How to spot an under-quoter

For those who know me well and take any interest in my FB page, you would have seen my many rants about underquoting and how outraged I have regularly become on behalf of buyers over the years. Traditionally more endemic in VIC and NSW than other states, under-quoting has been a thorn in the side of consumers and regulators for many years and the topic of many articles and debates.

Now that NSW laws have officially changed and from Jan 1 2016 selling agents are not legally allowed to use the terms “Offers above” “Offers over” or advertise a range/guide that exceeds 10% of the lowest price vs highest price, amongst other changes

http://www.fairtrading.nsw.gov.au/b…oting_guidelines_for_residential_property.pdf

it is interesting to already see the changes afoot in some selling agency’s advertising.  One recent example was a house in Sydney’s Castle Hill that went to auction Dec 2015 and had a misleading and obviously under-quoted guide of $950K+  It failed to sell.  Surprising then to learn that, come 2016, the price “guide” was withdrawn and it’s now listed for sale at a price of $1.2m. That’s almost 30% above what consumers were misled to believe they would have been able to initially potentially buy it for…. and this property has certainly not benefitted from a rising market in recent weeks, especially given the Christmas break. 

I, for one, am certainly looking forward to more transparency in the market, even if it means seeing fewer properties with any advertised prices on them. Let’s hope this new legislation stamps out under-quoting altogether or at least changes the methods by which some sales agencies have been cunningly using for years now.