Victorian election real estate dramas: Underquoting and “election stunts”
This post sponsored by Lawyers Conveyancing
An article by Jennifer Duke
“In Victoria underquoting is endemic, rampant, it’s grubby, it’s misleading and deceptive and it’s a fraud on home buyers,” explained Rowe.
“Consumer Affairs Victoria lacks the necessary laws and resources to police underquoting. Real estate agents enjoy the luxury of loop holes in the rules to bait home buyers into attending auctions which are outside their budget. This frustrates buyers. Underquoting causes home buyers to waste their time, money and causes heart ache,” he said, noting that the current rules are unenforceable and that the reserve price can be in another universe to the quoted range, but remains hidden from buyers,” he said.
“If the elected Victoria government (of whatever political persuasion) legislates that the agent quoting range does include the vendor’s reserve and gives Consumer Affairs Victoria the resources to monitor and enforce breaches, then this would go some way to reducing the endemic problem of underquoting in Victoria.”
“The REIV (representing real estate agents) is actively campaigning against the Liberal Party on their proposed underquoting reforms. However, not all real estate agents underquote. Does the REIV truly represent the views of the real estate industry?”
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