1. Financial Advisor
This e-publication includes comprehensive sales data on the real estate industry’s favoured sale methods, as well as professionally prepared advertisements and FOR SALE signboards indicating how property should be offered for sale. It is without doubt the best advice available on the sale of commercial, residential, rural and special type of property. The authors have exposed the real estate industry’s failings and demolished its credibility in relation to the sale and leasing of property. No other advice from accountants, tax lawyers or financial experts that I am aware of, costing $500, $1,000 or more, has the potential to achieve the large amount of extra capital that can be earned from a single property sale as proposed in this Document for the surprising low fee of $88. Equally, no other advice on legitimate tax minimisation or legitimate tax avoidance from the sale of property comes close to what is now proposed. The Document is a property investor’s dream and a horrific nightmare for the real estate and business broking industries.
The authors satisfy Edward De Bono’s criteria for exceptional innovation and entrepreneurship. They view the property market from well outside the traditional small box, demonstrate brilliant lateral thinking, and summarise a very large amount of documented auction sales data covering the period from 1985 to 2013. While this data alone should convince property owners never to use auction, the numerous counter-arguments presented in the Document against auction are highly damaging to the real estate industry’s strong advocacy of the auction system. The authors have devised a very astute selling system that is the ultimate in simplicity and professionalism – one that is free from all of the disadvantages and problems that plague auctions and negotiated sales. In addition, the authors explain how vendors can legally avoid paying very large amounts of property wealth tax plus 10% GST on such tax.
What makes the information and advice in this publication stand out from all other critiques of the real estate industry, is that attention has been drawn not only to exceedingly high and unjustified sale commissions, but more importantly to the fact that the industry’s sale methods UNDERSELL / SHORTSELL all types of property by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions of dollars. This revelation alone will cause large numbers of vendors who have properties currently listed with estate agencies for auction or other sale method to cancel their contracts. Exposure of the counter-productive nature of what the real estate industry does for vendor clients may render estate agents speechless for the first time in their working lives. Nothing they could say in response to a totally watertight case for a superior selling system can nullify the authors’ severe criticisms of the industry’s sale methods, and the prediction that the Buyer’s Highest Offer has the potential to become the standard sale method for every type of property and in every price category.
2. Practising Property Lawyer / University Lecturer in Property Law
I have been involved in the Australian real estate market for many years as a property lawyer and have been able to assess the standard of business practices involved in property sales, acquisitions and conveyancing. Many inequities exist in the current market and these have all been highlighted in this Document. What is most interesting is the authors’ responses to these inequities and their proposals for a professional system of transacting property that has none of the inequities which characterise the property industry’s traditional approach. While past criticisms of the real estate industry have focused largely on questionable practices of agents and salespersons and their exceedingly high sale commissions, the authors of this Document draw attention to a far greater injustice for vendors: the fact that the industry’s favoured sale methods short sell property by very large sums of money. Such a public revelation will send shockwaves through the industry and through former owners of property once they realise just how much more investment capital they could have secured had they not allowed their properties to be auctioned or sold ‘by negotiation’. At the same time, prospective sellers of property will note the authors’ solution to this problem and can be expected to take appropriate action to avoid being short-sold.
On the matter of real estate commissions, the authors consider these to represent a levy on wealth, analogous to a property wealth tax. This is a legitimate conclusion because commissions are calculated as a percentage of sale price and are deducted from the buyer’s deposit – NOT charged as a service fee and deducted from sale proceeds after conveyancing. By viewing commissions in this way, and regarding the income taxing of such commissions as an indirect tax on vendors’ investment capital, the authors have uncovered a vast new target for legitimate avoidance of a property wealth tax. As the authors point out, it is astounding that real estate consumers accept an iniquitous system and its unjust siphoning of valuable investment capital directly into the Federal Government’s coffers – through estate agents and their salespersons acting as de facto property wealth tax collectors.
The Document is notable for its innovative and logical thought and clarity of argument, and most importantly, from a realisation of just how much additional investment capital property owners can accumulate if they do not follow the real estate industry’s advice but turn instead to a very straightforward alternative and very astute selling method. It is difficult to imagine that any reader of the Document, having been introduced to a more rational and fairer property market, could ever return to the existing system involving sales by private treaty, auction, negotiation and very high commissions that are directly proportional to sale price but unrelated to time and effort needed to ‘close’ a sale. As consumer watchdogs and advocates, the authors have exposed and highlighted 47 of the real estate industry’s major ‘Achilles Heels’ that make it highly vulnerable to being trumped. At the same time, they have devised a simpler, smarter and fairer property selling system that is certain to quickly gain widespread and eventual universal acceptance among property vendors. The property market can never be the same again, and the real estate industry’s sales personnel will inevitably face a progressively bleak future once increasing numbers of vendors abandon auctions and negotiated sales and adopt the sensible and financially rewarding Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method detailed in the Document.
3. Property Developer
I have literally been blown over by the information and advice in this publication. I have used the same real estate agency to sell my boutique homes and townhouses for the past 20 years, some off the plan. I now realise what an extraordinary waste of time and money this has been. Most times the sales have been concluded within a few days or 2 weeks of listing. If only this Document had been made available 20 years ago, I would have been much wiser, calmer, happier and richer. Although it’s easy to be wise in hindsight, what the Document’s authors have put into writing are matters relating to the sale of property that I have vaguely thought about, agonised and argued over with my estate agent, but unlike the authors, I didn’t follow up on these concerns. I’m now looking forward to early next year when my latest development is completed. I will enjoy telling my agent: “Sorry mate, your time is up. You and all other estate agencies are now destined for extinction, and you know what? – my greatest satisfaction will come when I send an anonymous letter to the Commissioner of Taxation telling him that no longer will he and the Federal Treasurer have the pleasure of creaming off their percentage property wealth tax cut from the sale proceeds of my properties.” My next dozen Christmases will come at once. More power to the inventors of the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method.
4. Specialist Dentist
No one has ever dared to challenge the real estate industry publicly in the way the authors of this Document have done. But these people are on solid ground because they have the evidence to speak out and direct strong criticism at the industry. Talk about ‘socking it to them’. They have gone in hard and made estate agents and their salespeople look ridiculous. They have explained in simple, logical terms what the sale and leasing of property actually entails, and why negotiations by commission-charging intermediaries are unhelpful and counter-productive for vendors and lessors.
The Document now being offered to real estate consumers is awesome in terms of what it will mean for consumers in money terms, and for real estate industry’s future.
Estate agents are destined for complete annihilation, relegated to history’s dustbin. Why didn’t any investigative property journalist see this coming? Why didn’t any clever University academic from a School of Business or Real Estate/Valuation Department work this out years ago?
It doesn’t matter, because now everything is out in the open – the real estate industry’s dirty linen, its flawed sale methods, the counterproductive ‘negotiations’, the ‘dudding’ of vendors who are undersold and then ripped off by being charged a percentage of their property’s sale price, and the revelation that all one needs to do to obtain a licence to deal in property is to attend a two or three week training program. So much for all that ‘professionalism’ which the industry claims to provide its clients.
The Buyer’s Highest Offer is the ultimate in professional real estate service. Who would have imagined estate agents and their ‘sales consultants’ becoming redundant. The Document’s authors have made 300 powerful strikes and armed property sellers with ammunition to knock out the entire real estate industry. Estate agents cannot possibly hope to survive this crisis. They can’t compete with a sale system that provides the ultimate for property sellers – guaranteed maximum possible sale price for zero sale commission. The industry can only offer flawed sale methods that short-sell vendors and slug them ‘success fees’ of $10,000 and upwards, in some cases, $50,000 and $100,000 plus 10 per cent GST. Australia’s unemployment rate is set for a rise as tens of thousands of estate agents and their sales representatives start looking for alternate work at Harvey Normans and used-car yards.
With the very smart Buyer’s Highest Offer sale system at their fingertips, vendors would have to be stark raving mad not to use this very clever sale method. Why would anyone hand over control to an estate agency which will screw them by short-selling through price negotiations or auction and then slug them a huge sale commission? When I retire in a few years time, no high-commission-charging business broker will sell my successful practice. By following the advice in this publication, I’ll ask my accountant to invite Buyer’s Highest Offer. Absolute maximum sale price, no broker’s commission, no 10% GST on a broker’s commission, no problems and only a $1,000 fee for the accountant. Selling property and businesses can’t get better than this. My wife’s veterinary practice will be offered for sale in the same way. Our superannuation balances will get an unexpected but welcome boost thanks to a group of clever consumer advocates who have done a superb job in exposing flawed property sale methods and poor service and have come up with the perfect alternative to woeful service from the real estate industry that undersells property and businesses.
5. Advertising Executive
What makes this publication so credible and convincing is that the authors focus on specific sales reported in major newspapers where estate agencies claim: “Look at us, see how good we are, we sold this property”. The authors’ response: “Yes, the property sold, but not because of you; if the vendor had used the Buyer’s Highest Offer method, the sale price would have been much higher and no commission would have been payable.” Ouch!! Claims quashed, egos bruised. The same approach is used with TV programs such as ‘UNDER THE HAMMER’ and ‘HOT PROPERTY’ where brazen auctioneers and agents proclaim “I’m undoubtedly the best auctioneer in Australia”, “I’m the best agent in this area”. The authors bring them down to a very small size by analyzing the showcased auctions which supposedly achieved a ‘great result’ and explain why the auction did not favour the sellers. On the contrary, it put the buyers in the best position to secure the property for less-than-maximum-price. And of course the auction process also favoured the selling agents who conned gullible vendors into financing the entire proceedings, then levied a huge percentage-of-sale-price commission on the ill-informed vendors. A huge gain for no pain on the agency’s part.
A similar approach is used in Part C of the publication where the authors engage in 240 ‘mini-debates’ with the real estate industry. In flyers dropped in letterboxes, in advertorials featured in the real estate sections of major and community newspapers, and in TV and radio adverts, every conceivable claim and point made by estate agents and their sales representatives, are countered and demolished completely. Agencies which claim to help vendors achieve ‘top price’ are bluntly told “No you don’t, in actual fact your vendors get ‘doubly dudded’ / double whammied – you undersell their properties, then you hit them with an unfair ‘success fee’ – an exceedingly high sale commission which represents a property wealth tax because it is calculated as a percentage of the property’s sale price. And to add highly combustible fuel to the fire, the industry players are told that a significant proportion of this commission ends up in the hands of the Tax Commissioner – courtesy of estate agents and salespersons who in the words of the authors serve as de facto property wealth tax collectors. Ouch again!! The authors are merciless, but entirely justified in their verbal demolition of the real estate industry. But this is their calling, they are very savvy consumer advocates who have done their job brilliantly by coming up with the simplest and cleverest method of selling every type of property and business. No informed property owner of sound mind will go near an estate agency again. Nor will anyone looking to lease commercial premises or sell a business use a commission-charging ‘negotiator’.
6. Property Investor
I regret that I was not in possession of ‘inside knowledge’ of real estate best practice when I started buying and selling property 20 years ago. Had I known then what I know now after reading this electronic publication, my current property portfolio would have been larger. I have read practically every book on property investment, attended seminars, and consulted many ‘real estate professionals’ and tax agents. Never before have I received information and advice of the kind contained in this publication that sells for a pittance ($88). The authors have exceptional analytical minds, capable of seeing well beyond the traditional property market sphere, conceptualising and coming up with a practical solution to every property seller’s seemingly unattainable objective: an uncomplicated system of selling property for a guaranteed maximum price, with minimum expenditure including zero sale commission, and free of the stress, uncertainty, and disappointment that characterises dealing with real estate agents and their salespersons, some of whom are courteous but many of whom in my experience have been difficult to deal with, in some cases devious, and in others quite obnoxious.
The authors of this Document have discredited and demolished the real estate industry’s favoured sale methods of auction and ‘price negotiation’. They have done this with extraordinary precision and unassailable argument, in the manner of a Queen’s Counsel/ Special Counsel standing before a jury, confident of securing victory for their client. Their demolition of the real estate industry’s ‘Buyer’s Market’ as the industry’s Achilles Heel #31 is brilliant. While this segment of the Document will upset the hundreds of thousands of vendors who have succumbed to industry pressure and accepted less than maximum sale prices, it will give confidence to those who have deferred placing their properties on the market for fear of selling for far less than their expectations. The authors continued adding to their Document for many years before releasing the final version for public consideration and action. This suggests that their primary motivation for producing the Document was not financial. The property industry can be grateful for the delay which has spanned a long period of intense real estate activity, unheralded property inflation, and a real financial bonanza for estate agencies and their sales personnel.
For those looking to step into the shoes of agents and sales people who have earned fortunes from sale commissions, the goose which has been laying golden eggs throughout real estate ‘booms’ will now become barren as the property market changes in a way that will never see a return to its old ways. Everyone except members of the real estate industry will rejoice that finally a very astute and highly professional method of selling property has been introduced that highlights the fact that estate agents and their salespeople are not only non-essential to a highly successful property sale, but they are also counter-productive.
7. Trainee Pathologist
My wife and I are currently looking to buy our first home and we will take out a mortgage only from a bank or other Institution that agrees to delete ‘Mortgagee Auction’ and substitute Buyer’s Highest Offer as the authors of this Document advise. Reading parts of this Document has been deja vu for me, especially the sections on the large commissions and high incomes real estate agents and their salespersons can earn. I had an uncle who passed away at the age of 55; he had worked as a real estate agent for 25 years after starting off as a used car salesman. On those rare occasions when he visited my parents, he would sound off about how much money he earned in ‘good weeks’ and even in ‘not-so-good weeks’. Considering the years of tertiary education my father had, and that he never earned more than $70,000 a year as an IT consultant, then listening to my uncle brag how he could earn $30,000 for a week’s work, I can understand why the authors of the Document have included a section on the injustice of real estate commissions, detailed the extraordinary salaries earned by estate agents and salespersons, and compared these with salaries of teachers, nurses and doctors; there is simply no comparison. By the time I complete my pathology training, I will have devoted 12 years of my life to becoming a medical specialist, but will never earn even a quarter of what a ‘super-slick’ real estate agent can earn just by ‘closing’ one or two ‘deals’ each week. It just doesn’t seem fair, especially as their ‘education’ and ‘training’ equate to almost nothing.
8. Property Market Commentator
To provide a realistic preview of this publication’s contents and its likely impact on the way property should be sold, as opposed to how property is currently sold by the real estate industry, it is appropriate to draw on the analogy of a super marathon heavyweight prize fight extending over 47 major rounds, and 240 minor rounds. The authors square up to the real estate industry and early into the first round, the challengers give notice that they are in possession of damning sales data and other information that will help deliver a knock-out blow to their highly vulnerable opponent. Before the knock-out occurs, scores of powerful point-scoring punches to the ribs and face, and bone-jarring uppercuts to the chin are delivered in quick succession. The defender is soon on the ropes, bruised, battered, bloodied, gasping for breath. Blows continue to hit hard, and are intensified when the authors review sections from sensational ‘tell-all’ books written by estate agents and property journalists turned whistleblowers. These writers expose the questionable business practices and dishonourable tactics of some agents towards their vendor clients. They also substantiate the authors’ views as to why auctions are highly disadvantageous for sellers but advantageous for buyers. By the time the reader reaches the Document’s 47th Achilles Heel and the last of the 240 Counterclaims / Counterpoints, hundreds of crushing blows – all legitimate and above the belt – have landed and the defender is down for the count.
The Document is remarkable for many reasons, not the least of which is the analysis of comprehensive auction sales data collected over a 25 year period which destroys the industry’s credibility on the value of auctions for vendors, and the extent to which vendors are misinformed and in some cases mistreated by their own estate agents by being threatened with legal action with caveats placed on their properties. The authors’ critique of traditional real estate practice, with exposure of all its faults, aberrations, and injustices, is comprehensive and convincing, and their simple and rational alternative to auction and ‘price negotiation’ is very clever. In their masterful debate, the authors present faultless arguments as to why ALL property vendors should use the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method – a very simple and logical, highly professional and inexpensive method of selling any type of property that has none of the many disadvantages of auctions and negotiated sales, notably high selling costs and uncertainty over whether or not maximum sale price has been achieved.
The Document’s organisation and presentation, focusing on the real estate industry’s 47 Achilles Heels, will undoubtedly go down in history as the single most important exposition and debate that changed real estate practice forever, including abolition of the much criticised and detested high commissions on the sale of property, thereby cutting off agents’ and salespersons’ financial life-support. Consumers who have had bad real estate experiences will view the introduction of a superior property selling system that NEITHER requires negotiations over sale price NOR payment of a sale commission as the real estate industry’s comeuppance.
9. Writer
Conceptually brilliant. An intelligent, simplified analysis of comprehensive sales data, and total demolition of the real estate industry’s public auction system and ‘price negotiations’. An expose of the meagre training of real estate sales personnel. Accurate ‘diagnosis’ of the industry’s 47 Achilles Heels and an appropriate remedy (the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method). Rationally‐based rejection of the industry’s commission charges with “music to the ears” of property vendors ‐ property in all price categories can be sold for a guaranteed maximum sale price and zero sale commission without involvement of a sale negotiator : just use the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method ‐ the most uncomplicated, most reliable and very unique system of selling any kind of property. Why has it taken so long for someone to expose the real estate industry’s approach to the sale of property as a complete sham? And why did these consumer advocates‐authors wait so long before telling the world about their astute sale method? This Document is essential reading for everyone who owns property, for those who might want to sell property, and for those who are planning to buy. Each one must note the information and advice offered before signing a sale contract or a mortgage agreement.
10. Medical Specialist
Whenever I read an original scientific paper or review article, I always summarise new information relevant to my work. After reviewing this Document, I did the same and entered into my laptop : NEVER auction property. NEVER allow an estate agent or salesperson to negotiate the sale price of property on my behalf. NEVER AGAIN will I need to pay a commission on the sale of property. ASK the accountant why he hasn’t been advising me on how much indirect wealth tax I can avoid when selling property!
For decades, estate agents have been increasing their commissions and income by 10%, 20%, 30%, even 80% p.a. through property inflation. Subsequent falls in prices following the GFC were in the range of 5% to 10% but 2009-2010 saw a recovery and the latest economic picture has seen property inflation at around one per cent with larger increases in some areas. Imagine the public outrage if GP doctors and medical specialists tried to raise their fees and charges by 10%, 20%, 30%, or more each year. It’s beyond belief that estate agents have been allowed to get away with this huge rort. However, as the Document’s authors explain, property sale commissions can now be reduced to ZERO when vendors understand that ‘negotiators’ favour buyers more than sellers, when vendors abandon auctions and negotiated sales, and when vendors adopt the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method.
The Document offers the most extraordinary financial advice I’ve ever read, and for just $88. If the cost of accessing the information and advice was $1,088 or $10,088, it would still be an incredible bargain. The percentage returns on this $88 investment are unparalleled when one realizes the extra capital that can be earned when selling property in a way that puts the vendor rather than buyers and negotiators in pole position, and not the other way around as is the real estate industry’s custom. For a one-off $88 investment, the returns in terms of extra capital on every property sale are in the order of 20,000 %, 50,000 %, 100,000 %, and 250,000 %. The Document’s distributors should recruit Michael Caton who starred in the Australian film ‘The Castle’ and is remembered for his famous line: “Tell him he’s dreaming”. A television advert with Caton reciting the mind boggling investment returns and saying “No, you’re not dreaming” would deliver the right punch line.
The authors have trumped estate agents in terms of innovation and lateral thinking and have totally demolished the industry’s basis for recommending auctions and price negotiations to sellers. Every property owner who reads the Document will appreciate just how much better off they would be by using the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method. Once they convert, they will never again need to use an estate agency to sell property on their behalf. The Document is a ‘must read’ for every property owner and for anyone who intends to buy property. Buyers need to guard against losing equity in their property should they fail to meet mortgage repayments. The authors correctly identify the root cause of stressed home-owners’ fears, provide the perfect antidote, and advise buyers what they need to do before they sign a mortgage agreement. This advice alone could be worth 5000 times the $88 cost of the Document.
The authors’ delayed release of the Document until overwhelming evidence against the real estate industry had been collected and passed by independent persons for review and comment. This strategy is identical to what happens in medicine, namely, withhold release of an important new drug until such time as thorough laboratory and clinical testing has shown it to be safe and effective. The real estate market can never be the same again but will thankfully be better. No one will miss an end to the ‘smoke and mirrors’ artificial mystique surrounding the sale of property created by real estate agents and their salespeople, the interminable wheeling and dealing, the difficulties and frustrations for sellers, ‘dodgy’ practices of auctioneers, AND those outrageous commissions levied on property sales. The real estate industry is headed for extinction, thanks to a group of very clever individuals who decided to go outside the conventional real estate box and then look inwards. Who said ‘the little guy’ and ‘small fry’ consumers can’t beat big business?
11. Owner of several investment properties
Over the past 25 years I have bought and sold many properties through several estate agencies. I was tempted not to use agents when selling but could never bring myself to do so because I accepted the arguments about “using a professional to attend to the complexity of a property sale”, “not trying to do it on the cheap because it’s false economy”, and “only a professional agent can negotiate the best possible price on your behalf”. After reading this Document, I realised that my assumptions about estate agents were completely wrong. I was poorly informed, naive and in fact truly ‘CONNED’ on all three counts. My gut feeling not to use agents had been correct.
This Document has helped me understand why the majority of property sellers use estate agencies rather than selling it themselves (FSBO – ‘FOR SALE BY OWNER’), and how they are seduced and sucked in by the real estate industry. Most property owners probably sell one property every 5 or 7 years or longer, usually the family residence. They don’t think too deeply about the ‘how and why’ of selling property. They have been conditioned to think ‘ESTATE AGENCY/ESTATE AGENT’, and when the need arises, they contact and sign up with one agency, entrust the sale to one employee of that firm, and naively believe what they’re told – ‘We can achieve best price for you’. The sales data and counter-arguments in the Document confirm that such claims by the real estate industry are untrue.
The authors have had 25+ years to closely observe and analyse the real estate industry’s sale and listing methods, the business practices of its sales personnel, the results of auctions of all types of property, the disparities between claims, promises and outcomes of property sales, the backgrounds and training of agents and their sales representatives, and just about everything else related to the sale and purchase of property. They have collected a great deal of valuable information and have become very ‘street smart’. Thankfully they are now sharing their vast wealth of information with real estate consumers and passing on their valuable advice for a ridiculously low fee of $88. This is an absolute pittance compared to the $10,000++ I’ve paid over the past 15 years to financial planners, financial consultants, superannuation & tax advisers for a minuscule return on fees paid. Property owners who have previously engaged estate agents to list and sell their property because they believed their claims of ‘market knowledge’, ‘professionalism’, and ‘negotiating skills’, etc, have now been presented with completely different set of facts and scenarios. They have also been presented with a superior selling option in the form of the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method – totally professional, guaranteed to achieve maximum sale price, commission-free, problem-free.
In two very clever moves relating to the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method, the Document’s authors have made what must be equivalent to the most brilliant chess moves ever played. By simply altering the ‘PLAYERS’ and the way property is OFFERED for sale, they have upturned traditional real estate practice that focuses on 3-way ‘price negotiations’ conducted between negotiator, buyer and seller, or 4-way negotiations with an added player – a Buyer’s Agent. The 2 brilliant moves make sellers’ agents surplus to property owners’ requirements, and at the same time exclude buyers’ agents from participating in property sales and driving the sale price down; these very astute moves eliminate two highly negative factors for vendors and guarantee that maximum gross and net sale price can be achieved every time a property is offered for sale.
The real estate industry will be thunderstruck and mortified to learn that it has been outsmarted, outwitted, outfoxed, outmanoeuvered, trumped, and checkmated. Its agents and salespersons have now been rendered impotent in the sale of property, indeed shown to be counter-productive to vendors’ best interests because their sale methods clearly fail to deliver ‘top price’ yet still require sellers to pay HUGE commissions. It will now be a case of ‘OUT WITH THE OLD’ – Auctions, Tender, ‘By negotiation’, ‘Offers to Purchase Invited’, ‘Expressions of Interest’ – and ‘IN WITH THE NEW’ – the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method. The monetary worth of the Document is infinitely higher than its purchase price of $88, potentially in the order of $100,000 and even millions when one considers just how much more investment capital one person and other family members can make in their lifetime, helped of course by not having to pay large commissions on each sale. In the case of high-priced commercial, rural and other types of property, the Document’s value is in the range of tens of millions of dollars, and is a bonanza for those who intend to sell property.
12. Historian
The Industrial Revolution took place over a period of 100 years. Since then, the time taken for major societal changes to occur has become progressively shorter. It’s only 20 years since email became widely available and the digital revolution continues at a rapid pace. Significant change is now about to occur in the property market. An industry which seemed assured of eternal existence and high profitability is suddenly facing extinction. Despite bad experiences being the ‘norm’ when dealing with estate agents and salespeople, real estate consumers had come to acknowledge grudgingly that ‘negotiators’ were necessary in the sale, acquisition and leasing of property. NOT SO. After years of listening to and rejecting ‘Location, Location, Location; ‘Position, Position, Position; ‘Auction for top price!’; ‘Let us negotiate the best possible price for you’, a very clever group of consumer advocates has published a ground-breaking Document which informs consumers that the real estate industry’s ‘house’ is the proverbial ‘House of Cards’, built on the flimsiest of foundations, and operated by persons who despite possessing the barest of ‘qualifications and ‘training’, are entrusted – surprisingly and irrationally – with the sale of property worth hundreds of thousands, millions, even hundreds of millions of dollars.
A comprehensive Document that is at times over-repetitive contains the essential evidence and arguments which prove beyond doubt that the real estate industry does not achieve for its clients what it claims and promises to do. Far from it, the evidence presented by way of numerous property sales since the 1980’s shows very clearly that vendors who entrust the sale of their properties to agents and salespersons, are sold short / short-changed by tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands and millions of dollars. And for this inferior service, the industry charges high and grossly unfair ‘success fees’ calculated as percentages of sale prices. In the third and last major Section of this e-publication, the authors engage in a written debate with the industry. Every claim and point made by industry members in promotional advertisements and advertorials is demolished convincingly. The Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method is offered by the publication’s authors as the ideal universal professional sale method, guaranteeing maximum possible sale price without the need for vendors to deplete their sale proceeds through payment of a commission plus 10% GST surcharge on commission. History will record that this realistic perspective of the property market resulted in the demise of an industry thought to be invincible, but was ultimately brought down by convincing argument and overwhelming property sales evidence which ironically, was released by the industry itself in its eagerness to impress potential clients.
History will also record that this publication was the equivalent of a Royal Commission Report into the flawed way property is bought and sold by the real estate industry. After 25 years of gathering and analysing sales data and investigating the way the real estate industry lists and offers property for sale, the ‘Members of a Royal Commission on the real estate industry’ concluded that the general public and the business community are very poorly served by the industry (“dudded” according to the authors). The proposed alternative property sale system eliminates sale commissions, avoids high sale costs, and guarantees maximum sale prices. Vendors could not wish for more, nor could buyers who need to take out a mortgage; the latter are very wisely cautioned to make sure their contract states Buyer’s Highest Offer instead of Mortgagee Auction in the event of foreclosure. Banks and other lending Institutions be warned – you have now been placed on notice! If you want to continue making billion dollar profits, you need to take note of what your borrowers need. Will the major Banks resist in unison, or will one or more break rank to gain a competitive edge in the mortgage stakes? Interesting times lie ahead.
13. Retired Lawyer
The Document refers to a prediction made in 1995 by digital revolution author Nicholas Negroponte that in the future, a new method of selling property would evolve, one that does not depend on estate agents. Fifteen years later, such a method has been introduced by a group of consumer advocates, and in so doing, they have anointed and installed into the property market professional participants who do not base their fees as percentages of property sale prices. Very clever and a godsend for property sellers.
I was a member of a law firm’s Property Division in 1995 and could never understand why we always did the ‘hard yards’ for all the big sales and leasing deals, yet it was the estate agents who creamed off astronomical fees for doing very little. The BHO Group has now very sensibly rearranged the deck chairs and thrown the agents overboard. I can’t resist saying about time. Real estate will no longer be an unfair game dominated by wheelers and dealers. On the contrary, it promises to be a rational, open, uncomplicated and dignified business where the professional participants, sellers, and buyers all know exactly what is going on, and with vendors incurring very low selling costs. This development will make the real estate industry obsolete. Agents will cry foul, but once tempers cool and they read the Document carefully, they will acknowledge that they have been out-smarted by lateral-thinking consumer advocates. The authors have engaged in a marathon debate, focusing attention on everything industry players say and do related to the sale and leasing of property, then put forward their counterviews on why they believe there is a better way of “doing it”. I would predict that in the near future even members of the real estate industry will use the Buyer’s Highest Offer method when they come to sell their own properties; they would be foolish not to.
The Document’s authors are highly critical of the industry’s approach to ‘closing deals’, but everything they write is legitimate from a legal perspective and highly convincing in support of the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method. No estate agent has been defamed in the Document, but the entire real estate industry has been shamed, and deservedly so. Furthermore, the Document does not represent malicious falsehood which lawyers specialising in this area are always eager to pursue. The Document overflows with (incriminating) information, confessions and sales data supplied by the real estate industry itself, and the focus is on flawed sale methods which disadvantage sellers; the fact that such methods are used by the real estate industry simply means agents and their sales representatives are inevitably carried along in the strong tide of criticism.
This Document is the equivalent of a two semester course on Successful Property Selling for a bargain-price tuition fee of $88. The potential investment returns are in the range of tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions of dollars, without doubt a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for investors. For buyers, the party will soon be over because they will now be compelled to pay their price limits, but other opportunities have opened up, the most important being avoiding large losses of equity in the event of foreclosure. Every prospective mortgage holder should note the precautionary advice offered and act accordingly.
14. Retired Real Estate Agent
I’m very lucky this publication was not released to the public 20 years ago when I was making huge amounts of money selling residential property to begin with then commercial property later. Everything the authors say is true and accurate. I must confess that on several occasions when I sealed a deal within 24 or 48 hours of listing a property for sale, I suffered pangs of guilt and embarrassment, especially when vendors complained about having to fork out commissions of $20,000, $30,000, $50,000, and on one occasion $100,000 when I brokered a deal over an industrial property on the same day of listing.
News of a masterful way of selling all types of property for absolute maximum price and zero commission will spread faster than a bushfire. The authors are to be congratulated on their property sales research, their dogged pursuit of the truth over the way the real estate industry deliberately complicates the sale of property, and the way some estate agents and their sales representatives deceive vendors. As advocates for property vendors, the authors have proven their case that the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method is vastly superior to anything the real estate industry can offer. CHECKMATE.
The biggest irony relates to the low price for the information and advice in the Document that has taken more than 25 years to research and publish. In explaining to real estate consumers how to avoid underselling through auction and price negotiation, the authors have undersold themselves. Their Document’s price should be $888 or more, not $88. It’s a ‘sure-win Systems Lotto ticket’ – outlay $88, use the Buyer’s Highest Offer sale method each time you or a member of your family sells a property, and see a return of $10,000, $20,000, $30,000, $50,000, $100,000, $250,000, half a million, one million or more over and above the amount you could expect to achieve selling by auction or price negotiation using an estate agency.
I can picture my former agency directors looking rather pale and sickly as they read this Document in their plush offices overlooking the CBD skyline. Lunch at the swish restaurant with the expensive bottle of red is likely to be cancelled. Once you start reading this lengthy Document, it’s impossible to stop. None of the Document’s valuable information is covered in the training programs for real estate sales personnel, nor in the extra courses which they can take if they want to become agents. Every section contains truths, realities and damning revelations, and as you peruse the illustrations in Part B and then roll with the counterpunches in Part C, you come to the inescapable conclusion that for the young Turks who sneered at us ‘old guys’, told us our time was up and who infest today’s property industry, it will soon be GAME OVER. Never for one moment did I ever imagine it could end like this.