Alex Zhang

Shady get-rich spruiker George Mihos had it all planned this week. Have some fun then make some money.

In the property world, there’s only a tiny difference between “realty” and “reality”. But in Victoria the gap is widening.

If you go to the Real Estate Institute of Queensland (REIQ) website and type in the word apology, a message says, “No results found. Please try again.”

A full-page report under the banner “Auction starts off with a bang” showed a photo of an “auctioneer extraordinaire” being congratulated on his “successful performance”. The person showering the congratulations was an agent.

One would think the aim would be to end this saga not start it again. No matter what the opinions may be, ‘the murder house’ is worth $715,000, perhaps even less as time goes on.

Property wrapping is a form of loan sharking where investors (‘wrappers’) sell over-priced homes on over-inflated interest terms.

Words such as honesty and trust have been replaced with misleading and false when it comes to describing Sharon Peach.

Back in September last year, LJ Hooker at North Ryde had no trouble selling a home that had been the scene of a gruesome triple murder. Their selling technique was simple – say nothing.

When we enter the world of property advisers, we know that salespeople are likely to make a hefty commission if we sign something. We expect to be bitten – at least to some extent.

As a consumer advocate, I am often threatened by agents because I am trying to stop consumers from getting ripped off. But this is the first time I have been threatened because I tried to protect agents from getting ripped off.