Last Saturday I spoke with a pig. Rude, mean, inconsiderate, selfish – a horrible man. It’s probably an insult to call him a pig – an insult to pigs I mean.

Today’s most common real estate scam is the ‘ad scam’. Most agents mislead sellers into believing that sellers “need to pay marketing costs”.

On the surface, it all seems fair and reasonable. You need to sell your home. Your agent says you need to advertise so you can attract buyers. It costs money to advertise. As the advertising is all about you and your home, it seems fair that you pay for it.

Thomas is a 33-year-old underground miner with four children under six.  He lives in a remote town. Two years ago, wanting to secure his family’s future, he contacted a real estate wealth creation company on-line.

Few things make agents more excited than a “seriously motivated vendor”. In lay terms, that means a homeowner with a powerful reason to sell. There are few more powerful reasons than buying another home before selling your existing home.

The one thing always booming in real estate is the lies the industry tells the public. Aside from the daily false quotes given to sellers and buyers about the prices of properties, the most common lies are the auction clearance rates.

Recently, a home-seller signed-up to sell her home with an agent. What happened next is what happens to thousands of sellers.

Auction clearance rates are lies. Pumped-up statistics. It doesn’t matter who’s sprouting them, auction clearance rates are deliberately false. They are so far from true as to be laughable.

The old joke: “How do you know when real estate agents are lying? Answer: When their lips are moving.” is not a joke, it’s real.

When home sellers get anxious about selling, the first thing they usually do – or, more correctly, the first thing agents suggest they do – is “drop the price”.

It all looks so good in the beginning. The agent loves your home and is confident it can be sold for a huge price. Just like the one up the street where the owners got three hundred thousand dollars above their reserve price.

Home sellers lost millions of dollars in last weekend’s auctions. Most never realised it. On the contrary, many sellers thought they got a great result because their homes sold above their lowest price – known as the “reserve”.

If home sellers knew the truth about advertising, if they knew what went on behind-the-scenes, they’d realise they are part of what can best be described as a billion-dollar scam.

by Neil Jenman The biggest mistake in real estate is failing to do enough research. Look for yourself: Every month, thousands of homes up for public auction and almost all short-sold, often by tens of thousands of dollars. And why? Failure to do adequate research. No, in most cases, make that “ANY research”. What about […]

HOME SELLERS BEWARE: One result is 100 per cent guaranteed with many agents. You lose. No matter what happens, whether your home sells or not, whether you get a good price, a bad price or no price, the agent wins and you lose – big time.