The conditioning process adopted by some agents is one reason for the bad reputation that real estate agents have in Australia. Conditioning has become part of the real estate market because many agents lie to property owners about the value of their property.
The Process
When valuing a property some real estate agents will quote a value in excess of the propertys true value in the belief that the owners will list their property with the agent that gives them the highest valuation.
A typical Australian real estate agents selling agreement will tie the property owner to that agent for 90-120 days. If the property is sold during this period the agent will earn their commission whatever the sale price.
Having secured the listing by over quoting the propertys value the agent knows that they must get the owner to accept a lower price for a sale to occur.
The conditioning process begins. The agent will ensure that plenty of “buyers” come to view the property; this activity is often interpreted by property owners as the agents earning their commission. However many of these buyers will have budgets below the asking price of the property,...