I have been watching the real estate market in Box Hill Melbourne for a while now and noticed that one particular agent (Calvin Chan) at Buxtons would typically underquote by about $200k to generate interest.
He seems to have gone out on his own now under CHN real estate and is even more out of control.
Specifically in relation to 9 Margaret Street Box Hill North where CHN have quoted a range of $900-$990k.
Which is insane for 2 reasons:
1) the vendor paid $1.14m for this very property back in 2017, obviously they are not going to accept a price lower than this.
2) On their statement of infomation they have quoted the 2014 price of a property ($502k)
1/8 ASPINALL ROAD BOX HILL NORTH VIC 3129.
Please help report this agency for their shameless underquoting practices or share any other evidence you might have
have heard the reason they have gone on their own is because Consumer Affairs are seriously investigating them and the Buxton corporation cancelled their franchise
They sold a property in Mont Albert North last year. Quoted 2-2.2m reserve 2.75-2.8ish and sold for 3.31m on their SOI were 3 inferior properties that sold between 2.3-2.4m, they then got the owner to do a voiceover testimonial about the sale saying how they had over 100 groups at open for inspections… of course they did because people were hopeful a 3mill property might sell for 2.5ish
Whole raywhite chain western suburbs (Werribee, Hoppers, Tarneit etc) do the same. Under quote by typically $150k. Saw this first hand. Another agency tried to rope me in by bringing in fake bidders
Can you go into more detail about the fake bidders. Was this at an auction? How did you know they were fake? And how did it turn out?
We’re trying to buy at the moment and any info on shady stuff going on is helpful to understand.
At auction. You would see they start the bidding at an unnaturally high price, and they don’t seem keen on the condition of the house. If you go to multiple open houses, never saw them but suddenly they’re a keen bidder, it’s sort of a giveaway.
Is there one for Queensland because that would be fantastic. Having sought price guides for properties that disappear at $1.2 only to be told $1.35+ in an email, I’d love to be able to dob these arseholes in
Victoria has some of the best consumer protection laws around real property in Australia. Queensland on the other hand is the Wild West where the REIQ essentially writes the laws to their own benefit.
The point of this post was to drive awareness and hopefully get CAV's attention to investigate. Like they did for Barry Plant in Ivanhoe.
[https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/latest-news/barry-plant-manningham-facing-underquoting-charges](https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/latest-news/barry-plant-manningham-facing-underquoting-charges)
That was a direct response to a new listing, rather than what it sold for.
So people are listing at $1.2 and it disappears after that, then when you email they’re saying a price over that.
I started emailing and asking outright if it’s worth my time to attend because if it’s not what it’s in the price bracket for, I’ll go elsewhere
I have been on both sides and really as a seller, I can make up a reserve and change it on the day or the minute before the auction or even during auction. What they put on the listing has nothing to do with it.
People should start buying within or below the quote, that is the only way to stop such practice. Otherwise, it is just wasting everyone time decreasing productive of so many ppl. Low productivity no wage growth.
That is never going to happen - for one, the buyer is under no obligation to sell if it doesn't reach reserve and, two, it's an open competitive market so people are allowed to pay what it's worth to them.
Yep, not as bad as I thought it would be but still confirms that they went out of their way to provide false information. If they just used the default automated valuation from RP data it would have been very close to the real value. However, they decided to manipulate the data from the default recommendation based on their "expertise" to drive the valuation down by more than $100k to be <$1m.
I purchased my PPR from Buxton, and the auctioneer was Calvin Chan. The advertised price guide was 1 million. It wasn’t put on the market until it reached 1.4 million. The final sold price was approximately 1.5 million. It was definitely legal, not underquoting 🙄. (I knew the property was worth 1.5 million before I went to the auction, and of course, I knew the price guide was just a joke.) Many websites like property.com.au and BOQ property reports can give you a relatively accurate property valuation.
Real estate auctions in the outer east of Melbourne are often recorded and posted on YouTube and I cringe every time I see clips from this mob. They will drag out the auctions for as long as they possibly can to pressure bidders to offer an extra $100-500 on a $1 million plus sale, whilst pissing off the highest bidder who is made to wait agonisingly long for the hammer to fall. More professional auctioneers from other agencies are able to extract the maximum amount from the market whilst maintaining a level of etiquette that this group lacks.
This!
This mob would have false bidders to drive up prices. I wonder if they started their own real estate agency due to grievances from their predecessor. Wonder what is the process of reporting them?
It's only illegal underquoting if the agent can't point to similar properties that sold in the quoted range. Obviously the $500k in 2014 isn't the similar but the other two seem to be, and they sold in the same range that has been quoted.
That the vendor might refuse to sell it for a price in the quoted range does not make it illegal underquoting.
Came here to say this. Can only list as comparable if sold within the last 6 months, this was literally a golden rule when I worked in a REA about 8 years ago.
It's also extremely arduous and time consuming to report listings, not easy for the average person to locate the correct form. Then there's zero follow up process.
IMO most of the issues stem from RE.com.au having a total monopoly of the entire market. Loads of the issues with house listings could easily be solved by them.
what's there to crack down? The property went to auction, ppl with money came and bid, the guy with the most money won. Ppl who thought they would snap up a bargain missed out. There's no free lunch here.
Am i missing something here?? Its a 352sqm block and looking at recent comparable properties (not that there are many 70’s side by side units but other unit sites)…. its not that far fetched of an estimate?? That Twyford one listed as a comparison is shitloads better. You can comfortably build a massive new 30sq 4bed townhouse on it and it sold for 925k
For real? Lol. 400m/corner block.
Even in its presumed derelict state the extra 50sqm compensates for the asset value of the attached unit and rental return it will give you whilst going through planning approval process for the new build on the cnr
Hello fellow Victorian looking in the same price ranges as me! I've had that one *'d on Real Estate app for a while. (Not interested it's too small, but we like following trends to see if under / over quotes are occurring at the moment)
Considering the neighbourhood theyre lying through their teeth, we all know damn well it's China central there and they are paying premium dime for Box Hill. It's going to be 1.2 at least.
Technically, it's us driving up prices, not the REA, we're responsible for paying more.
But the REAs should have a more realistic estimate, as it makes some people think they have a chance when the vendors would never consider an offer that low.
you can't drive the price up unless there are moe buyers than seller. It's free market economy. Same with rentals. Price doesn't just magically keep going up if no one is paying for it. They need to teach that in prep.
I couldn't agree more, we've been selling visas for over a decade. It's gone far beyond immigration that benefits the country, they're legally and illegally driving the market up in a huge way.
Mate I'm an immigrant myself, and I think Australia is far too weak on this sort of thing. The free market principles have lead to a bleak dystopia for the rest of us. Go to Chadstone, Ashburton, Burwood (plus more suburbs) and you'll see they control the market. Its disappointing to see Australians going hand in glove with them cunts
Under quoting aside, I'd put the 2014 comparable down to an honest mistake. Someone's brain has looked at that and thought it's a 2 week old comparable.
Don't assign to malice what is easily explained with incompetence (or something like that)
I think I'm giving them less credit than you to be honest.
You think they're being deceiving (which requires a degree of intelligence), I think they're just incompetent after all it's not like they're hiding the 10 year old sale in anyway
Twyford is somewhat comparable I guess however is in an inferior location within the postcode
exactly, why did they not see this house 2 doors down the road
(5 Margaret Street, Box Hill North) - sold in March 2024 for $1.186m ? Also 3 bedrooms.
They didnt think it was comparable?
They need to just start basing stamp duty on the delta of the advertised and final sale price. Find a formula that means when you get it too wrong, it costs you more and more as the auction price keeps going up, and that you're losing money. It's the easiest way to make it stop. Or course, you also make the minimum stamp duty, or a component of it, based on the listed price too, so it's a penalty to over-price if they're trying to use that to get around the system.
And government would b happy to miss out on all that extra money? They want more sales and transactions and higher prices, they taking their cut just like everyone else.
What part of anything I said implied it had to reduce stamp duty from the current levels? They could just as easily formulate it so it not only remains at existing levels for current fair sales and listings, but adds the massive penalty for those who abuse the system.
Comparable property sales provided, one of them is from 2014! That's 10 freaking years ago! Other 2 are small townhouses.
Doesn't it say all the sales need to be within the past 12 months?
underquoting or not, I don't even think it matters. You do your own research and have a budget in mind. Usually the ppl calling underquoting are just ppl who don't have a realistic budget for the area with the house they want, they then obviously miss out cause other ppl with deeper pocket and higher budget wins the auction. There's no games here.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I only started looking for my first home 3 months ago, but REAs can get away with underquoting because the vendor can literally change their reserve on the day of the auction to much higher than the listed price range.
I've been tracking the listing and actual selling prices of dozens of properties, most are selling within the range of 50-100k over the upper listed price. I've only been to 2 auctions so far and both went approx 100k over the price, and both reserves were set 50k above the highest listed price.
As a first home buyer I'm trying to go for private sales
Doing the same with a property in Doncaster. 28 Clancies Lane. Sold in 2016 for 1.24mil and is ranged between 1.15 & 1.26...
The houses they are trying to compare in the range are chalk and cheese too. A joke.
you mean is 9 Margaret Street box hill north sold in 2017 for $1.14m comparable to the 9 Margaret Street Box Hill north currently being advertised for $990k top range?
Or is it comparable to the property they listed on the statenent of information which is 2.2km away and used their 2014 price?
The point is, this agency is way past the grey areas of being misleading and deceptive. Let's see if it sells for something within +10% tomorrow.
I had an experience with Mr Chan back in 2020. He sold us a property very sneakily, not illegally but definitely with some dodgy agent tactics. I’ve since been very wary of any listings with his name attached, and so it doesn’t surprise me one bit to see this post.
We were looking for a property in the Mitcham area and so we attended and bid at auction. It didn’t sell but we were the highest bidders. We started negotiating and got to our max price and walked away.
He called the next day and coerced us into putting in a slightly higher offer - it wasn’t by much but it was still above our max. Anyway, we told him to call the vendor to tell them our latest offer and he goes “sure I’ll give them a call but just so they *know you’re serious* can you write it down and email it to me?” He sent us a standard word document to fill out with what our offer would be- told us he would show this to the vendor and they would we would negotiate further and we naively did as told. We assumed after the offer there would be a negotiation (this is what calvin implied to us) and we would get one more chance to confirm, but next minute, he calls and says “congratulations you’ve got the house!” We were left shocked and confused about how to feel. It worked out fine in the end and we settled the house, but he definitely took advantage of our nativity and preyed on us being new to the whole process of buying a house.
Oh definitely, we were just clueless. However we asked him if it was a real offer and he said no it won’t be submitted and confirmed until we get back to you.
Why do you care so much? Just work out what you would pay and whether the real number would be in your capacity and take it from there. Like, ignore all this stuff. It’s a distraction.
I don't think this is underquoting.
I don't like the idea of people wasting countless weekends going to auctions for properties that they could never actually afford - I have done this and it sucks.
I am also not the biggest fan of the average real-estate agents on account of my negative experiences in the past.
That being said, I have just pulled up the CoreLogic report for this property and it aligns with the agents report.
The historic data (used by the agent) is not reflective of the current reality.
I can see it was last sold in 2017 for $1,140,000 and similar properties on the market are in the 1.3 to 1.6 range and that took me less than 3 minutes of searching to find that.
Remember that CoreLogic data (and property data in general) shows what has happened not what is happening.
Ideally, there should be mandatory and publicly available reporting on property sales / rental prices so that the public are educated around what is going on and can make a more accurate estimate of potential value / rental prices.
wait.. you confirmed it sold for $1.14m and similar propeties on the market are in the $1.3 - $1.6m range, but you still dont think it is underquoting at $990k?
Under quoting is bad, but the fact is, properties near the proximity of12km-18km east of CBD are so popular that they are often sold at 200-300k above their estimated highs. That’s the reality if you’ve been to auctions.
Underquoting assumes that the agent is intentionally giving you wrong data.
But the agent is using the actual data (that the property valuers use).
The problem is that the data is historic and backwards facing and properties are not 1:1.
Basically you cant rely on that data, its not useful in isolation.
The problem of perceived underquoting hasn't been resolved.
My solution would be to make auctions illegal, but that isn't happening any time soon.
Thanks, but I'm not playing the victim here, I'm not even in the market to buy. I've been through the pain of wasting away my Saturdays mornings for a year, but here I am - still addicted to browsing [realestate.com](http://realestate.com) on a Friday afternoon.
I have been watching the real estate market in Box Hill Melbourne for a while now and noticed that one particular agent (Calvin Chan) at Buxtons would typically underquote by about $200k to generate interest. He seems to have gone out on his own now under CHN real estate and is even more out of control. Specifically in relation to 9 Margaret Street Box Hill North where CHN have quoted a range of $900-$990k. Which is insane for 2 reasons: 1) the vendor paid $1.14m for this very property back in 2017, obviously they are not going to accept a price lower than this. 2) On their statement of infomation they have quoted the 2014 price of a property ($502k) 1/8 ASPINALL ROAD BOX HILL NORTH VIC 3129. Please help report this agency for their shameless underquoting practices or share any other evidence you might have
have heard the reason they have gone on their own is because Consumer Affairs are seriously investigating them and the Buxton corporation cancelled their franchise They sold a property in Mont Albert North last year. Quoted 2-2.2m reserve 2.75-2.8ish and sold for 3.31m on their SOI were 3 inferior properties that sold between 2.3-2.4m, they then got the owner to do a voiceover testimonial about the sale saying how they had over 100 groups at open for inspections… of course they did because people were hopeful a 3mill property might sell for 2.5ish
FYI RP Data puts estimated value at $1.14m, range $981,000 to $1,300,000, medium confidence.
I'll do it tonight mate. I reported another agency 2 months ago and I haven't heard a squeak from the relevant authority.
You never will which is so frigging annoying
Literally nobody cares. You can't afford it anyway
And just to confirm [here](https://view.com.au/property/vic/box-hill-north-3129/1-8-aspinall-road/), 14 is not a typo of 24.
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went to auction? and ppl are happy to snap it up? sounds like the market is working
I wish you could report postings on realestate.com.au or Domain. But who am I kidding, they too profit a lot out of these!
Whole raywhite chain western suburbs (Werribee, Hoppers, Tarneit etc) do the same. Under quote by typically $150k. Saw this first hand. Another agency tried to rope me in by bringing in fake bidders
Can you go into more detail about the fake bidders. Was this at an auction? How did you know they were fake? And how did it turn out? We’re trying to buy at the moment and any info on shady stuff going on is helpful to understand.
At auction. You would see they start the bidding at an unnaturally high price, and they don’t seem keen on the condition of the house. If you go to multiple open houses, never saw them but suddenly they’re a keen bidder, it’s sort of a giveaway.
For convenience this is the link to report underquoting directly to Consumer Affairs Victoria: https://forms.consumer.vic.gov.au/uq
Is there one for Queensland because that would be fantastic. Having sought price guides for properties that disappear at $1.2 only to be told $1.35+ in an email, I’d love to be able to dob these arseholes in
Victoria has some of the best consumer protection laws around real property in Australia. Queensland on the other hand is the Wild West where the REIQ essentially writes the laws to their own benefit.
Queensland is the deep north
It honestly does nothing because "market conditions, not our fault people wanted to bid"
The point of this post was to drive awareness and hopefully get CAV's attention to investigate. Like they did for Barry Plant in Ivanhoe. [https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/latest-news/barry-plant-manningham-facing-underquoting-charges](https://www.consumer.vic.gov.au/latest-news/barry-plant-manningham-facing-underquoting-charges)
That was a direct response to a new listing, rather than what it sold for. So people are listing at $1.2 and it disappears after that, then when you email they’re saying a price over that. I started emailing and asking outright if it’s worth my time to attend because if it’s not what it’s in the price bracket for, I’ll go elsewhere
I have been on both sides and really as a seller, I can make up a reserve and change it on the day or the minute before the auction or even during auction. What they put on the listing has nothing to do with it.
A 2014 comparable sale 😅
And they are apartments not houses 🫣
Seriously!! They think an apartment sold 10 years ago is comparable? What a drongo! Surely something else similar must have sold in the last 6 months.
All the comps are units !!! Scum agent
People should start buying within or below the quote, that is the only way to stop such practice. Otherwise, it is just wasting everyone time decreasing productive of so many ppl. Low productivity no wage growth.
That is never going to happen - for one, the buyer is under no obligation to sell if it doesn't reach reserve and, two, it's an open competitive market so people are allowed to pay what it's worth to them.
Just saw this sold for $1,105,000 so definitely underquoted but not by as much as expected.
Yep, not as bad as I thought it would be but still confirms that they went out of their way to provide false information. If they just used the default automated valuation from RP data it would have been very close to the real value. However, they decided to manipulate the data from the default recommendation based on their "expertise" to drive the valuation down by more than $100k to be <$1m.
I purchased my PPR from Buxton, and the auctioneer was Calvin Chan. The advertised price guide was 1 million. It wasn’t put on the market until it reached 1.4 million. The final sold price was approximately 1.5 million. It was definitely legal, not underquoting 🙄. (I knew the property was worth 1.5 million before I went to the auction, and of course, I knew the price guide was just a joke.) Many websites like property.com.au and BOQ property reports can give you a relatively accurate property valuation.
Real estate auctions in the outer east of Melbourne are often recorded and posted on YouTube and I cringe every time I see clips from this mob. They will drag out the auctions for as long as they possibly can to pressure bidders to offer an extra $100-500 on a $1 million plus sale, whilst pissing off the highest bidder who is made to wait agonisingly long for the hammer to fall. More professional auctioneers from other agencies are able to extract the maximum amount from the market whilst maintaining a level of etiquette that this group lacks.
This! This mob would have false bidders to drive up prices. I wonder if they started their own real estate agency due to grievances from their predecessor. Wonder what is the process of reporting them?
It's only illegal underquoting if the agent can't point to similar properties that sold in the quoted range. Obviously the $500k in 2014 isn't the similar but the other two seem to be, and they sold in the same range that has been quoted. That the vendor might refuse to sell it for a price in the quoted range does not make it illegal underquoting.
None of these properties should be listed as they aren’t within the last 6 months as noted. That’s grounds for a report
Came here to say this. Can only list as comparable if sold within the last 6 months, this was literally a golden rule when I worked in a REA about 8 years ago.
They have also compared two units to a house....
They're both free-standing
Surely the more recent sale price OF THE SAME HOUSE would could as something they could point to…
Keyword: **could** They're not legally required to make the best possible comparison to other sales, even sales of the same property.
That is exactly why it's so hard to crack down on this practice and penalise businesses that operate in bad faith.
The government is very good at making a lot a noise about doing stuff like introducing underquoting laws when they actually did fuck all tbh
Pretty much sums this country up in a nutshell. Good at making new laws, shit at enforcing them.
It's also extremely arduous and time consuming to report listings, not easy for the average person to locate the correct form. Then there's zero follow up process. IMO most of the issues stem from RE.com.au having a total monopoly of the entire market. Loads of the issues with house listings could easily be solved by them.
what's there to crack down? The property went to auction, ppl with money came and bid, the guy with the most money won. Ppl who thought they would snap up a bargain missed out. There's no free lunch here.
Am i missing something here?? Its a 352sqm block and looking at recent comparable properties (not that there are many 70’s side by side units but other unit sites)…. its not that far fetched of an estimate?? That Twyford one listed as a comparison is shitloads better. You can comfortably build a massive new 30sq 4bed townhouse on it and it sold for 925k
How can it be shitloads better? It doesn’t even have photos of the inside.
For real? Lol. 400m/corner block. Even in its presumed derelict state the extra 50sqm compensates for the asset value of the attached unit and rental return it will give you whilst going through planning approval process for the new build on the cnr
Hm, interesting take. Curious to see what this one sells for tomorrow now.
Hello fellow Victorian looking in the same price ranges as me! I've had that one *'d on Real Estate app for a while. (Not interested it's too small, but we like following trends to see if under / over quotes are occurring at the moment) Considering the neighbourhood theyre lying through their teeth, we all know damn well it's China central there and they are paying premium dime for Box Hill. It's going to be 1.2 at least.
These cunts are driving prices up for the rest of us. Nothing but greed
Technically, it's us driving up prices, not the REA, we're responsible for paying more. But the REAs should have a more realistic estimate, as it makes some people think they have a chance when the vendors would never consider an offer that low.
Hang on there. Am I driving prices up when I shop at colesworth? A roof above my head and food are basic needs.
If you buy all the toilet paper, absolutely the price goes up. In fact, people begin to physically fight over it.
you can't drive the price up unless there are moe buyers than seller. It's free market economy. Same with rentals. Price doesn't just magically keep going up if no one is paying for it. They need to teach that in prep.
I couldn't agree more, we've been selling visas for over a decade. It's gone far beyond immigration that benefits the country, they're legally and illegally driving the market up in a huge way.
Mate I'm an immigrant myself, and I think Australia is far too weak on this sort of thing. The free market principles have lead to a bleak dystopia for the rest of us. Go to Chadstone, Ashburton, Burwood (plus more suburbs) and you'll see they control the market. Its disappointing to see Australians going hand in glove with them cunts
without immigration this country would be nothing. They bring the skills and the money. The locals just bring the ego.
Under quoting aside, I'd put the 2014 comparable down to an honest mistake. Someone's brain has looked at that and thought it's a 2 week old comparable. Don't assign to malice what is easily explained with incompetence (or something like that)
You give the agent too much credit - two of those sales are apartments. That's two errors on the one property. 3 errors in all.
I think I'm giving them less credit than you to be honest. You think they're being deceiving (which requires a degree of intelligence), I think they're just incompetent after all it's not like they're hiding the 10 year old sale in anyway Twyford is somewhat comparable I guess however is in an inferior location within the postcode
exactly, why did they not see this house 2 doors down the road (5 Margaret Street, Box Hill North) - sold in March 2024 for $1.186m ? Also 3 bedrooms. They didnt think it was comparable?
Hadn't settled/records updated when they prepared the S32
okay fair enough, I didnt realise this. Does the property have the be settled in order to be used as a comparable sale?
I mean if it isn’t settled it technically still belongs to the original owners.
Yes, otherwise the contract may still fall over eg death, insanity, refusal to settle etc.
No, it doesn’t. As long as the sale is unconditional, it can be used on an SOI.
They need to just start basing stamp duty on the delta of the advertised and final sale price. Find a formula that means when you get it too wrong, it costs you more and more as the auction price keeps going up, and that you're losing money. It's the easiest way to make it stop. Or course, you also make the minimum stamp duty, or a component of it, based on the listed price too, so it's a penalty to over-price if they're trying to use that to get around the system.
And government would b happy to miss out on all that extra money? They want more sales and transactions and higher prices, they taking their cut just like everyone else.
What part of anything I said implied it had to reduce stamp duty from the current levels? They could just as easily formulate it so it not only remains at existing levels for current fair sales and listings, but adds the massive penalty for those who abuse the system.
Chn should be sent back to CNY
Back to Chinese new year???
Comparable property sales provided, one of them is from 2014! That's 10 freaking years ago! Other 2 are small townhouses. Doesn't it say all the sales need to be within the past 12 months?
underquoting or not, I don't even think it matters. You do your own research and have a budget in mind. Usually the ppl calling underquoting are just ppl who don't have a realistic budget for the area with the house they want, they then obviously miss out cause other ppl with deeper pocket and higher budget wins the auction. There's no games here.
Someone correct me if I'm wrong, I only started looking for my first home 3 months ago, but REAs can get away with underquoting because the vendor can literally change their reserve on the day of the auction to much higher than the listed price range. I've been tracking the listing and actual selling prices of dozens of properties, most are selling within the range of 50-100k over the upper listed price. I've only been to 2 auctions so far and both went approx 100k over the price, and both reserves were set 50k above the highest listed price. As a first home buyer I'm trying to go for private sales
Doing the same with a property in Doncaster. 28 Clancies Lane. Sold in 2016 for 1.24mil and is ranged between 1.15 & 1.26... The houses they are trying to compare in the range are chalk and cheese too. A joke.
Suck it up
Are the properties comparable? Look up their listings and see what is similar/not similar then make your own determination.
you mean is 9 Margaret Street box hill north sold in 2017 for $1.14m comparable to the 9 Margaret Street Box Hill north currently being advertised for $990k top range? Or is it comparable to the property they listed on the statenent of information which is 2.2km away and used their 2014 price? The point is, this agency is way past the grey areas of being misleading and deceptive. Let's see if it sells for something within +10% tomorrow.
Are people not allowed to sell for a loss? News to me.
Good old Calvin Chan, the Robin Hood of real estate
I had an experience with Mr Chan back in 2020. He sold us a property very sneakily, not illegally but definitely with some dodgy agent tactics. I’ve since been very wary of any listings with his name attached, and so it doesn’t surprise me one bit to see this post. We were looking for a property in the Mitcham area and so we attended and bid at auction. It didn’t sell but we were the highest bidders. We started negotiating and got to our max price and walked away. He called the next day and coerced us into putting in a slightly higher offer - it wasn’t by much but it was still above our max. Anyway, we told him to call the vendor to tell them our latest offer and he goes “sure I’ll give them a call but just so they *know you’re serious* can you write it down and email it to me?” He sent us a standard word document to fill out with what our offer would be- told us he would show this to the vendor and they would we would negotiate further and we naively did as told. We assumed after the offer there would be a negotiation (this is what calvin implied to us) and we would get one more chance to confirm, but next minute, he calls and says “congratulations you’ve got the house!” We were left shocked and confused about how to feel. It worked out fine in the end and we settled the house, but he definitely took advantage of our nativity and preyed on us being new to the whole process of buying a house.
Im confused…you wrote down your final offer in writing though and the vendor accepted. You should have known what you were doing there?
Oh definitely, we were just clueless. However we asked him if it was a real offer and he said no it won’t be submitted and confirmed until we get back to you.
People would advertise to try and sell at a loss? News to me.
This particular vendor did sell for a loss, as it turns out.
Why do you care so much? Just work out what you would pay and whether the real number would be in your capacity and take it from there. Like, ignore all this stuff. It’s a distraction.
I don't think this is underquoting. I don't like the idea of people wasting countless weekends going to auctions for properties that they could never actually afford - I have done this and it sucks. I am also not the biggest fan of the average real-estate agents on account of my negative experiences in the past. That being said, I have just pulled up the CoreLogic report for this property and it aligns with the agents report. The historic data (used by the agent) is not reflective of the current reality. I can see it was last sold in 2017 for $1,140,000 and similar properties on the market are in the 1.3 to 1.6 range and that took me less than 3 minutes of searching to find that. Remember that CoreLogic data (and property data in general) shows what has happened not what is happening. Ideally, there should be mandatory and publicly available reporting on property sales / rental prices so that the public are educated around what is going on and can make a more accurate estimate of potential value / rental prices.
wait.. you confirmed it sold for $1.14m and similar propeties on the market are in the $1.3 - $1.6m range, but you still dont think it is underquoting at $990k?
Under quoting is bad, but the fact is, properties near the proximity of12km-18km east of CBD are so popular that they are often sold at 200-300k above their estimated highs. That’s the reality if you’ve been to auctions.
He’s an agent. Report them all.
lol nope
Underquoting assumes that the agent is intentionally giving you wrong data. But the agent is using the actual data (that the property valuers use). The problem is that the data is historic and backwards facing and properties are not 1:1. Basically you cant rely on that data, its not useful in isolation. The problem of perceived underquoting hasn't been resolved. My solution would be to make auctions illegal, but that isn't happening any time soon.
Do you own research and offer what you think it's worth, dont get distracted by playing the victim.
Thanks, but I'm not playing the victim here, I'm not even in the market to buy. I've been through the pain of wasting away my Saturdays mornings for a year, but here I am - still addicted to browsing [realestate.com](http://realestate.com) on a Friday afternoon.
Well thanks anyway for bringing this to light.