Real estate agent again

[Wood Borer]

What happened to equal opportunity?

Although I am not a termite, I am sort of related and I think it is mean the way we are treated.

Why do you reckon we are trying to get even?

[himzol]

1. front verandah doesn't slope so when it rains there is a big puddle on it ...right up against the timber front wall of the house.

Dam that sounds familiar, the house we are in had exacly the same problem.

I've spent the better part of the last 18 months fixing dodgy jobs like this. wound up having to dig 30 meters of drainage to aleviate the problem and because I didn't know what I might strike if I got in a ditch digger, it was all done by hand, well matock and spade. It wasn't too bad until I got through the top ten to twelve inches of top soil and hit sandstone and quartz rubble.

[jackiew]

[QUOTE=jackiew]
she might screw you for some of the money she shouldn't be able to screw you for all of it.
QUOTE]

shall i rephrase that - "she might be entitled to some of the money but she shouldn't be entitled to all of it".

[numbat]

Besides, if he complains, we'll just sic the Numbat on him!

Alastair

Mmmmmmmmm termites yum.

[gemi_babe]

I would live there. I don't know the victims so it wouldnot affect me. It's not like the guy is out raoming the streets is it?
It's not up to the real estate to say what happend there, more up to the buyer to research the area/house.

If anything I feel its the newpaper that should be sued for dragging up something that wasn't relevant and causing grief and unnessassary (OMG sp) suffering.
They should of just let these people get on with thier lives.

I would never pay $800,000 for a house no matter where it was and certaininly would not pay for a 700sqmtr block in the burbs... YUKO!

[Sturdee]

Or maybe I am just a wuss.

Wongo,

Ofcourse you are not a wuss because you wouldn’t want to live in that house, maybe you are more sensitive than me but Viva La Difference. It would be a dull world if we were all the same.

What really bugs me is the lack of personal responsibility by this buyer who then blames the seller’s agent. Sure often agent’s behaviour can be criticized but in this case it showed a clear lack of understanding of the agent’s role in a real estate transaction.

As you say it is probably one of the most horrifying murder cases in recent time. The way they were killed, the media coverage and the imagesand it happened only a couple years back thus it is still so fresh in peoples mind. So why did they not find this out from their own investigations?

Did they inspect the property? Did they look at the structural aspects? Did they check the physical boundary to check if it is as shown on title documents? Did they check with council if there were any order or planning and zoning restrictions? These were some of the things I used to check (independently from what was supplied by the borrower) whilst working in a bank before we would lend any moneys on a housing loan.

I would also expect that the buyer would look into the area they wanted to buy and live. Did they make inquiries as to the type of area and the facilities it had so that it would suit their lifestyle? Did they walk the streets in and around the neighbourhood, both during the day and at night, so that they were not moving in between two neighbours from hell :eek: with loud music and parties all night? Did they talk to people in the street about the property? Did they talk to the neighbours?

These are only some of the things a reasonable diligent person would do before forking out the biggest amount of money in their whole life. But no instead they expect the seller, through their agent, to tell them.

These aspects are what I mean with “Buyer Beware” not whether the property has the 7 year new house insurance, etc.


Peter.

[craigb]

I've just remembered that there was an episode of The Simpsons that canvassed these very issues.

Marge got a job as an estate agent and ended up unloading the local House of Horrors that nobody had been able to sell.

She ended up selling it to Ned Flanders if memory serves.

Any Simpsons fans remember it?

I think she ended up getting an attack of the guilts and giving him his cheque back.

Of course she lost her job.

[bitingmidge]

Been watching this debate fascinated by opposing sides - both of which I am in agreement!

Did they talk to people in the street about the property? Did they talk to the neighbours?

Before we bought or last place, neighbour on one side was a (literally) demented nasty old girl, on the other a gang of bikies. Absolutely perfect neighbourhood to raise three small girls!

Bikies agreed to "lend" me some power to use for construction work, and I happily gave them $50.00 in advance to cover costs...I didn't ask them if they were moving out the next day, so they didn't tell me.

Should I have been more diligent?

They didn't ask me if one of my very good mates was a Senior Sergeant in one of our "emergency" services and who had people very interested in talking to commercial propogators of a particular plant, and who found it very easy to track them down.

Should they have been more diligent?

When purchasing the current Home of the Biting Midge, the owner was a sort of aggressive reclusive person, known for his strong opinions and generally was avoided by neighbours. To make matters worse he was in the latter stages of a nasty terminal illness, and the place had a bit of an unpleasant aura.

We walked the neighbourhood (thankfully it wasn't magpie season), talked to neighbours on one side (an aggressive former Federal Police officer who would have made a great hermit, and the other, a very unfriendly "Property Developer" who in the fullness of time left in a big hurry when one of his apparently significant drug deals went wrong (he won't have to pay rent for a long long time )

Both neighbours moved out within a few months, in fact seven of the eleven houses in the street changed ownership in a year, and we have a very pleasant community now...... the point I am making is that all the due diligence in the world won't really tell you about the history of the place if no-one volunteers to tell it.

If you were a neighbour, would you be in a hurry to point out the grisly history to prospective neighbours you hadn't met before?

I would, but then I'd be trying to buy it for half it's real value, sell it in five or six years (with the grisly tale as part of the sell) and make a different sort of killing.

In a recent life I had a six foot high sign erected along the boundary of one of my employers properties which read "a ten story building has been approved for this site" when marketing commenced on the site opposite, with photographs of the view across our single story building.

How else would the prospective purchasers have discovered before it was too late? Current approvals are not able to be searched effectively (here) without a search on every title, certainly beyond the means of most apartment buyers. The developer tried unsuccessfully to have the sign removed through legal channels, and we averted a situation where we would have been the bad guys by taking the "innocent" purchasers views.

Should we have not been concerned, if they had been more diligent it wouldn't have been a problem?

There is due diligence, and non-disclosure, and I am inclined to think the latter is what has happened in the house and the apartment incident.

Non-disclosure in these circumstances is just dishonesty with a sugar coating, and it isn't part of my language.

What would happen if we applied the same standard to other aspects of our daily purchases, like food labelling for instance?

Cheers,

P

[Iain]

Gemi, the difference between WA and Vic, we sold our 30 sq place for $900,000.00 two years ago in the outer eatern burbs of Melb to buy our place in the sticks, no ghosts in either, couldn't afford the extra's.

[Sturdee]

Been watching this debate fascinated by opposing sides - both of which I am in agreement!

Midge, so am I - what's more 54 posts and still on topic (must be a record) and no flame wars either.

Tonight on Today Tonight there was a follow up story about a WA couple renting a house where that state's biggest murder took place. Now they want out on their lease. Interesting story again confirming my view on agents responsibility.


Whilst you may not always find out the history of a property most of the time residents are willing to help a prospective purchaser. After all they probably will live next to them for a long time. Same as you felt it right to point out that development.

As to food labelling, there are laws to safeguard consumers. May be these kind of laws ought to be extended to real estate transaction.

If these purchasers had spent the same amount of time and effort in researching their purchase as we all do when we buy tools for our workshop I am sure they would have found out the history of that house.


Peter.

[Barry_White]

For those that may be interested this is the latest on the story in todays Daily Telegraph.

http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/st...toryid=2048588

[journeyman Mick]

When you go to the hardware store you expect the person behind the counter to have some technical knowledge, when purchasing a stereo you expect the sales staff to be able to provide a lot of technical information. Yet people who sell houses (and manage properties) generally know next to nothing. From my perspective they get a lot of money for doing very little, whilst knowing nothing about the product they sell, and treating both vendors and buyers with disdain. I'm afraid I haven't dealt with any real estate agents that have given me any reason to change my view that they are all parasites that feed on the vendor/buyer and lessor/lessee transactions.

Mick

[AlexS]

Interesting questions. Some years ago, I owned a property that was rented out. Some years into the tenency, I found out that a previous owner had committed suicide in the house.
I doubt that the agent knew this, and it wouldn't have worried me even if I'd been going to live there.
Should I have told the tennants? ( I didn't, on the basis that what they don't know wouldn't hurt them.)

[Caliban]

When you go to the hardware store you expect the person behind the counter to have some technical knowledge, when purchasing a stereo you expect the sales staff to be able to provide a lot of technical information. Yet people who sell houses (and manage properties) generally know next to nothing. From my perspective they get a lot of money for doing very little, whilst knowing nothing about the product they sell, and treating both vendors and buyers with disdain. I'm afraid I haven't dealt with any real estate agents that have given me any reason to change my view that they are all parasites that feed on the vendor/buyer and lessor/lessee transactions.

Mick

Mick
You Have an uncanny ability to hit the nail on the head even if it resists.
The only good real estate agent is the one who gets me out of financial trouble by getting me a reasonable price for the investment property they were so ahppy to sell me three years ago. I also can't believe how things shangte when you become a vendor rather than a lessee. Thew ******** I had to endure as a tenant is about the same as I now endure as a landlord. The only happy one is the pond dwelling agent. (Read scum) I for one will be completely glad to be out of the loop permanently.
Anyone want to buy a nicve 4 bedroom split level in beautiful Kempsey for the bagain basement price of $240,000? that'll get me out of mortgage trouble and get you a really nice house,renovated by yours truely. Should I have added that last bit? Ethically, or sensibly????? Silent????

[bitingmidge]

Some years ago.......

I think that's the key.

If they hadn't been spooked to death up 'till that time, they were probably going to survive OK!

I think the same will happen with the house in question.

P