Understanding Underquoting

By Janet Spencer

Do you understand underquoting?  Many of our clients and people we speak to about real estate do not.

At an auction last weekend, we were asked why the auctioneer made a high vendor bid to kick off the auction.  The campaign had started with a quoted range of $820,000 to $860,000 but a buyer had made an offer at the upper end of the range during the sales campaign.  Therefore the auctioneer was right to start the auction off at $850,000 and this was fair for buyers present.

Recently Consumer Affairs Victoria (CAV) has made changes to the requirements for selling agents when selling real estate in Victoria in response to effective lobbying from the REIV on behalf of member agents.

CAV has made some changes to the approved Statement of Information or SOI form effective from the 16th September 2019.

Overview of the Key Changes:

• Property Type: This is now a text field rather than an option between House or Unit. In the “property type” box, you must specify the type of residential property that relates to the median selling price included in the statement. Refer point 14 of the Fact Sheet
• Comparable Property Sales: If less than three comparable property sales are identified you may include them on the SOI however, you must still select Statement B on the form. Refer point 20 of the Fact Sheet
• Date Prepared: The date the SOI was prepared must be included on the form. The date must be updated every time the SOI is updated. Refer point 17 of the Fact Sheet
• Design & Branding: The wording, sequencing and layout of information of the Director approved SOI cannot be altered in any way. You may add additional branded pages as required, but the form itself must not be changed.
• If you are trying to buy a property and need help making informed decisions on what to pay, please get in touch. Buyer Solutions are proud of our long history of buying well and not overpaying, fully endorsed by the valuations from banks lending on the properties we buy for both investor and home buying clients.

For independent advice on buying or selling real estate, contact Janet Spencer at Buyer Solutions +61 3 9816 8555 or email jspencer@buyersolutions.com.au

Buyers Advocate, Buying property, First home buyers, Home buying, Housing Market, Investment, Investment property, Overseas Buyers, Victorian Regulation

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