Something terrible is happening to a lot of agents. They’re not making sales. Real estate salespeople are starting to go weeks, even months, without a commission cheque.
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.
What should sellers do in today’s depressed market? How do they still get a good selling price?
Vendor Paid Advertising is the practice where Real Estate Agents charge home-sellers for marketing whether the house sells or not. Since Real Estate Agents have been able to convince home-sellers to pay for marketing they have taken to advertising with great enthusiasm.
The truth is that since the advent of the internet most real estate advertising is a total waste of money. The main reason that many agents advertise is not to promote your home, it is to promote the agent themselves. The biggest part of most real estate advertisements is the name of the agency. Agents want themselves to look good. They call this “profile” which is a big word in real estate.
With the recent change in market conditions we have seen a big increase in the numbers of home-sellers who have unsold properties and who have been left with very large advertising bills. Some agents have started to charge home-sellers hundreds of dollars for items such as copywriting, window display and promoting their property on property websites even though these items come at minimal cost to the agent.
The latest Morgan Poll showed that fewer than 8% of people rated Real Estate Agents highly for ethics and honesty. In some of the worst instances we have seen properties, either through incompetence or dishonesty, priced where they had virtually no chance of selling, remain unsold and then the agents have charged the home-seller thousands of dollars for marketing.
We want to let you know that we are totally opposed to Vendor Paid Advertising and in some of the worst cases we believe its use could amount to fraud.
For some years now, we have been publicly warning consumers about the dangers of Vendor Paid Advertising. While some of the local agents have been upset, the messages of support we have received from clients and the local community has been overwhelming.
From all the team at Peter Lees Real Estate we want to thank you for all your support, and promise to continue to make as many people aware of this issue so that all Real Estate consumers in our community receive a fairer deal.
Always remember – “Never agree to pay your agent anything unless they sell your property”
