Michael Fry – What A Ripper Of An Estate Agent

by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B
Real Estate Lawyer
Qualified Practising Conveyancer Victoria
Director Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd

 

Michael Fry is an actor, turned estate agent with Nelson Alexander Real Estate.  Recently Michael Fry performed an act that did not go down very well at all.  After a real estate sale did not go as expected, Michael Fry took the contract and ripped it to bits, without consulting the vendor or the solicitor.  When an estate agent ignores the script and improvises his performance it can spoil the whole show! 

Nelson Alexander Real Estate Real Estate in Northcote was engaged to sell a client’s property, and Michael Fry won the audition for the role of selling agent.  Fry likes the way acting and real estate sales compliment each other.  According to his bio appearing on the Nelson Alexander Real Estate website:

“There is an element of opening night to the successful sale of a property. There is a huge amount of excitement and anticipation. After weeks of preparation when the spotlight comes on you need someone with a cool head and a fierce desire to step up and seize the moment.”

There had indeed been a successful sale of sorts.  The purchasers had signed an offer, and Fry had presented the offer to the vendors for signing.  Having signed off on the sale of their property the vendors experienced that “huge amount of excitement and anticipation” Fry is so familiar with.

But Fry didn’t “step up and seize the moment” as the vendors had expected.  He stepped up and seized the contract they had signed, and ripped it into tiny pieces!  All copies of the contract were were also destroyed.

Why would an estate agent take it upon himself to destroy a contract that had been entrusted to him by the vendor who owned it, and the solicitor who had prepared it?  We wanted to know what was going on, and so we called upon Mr. Fry to explain his performance to us.

Fry explained that the purchasers had withdrawn their offer, and he had decided that the contract was no longer relevant, so he ripped it up without authority or advice from either the vendors or their solicitor.

However, one thing that Fry did not tell us at this stage was that the purchasers were interested in another property being sold by Nelson Alexander, and that Nelson Alexander could still win a commission.  In that case the only only loser would be the vendors.  The critics were not at all pleased with Fry’s performance!

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