marketing a real estate project, such as an off-the-plan apartment building.  See Project Blog

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Predictions for 2012

I am not going to make any major predictions for the Brisbane apartment market for 2012.  It is too uncertain what will happen next.

It is probably not a good time to sell.  If you can hold off selling, then that is probably wise.  (I guess that the market will, at worst, be flat.)  However, if you may be forced into selling sometime in 2012, such as due to loss of a job, divorce, financial difficulties, or a forced move, then it is probably best to sell as soon as possible so that you are not a distressed seller.

If you are buying, there is plenty of choice.  But only buy if you plan to hold for the long term.  I think it is better buying an established apartment than buying off-the-plan, at least in Brisbane.  (The Gold Coast is a different story.)

Rents are unlikely to fall.  Body corporate levies are unlike to decrease.  Who knows what interest rates will do.

I may buy in the next 6 months, but only if the price is extremely competitive or the property is extremely unique.  I doubt that I will buy off-the-plan this year.

Two books to assist you:

Monday, December 26, 2011

Off-the-plan commissions

I have recently come across off-the-plan developments in Brisbane where the agent is being paid a flat 7% or 8% commission.  These agents are mostly selling to foreign buyers.  On a $600,000 apartment, that means $48,000 goes to the agent.  In other words, you are paying at least 8% too much!

Friday, October 21, 2011

Misleading Conduct By Real Estate Agent

What a surprise.  A real estate agent in Melbourne has been found to have been engaged in illegal misleading practices involving negotiations after an auction.  The real estate agent told the bidder that someone else had made an offer at a certain price, when in fact that was not the case.  See The Age.

I am aware of situations in Queensland were real estate agents working for well known agencies and who are selling apartments engage in similar misleading conduct, even producing fake contracts.

This decision also reminds me of a case from New Zealand where the real estate agent sold the house to a regular "client", who then on sold the house for a profit.  The agent was found not to be acting in the best interest of the seller, and the bird-dog relationship with the buyer was something material that should have been disclosed to the seller.  See decision and article.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

Market Commentary from a leading Brisbane agent

"... Countering that has been the deteriorating level of urgency in buyers as plunging confidence in Australia's economic future bites ever deeply into their psyche. This erosion of confidence isn't just making it 'challenging' to get buyers to make offers on property, it is making it doubly difficult to get deals to hold together once agreed.

More broadly and in keeping with Darwin's theory of only the strongest ultimately surviving, current market conditions are systematically cleansing the industry of all but the very best property professionals across all property sectors from Commercial to Residential. Whilst we know we can expect such repositioning of markets every generation or so, it doesn't make the process of enduring them any more comfortable."

My comment: I have seen a number of residential real estate groups impload in Brisbane in recent times. Colliers closed down its Brisbane city residential resale group (but kept project marketing alive), Savills closed down its Brisbane residential group, ReMax city office with Chris Hinds reportedly went bust recently, Open House went bust last year and has been taken over, GoGecko is bankrupt, the list goes on.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Many Real Estate Agents do a bad job

Have a look at this article. It provides further evidence that many real estate agents provide poor service, do a bad job and are lazy. The commissions real estate agents receive are way too high for the work that they do. Many real estate agents actually hinder rather than help the sales process. Most properties sell themselves, and the agent does little to improve the sales price received. I love buying from lazy real estate agents -- I get a below market price!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

On The House Down 9% on First Day

OntheHouse, which gives away data, listed on the ASX recently by its lawyer founder, and dropped 9% on the first day. I think it would be safer buying real estate than this startup company who has a business aimed at real estate agents. Especially when the number of real estate agents is dropping dramatically - a mass exodus of real estate agents according to the AFR.