VZ REAL ESTATE

Bait pricing hurts both sellers and buyers, and despite recent legislation changes aimed at preventing the practice, it is still rampant.  Just as AFL coaches find ways to manipulate rule changes for their own benefit, real estate agents find ways around the new legislation to still engage in bait pricing to avoid confronting the truth with their clients. The Monash Business School defines bait pricing as: Advertising an item at an unrealistically low price as ‘bait’ to lure customers to a store or selling place. Peter O’Malley, in his popular new book,  Inside Real Estate , states that “when the market is strong, bait pricing by real estate agents is rampant.  For a buyer, seeing a property promoted for $1.2 million or more but sell for over $1.5 million can be confusing.  Is the market really that strong or are you being misled?  That’s the question many unsuccessful buyers ask themselves as they leave auctions defeated again and again.  Either way, it’s tough.  To spend

What is the Smart Sale? How can it benefit you? THE SMART SALE STRATEGY USES THE PRIVATE TREATY METHOD OF SALE, WITH SOME SUBTLE VARIATIONS AIMED AT OBTAINING THE HIGHEST PRICE. If true genius lies in the ability to take something complicated and make it simple, then the reverse must hold true. Most common real estate methods take a straightforward process and make it dangerous, complicated and risky, for both buyer and seller. The aim of any sale for the seller and their agent is to maximise the final sale price, with minimal risk for the seller and within the agreed time frame. The aim for the buyer? Find the right property at the right price without having to navigate the deception of false pricing and spending money for no result. For both the property seller and buyer, simplicity leads to good outcomes, and simplicity is the hallmark of The Smart Sale. Most properties sold in Australia would benefit from this most transparent strategy. During a private treaty sal

When asked to price a property, a real estate agent has the opportunity to impress the owner and obtain a listing. Listings are the lifeblood of any real estate career. The two most common lies in the real estate industry involve the estimate price quoted to potential sellers. One is the lie real estate agents are most known and disliked for – the intentional over-inflation of a homeowner’s potential selling price. The second and subtler of the two lies is one of omission. Both have the capacity to hurt a property seller financially and emotionally. Why is an agent prone to using the two lies? For an untrained agent, one who lacks high-level marketing and negotiation skills, the only way to impress and subsequently obtain the listing is to promise the most inflated price they can get away with. Quite simply, they inflate or omit the truth to get business. As property owners, we want to believe. That’s why the two lies are so powerful. It allows people to plan t