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Staff Reporter
A Victorian real estate agency is being sued by a client who claims they overvalued her house.
According to a report by the Herald-Sun last week, Pamela Ruth McAlister claims Jonathon Graham of Bekdon Richards Estate Agents told her he believed her property in Glen Iris would sell for between $1 million and $1.1 million.
With this advice in mind, Ms McAlister said she made an offer to buy another house for $1.39 million and entered into an exclusive auction authority agreement with Bekdon Richards.
However, only one offer, of $850,000, was made during the sales campaign and passed in at auction in March on a vendor bid of $850,000.
Ms McAlister later sold her house through another agent for $890,000.
She has launched legal action against Bekdon Richards in Hawthorn and is seeking more than $100,590 in damages, which is made up of costs she claims she incurred, including stamp duty and advertising fees.
Mr Graham told the Herald-Sun “As far as we are concerned we have done nothing wrong”.
In her statement of claim, Ms McAlister said she would not have made an offer on the other house if it had not been for the advice she received.
“The representations were false in that the value of Gardiner Parade was substantially less than $1 to $1.1 million,” the statement said.
The directors of Bekdon Richards Real Estate were unavailable for comment when contacted by Real Estate Business.
- <p>I agree with Steve Murphy re, making it law to have a pest and building report prior to marketing ( Pink slip ) BUT WHY would you attach a valuation to the property? <p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>How would you ever achieve a premium price on a property if you are already telling people what a third party`s "opinion".<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>What would happen to "market forces" or <p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>"what a buyer is willing to pay" etc.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Providing a valuers official valuation prior to marketing would affect normal market forces.</p>0
- <p>Valuation (noun) - an ESTIMATION of the worth of something.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p><p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Estimations is basically guessing, no matter how many tools you use. Also, what people are willing to pay for your property is totally different from the actual value of the property. So this Ms McAlister is basically using an estimation (P) to predict some other outcome (Q).<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p><p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>This Ms McAlister has no case.</p>0
- <p>The agent is quite within his/her rights to offer an opinion - we can have no idea whether this particular agent was "buying" the listing, or whether it seemed to be a realistic price at the time. However, in the end, a property is only worth what a buyer wants to pay -if there is even an interested purchaser for that particular property and that particular time. Next week, or indeed next month, there may be several people prepared to pay the price asked. I am not a member of the real estate industry, but believe that common sense should prevail. What if there had been no offers, and no interest shown for twelve months? What would she have sued for then, given she had committed the error of offering on another property without knowing she had the funds. Don't always look for someone else to blame for one's own folly.</p>0
- <p>A couple of things to note: sworn valuations are no more an indicator of CMV than an agent's 'opinion'. To blindly act based in the advice of an obviously inexperienced agent and to place life changing bets based on his fettered advice is foolhardy and any court will see it this way. If not, and he is sued successfully, agents will no longer be prepared to offer opinions of value and will simply provide comp sales and the suggestion that the owner makes their own mind up as to value. We (agents) 99% of the time try to accurately assess value. We sometimes get it wrong. Caveat Emptor people.</p>0
- <p>Common practice unfortunately used by struggleing agents who want to build profile.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Most vendors want to hear a high price and this agency clearly furnished their desires.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>It is practices like this that give the industry a bad name,maybe instead of the whole industry being blamed an example should be made of the actual offending agency.Will be watching with interest.</p>0
- <p>Why is it that you need a pink slip in NSW to sell a car & yet nothing other than a contract fr sale to sell a house<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Until will have formal valuations, pest &building reports prior to marketing the industry is still in the dark ages..<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Vendors in the past didn't want to have a contract prepared<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Until it became law. Make it law!</p>0
- <p>Always will be the case where the highest price gets the listing unless you know better. We have agents around here that go in always with a we believe we can get you more than them attitude and Peard who advertise your property is worth more with them. So in the future it is only gonna get worse.</p>0
- <p>Why in hell would you go and buy another property until your own went under the hammer<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Owners need to realise we are not registered Valuers and we can only go on what similar properties in the area sold for to give our appraisal<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>And i agree with Leah why did not the Selling Agent or McAllister solicitor advise her to put in a clause in the Contract subject to Sale<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>I gaurantee if her cat falls pregnant she will blame the poor old agent for that as well<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>Sellers need to wake up and use a bit of common sense when matters like this arise</p>0
- <p>Plenty of comments because it has been and will be an ongoing issue. Owners believe what they want to believe and not always the facts from a more learned and better prepared Estate Agent. Now I'm not suggesting that in this case the vendor seek other appraisals. This is a legal case that I will follow with great interest because it may set precedence's that will shake up our "INDUSTRY towards a PROFESSION"..FOR THE BETTER</p>0
- <p>There's a big difference between an apprasial as what the seller got and a Valuation what she should have got before making an offer on another property.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>If she has the capabilty of buying $1m plus homes, she should have enough sense to see how the system works and take the nessary precautions.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>We don't know if the Real Estate Agents were aware of what she was doing.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>If they were, then there is a duty of care on their behalf to ensure she was not caught up in the position she faced.<p class='break'>&nbsp;</p>It will make interest reading when it goes to Court</p>0
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