Real Estate Articles Keep yourself informed in real estate. Discover what agents don't tell you.
How to Handle Agents: Part 3
Your home is “listed” with an agent. If you took note of the first two parts in this series on “how to handle agents”, things should be going well for you.
Warning as “Rogue Agent” Busted
Unlike so many modern agents, Brent Peters doesn’t look like a “rogue estate agent”. He hasn’t got a slick shifty look to him.
How to handle agents : Part 2
Okay, you’ve contacted a few agents. They are on their way to your place. What are you going to do when they arrive?
How to Handle Agents: Part 1
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.
Buy a Buyer!
Today’s most common real estate scam is the ‘ad scam’. Most agents mislead sellers into believing that sellers “need to pay marketing costs”.
Where Your Ad Money Goes!
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.
Protect or rescue
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.
Sell first or buy first?
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.
Booming lies
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.
Don’t get “TIED” to a Real Estate Agent
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’ lies
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.
Do Real Estate Agents Lie?
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.
Home sellers – do not drop your price!
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”.
Cancel the auction!
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.
Guilty of Fraud
Almost ten years after he began his reign of financial terror, Kovelan Bangaru, 43, was this week found guilty in the Sydney District Court on 13 charges of fraud under the NSW Crimes Act.
Flood Victims Need ‘Value’ Compensation
For many years, Queensland solicitor Tim O’Dwyer has warned would-be property buyers about the likelihood of floods in his normally Sunshine State.
Rick Otton Has Been Banned In Australia from Promoting his Schemes
One of Australia’s biggest property spruikers, Rick Otton, has been banned from promoting his get-rich-quick scheme in Western Australia.
REIV Deserves Praise for Wolf Decision
Here is something I never thought I’d say: “The Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) has made a brave and ethical decision.” The Institute has chosen not to support an American motivational speaker who has spent time in prison for fraud and money-laundering and who is coming to Australia to teach his methods to agents.
Dymphna Boholt Fined For Bogus Claims
A woman who claims she went from “virtually zero to a $3.5 million property portfolio in just 18 months” has been penalised by Queensland Fair Trading regulators over bogus seminar claims.
If This is How James Robertson Treats His Boss… Be Careful Homesellers
Prior to working for Belle Property, James Robertson worked for another real estate agency in Unley, Walter & Irvine Real Estate, owned by Kevin Walter and his wife Leanne Walter.
Eight Silly Excuses Used by Real Estate Agents
But if it’s bad for agents, it’s also bad for the people who traditionally pay the agents – the property sellers. Tens of thousands of properties are languishing unsold. No one wants to buy them. Or, at least that’s how it seems.
Kung Fu Spruiker
This is a story about a get-rich-quick (for him) spruiker by the name of Edwin James Goulding (or Ed Goulding as he calls himself when he’s trying to come across all friendly-like, meaning he’s trying to convince investors to give him their money).
Understanding Under-Quoting
The NSW government has released a statement saying they “want to send a clear message that underquoting won’t be tolerated.”
Three Days, Three Seminars, and at Least Three Million
How a gang of American spruikers is fleecing Aussies. Here’s how an American seminar gang is pulling off a multi-million dollar spruiking heist in Australia.
THE RAT FROM LONG ISLAND
Jordan Belfort stole more than $200 million by devising a sales method ‘The Straight-Line System’ which he boasted could “persuade anybody to do anything”.
REIV Caught Cheating – Again
The motive behind false auction statistics. For many years, the Real Estate Institute of Victoria (REIV) has misled and deceived real estate consumers.
The 47 Pitch
Psychologists call it the ‘Scarcity Principle’. The strategy is simple – tell your targets that the deal you are offering is limited – either to a set number of people or to a set period of time.
The Hunt for Mihos Millionaires
Recently, I sent a message to several people who, some time ago, had been conned into (I beg your pardon, I mean “persuaded to invest in”) a George Mihos ‘multiple-streams-of-income’ seminar.
Irish Warned About Land Banking
With no let-up in the goldrush to buy property overseas, a number of British ‘land-bankers’ have begun targeting Irish investors with the prospect of making easy money on sums that Ray Burke might describe as “walking around money”.
