Don’t take the bait!
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