No, SLOD! is not a typographical error, it’s the name of the website Lawyers Real Estate uses to sell properties for its clients. Lawyers Real Estate is a law firm that sells real estate for its clients for a single fixed-fee, without involving real estate agents. To see the property most recently sold by Lawyers Real Estate, just click on the Facebook link below. To hear some past clients of...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd The ultimate real estate office model has arrived. It’s the ILP – a lean, clean sales machine that combines the roles of lawyer, conveyancer and real estate agent to provide an optimum real estate service on a fixed fee basis. Anyone can establish an ILP, including real estate agents, conveyancers and accountants, to provide clients with a one-stop-shop for...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd As readers know, I have been very critical over the years of the schemes and scams used by real estate agents. Obviously, it is unfair to criticise the methods used by real estate agents without suggesting some alternative, and so I am presenting what I have called the “SLOD! Best Price Negotiation Strategy”. I sell real estate for my...
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OPINIONby Peter Mericka B.A., LL.BReal Estate LawyerQualified Practising Conveyancer VictoriaDirector Lawyers Real Estate Pty Ltd Is it any wonder that the REIV (Real Estate Institute of Victoria) misleads, misguides and misinforms its members when its own CEO Enzo Raimondo fails to understand the role of the real estate agent in a sale transaction? In his regular propaganda piece in the Domain section of The Age newspaper, Enzo Raimondo tells consumers that when negotiating for...
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Opinion by Neil Jenman Consumer Advocate For many years, the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) has misled and deceived real estate consumers. Whether it be trying to justify (or deny) dodgy practices such as false price quoting or whether it’s brushing-aside common claims of widespread dishonesty, as far as real estate bodies go, they don’t come much dodgier than Victoria’s Real Estate Institute (REIV). The institute is headed-up by Enzo Raimondo (who...
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OPINIONby Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au When will governments put in place stronger legislative measures to protect real estate consumers not only from self-serving real estate agents, but also from their own trusting natures? The story below from a school teacher client of mine, whilst ending happily, gives ample reason for a long-overdue legal prohibition on agents’ referring buyers to building inspectors, mortgage brokers, solicitors and the like. “A recent experience with building inspectors...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Brisbane conveyancing solicitor Chris Bridge became concerned when he noticed that his buyer client’s contract included a special condition authorising the pre-settlement release of the selling agent’s commission. Such a “pre-draw” practice may be legal elsewhere if the contracting parties agree, but not in Queensland where Section 385 of the Property Agents and Motor Dealers Act (PAMDA) permits agents to take commissions from their trust accounts only...
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by Shannyn HunterConveyancer shannyn@lawyersconveyancing.com.au Lawyers Conveyancing On Monday morning purchasers can experience a real estate hangover. After a weekend of elation at finding their dream house and pressure from the agent to make an offer, with hesitation they sign on the dotted line and their concerns about legal advice are pushed aside. They are locked into a contract. Unfortunately, the emotive attachment that causes you to buy a property can also cause you to forego certain...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au Queensland’s Office of Fair Trading has lost, and lost badly, a landmark case mounted in the Commercial and Consumer Tribunal against Gold Coast solicitor Donald Dickie. The implications of this decision, which Fair Trading decided not to appeal, are likely to significantly affect residential property sales and conveyancing practices across Queensland. Attorney-General Kerry Shine, the Bligh Government’s minister responsible for the Fair Trading portfolio, may need to...
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by Tim O’Dwyer M.A., LL.BSolicitorConsumer Advocate watchdog@argonautlegal.com.au The letter below recently came to me in the mail from a nearby estate agency. This agency happens to be part of a national real estate franchise which proudly boasts “offices throughout Australia, New Zealand and Asia-Pacific”. Needless to say, I am certainly not a client (“valued” or otherwise), nor any sort of friend of this agency. Just like many unsolicited offers, which constantly bombard us all,...
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