Warm & Cuddly Estate Agents? Dont' Get Too Comfy!
OPINION
by Peter Mericka B.A., LL.B Real Estate Lawyer and
Qualified Practising Conveyancer
Victoria
Lawyers Real Estate
We saw this little gem in the the Maroondah Leader (9 May, 2006 p.63), and we were immediately overwhelmed with emotion.
If you're a consumer it seems that the warm and cuddly estate agents at Stockdale & Leggo Croydon will protect you so well that you can,
"sleep easy in the knowledge that Stockdale & Leggo Croydon will look after all your real estate needs."
Yes, they'll try tugging at your heart strings. But they don't tell you much about that big jerk at the other end of your purse strings!
Let's have a closer look at the big jerk...
It's more than a tug on the purse strings when the estate agent calls for the
commission - it's a huge jerk of many thousands of dollars.
We have warned consumers about
commission rage, and how it causes estate agents to become difficult to deal with.
But the claim that an estate agent can "look after all your real estate needs" raises also the issue of
conflicting interests. Any examination of a consumer's needs must include the following:
- Ability to independently check the agency authority (a very unfair document);
- Ability to provide legal advice on the sale documents;
- Ability to draft conditions to give legal effect to the consumer's intentions;
- Courage to cancel the sale (and the agent's commission) if things are not right;
- Legal expertise to be able to identify illegality in the sale;
and the list goes on...
Estate agents want consumers to believe that they can trust the estate agent, without having recourse to any other form of advice or assistance. The truth is that every consumer needs someone who is motivated, not by a
commission paid upon sale, but by a duty to act in the interests of the client at all times.
Accurate and unbiased
legal advice is one very important need that no estate agent, no matter how warm and cuddly he or she may be, can properly deliver.
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