Browse Forums Real Estate Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 88Oct 16, 2014 10:27 am I don't think so. Since REIWA is the governing body from my research I still had to produce it when selling privately. No one ever reads it (maybe lawyers) but at least we have complied with the law. Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 89Oct 17, 2014 3:27 am Reiwa is not a governing body, it is simply a professional association for real estate agents who pay membership fees. Membership is not compulsory. The Dept of Commerce is the body that oversees all agents and controls their licenses. You only have to give general conds to the actual buyer, not all prospective buyers, and only if you use the reiwa contract, which most people do. Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 90Oct 17, 2014 10:39 am fredandwilma Reiwa is not a governing body, it is simply a professional association for real estate agents who pay membership fees. Membership is not compulsory. The Dept of Commerce is the body that oversees all agents and controls their licenses. You only have to give general conds to the actual buyer, not all prospective buyers, and only if you use the reiwa contract, which most people do. ITs exactly the same here in Qld, except that whether you use the Standard REI contract, or a boutique one, the buyer must always be given the obligatory warning forms. If in WA its not required with boutique contracts, that needs tightening up. Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 91Oct 17, 2014 2:37 pm Yes, thats what I was told by our conveyancer, whether we used the REIWA forms or not... Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 92Oct 18, 2014 2:38 am qebtel ITs exactly the same here in Qld, except that whether you use the Standard REI contract, or a boutique one, the buyer must always be given the obligatory warning forms. If in WA its not required with boutique contracts, that needs tightening up. Warning forms? What do the QLD ones say? No such thing in WA. I would like to see that introduced in WA. They could warn 1. That there is no way out of a reiwa contract once signed, even if you find that the agent/buyer/seller has conned you. 2. Never let an agent use the word warrant or warranty in the special conditions. 3. Never let an agent hold your deposit. I could write pages on this but getting off topic.... The point I have been trying to make is that the seller only needs to buy one copy of the general conds and give it to the actual buyer. They dont have to buy enough to give to every prospective buyer. Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 94Oct 20, 2014 9:27 am fredandwilma Warning forms? What do the QLD ones say? No such thing in WA. I would like to see that introduced in WA. These two forms are obligatory with any contract, and there is a 4? day cooling off period where you will lose at most a small % of the deposit ($500 or so) http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/__dat ... -buyer.pdf http://www.fairtrading.qld.gov.au/__dat ... tement.pdf fredandwilma They could warn 1. That there is no way out of a reiwa contract once signed, even if you find that the agent/buyer/seller has conned you. fredandwilma 2. Never let an agent use the word warrant or warranty in the special conditions. fredandwilma 3. Never let an agent hold your deposit. I seriously doubt WA is so backward these basic protections are not in place? then again, its on the other side of the big Mad Max desert......maybe its just a big oversized Bartertown. Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 95Oct 20, 2014 4:51 pm Yes its the wild west over here with no cooling off period and a dept of commerce that is a toothless tiger. We found out 2 days after accepting an offer that our selling agent had mislead us, withheld information from us, gave us a sales report that had 11 relavant sales deleted, and had not presented a written offer made earlier. We wanted to cancel the sale. 3 different lawyers said there was no way out and that we would be sued if we didnt settle. We had to sell and sue the agent for damages which was expensive, stressfull and time consuming. Even though there was a dispute they were able to take the commission because it was in their trust acc. If it was with a settlement agent we could have withheld it. For the warranty wording, in the old days agents used to write special conditions such as 1. all plumbing is to be in working order prior to settlement. Now some agents are writing it as 2. the seller warrants that all plumbing is to be in working order prior to settlement. It seems a subtle change but the use of the word warrants effectively renders the condition meaningless. When written as 1. the contractual condition is that the plumbing works. If it doesn't work settlement can be delayed and steps can be taken to cancel the contract, which of course also means that the agent doesn't get paid. When written as 2. the contract condition is that the seller provides a warranty. So if the plumbing doesn't work, and the seller refuses to rectify it before settlement, there is no basis to delay settlement, retain funds or cancel the contract. The buyer must settle and then try and enforce the warranty through the courts, and of course get the repairs done. The condition when written this way does not give the buyer any real protection unless they are prepared for the time and cost involved in going to court. It simply ensures that the agent gets the commission without any delay or any involvement in any issues. The solution is simple, delete the warranty wording so that settlement can be delayed until all issues are sorted out. A couple of very expenisve lessons learnt over the years and the reason I always prefer to deal privately now. Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 96Oct 20, 2014 7:30 pm We had free advice from our conveyancer re the wording of the contract, which included a cooling off period. We didn't have a problem. And the deposit was held in trust, our agent even invested it for us for a short time. Seems like fredandwilma, you've had a very bad experience with a very very dishonest agent. Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 97Oct 20, 2014 11:55 pm I'm sure there's some good ones, but it's hard to spot the dishonest ones until its too late. Both agents reported to dept of commerce, both still out there. All I ever hear from settlement agents is 'we cant give legal advice' Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 98Oct 21, 2014 8:00 pm fredandwilma I'm sure there's some good ones, but it's hard to spot the dishonest ones until its too late. Both agents reported to dept of commerce, both still out there. Hard to comment without knowing the specifics, but dealing with RE agents and paying them at their own game takes many years to master. Whether buying or selling, unless you know the tricks, always engage a solicitor to oversee both the contract of sale, and the terms of appointment the agents makes you sign with them. There are always a number of cluases that I delete or modify myself by default with those documents, they dont like it, but they cop it if they want my business. Have you checked their code of conduct? http://www.slp.wa.gov.au/pco/prod/FileS ... -a0-01.pdf Then make a complaint if you have grounds http://www.commerce.wa.gov.au/consumer- ... complaints fredandwilma All I ever hear from settlement agents is 'we cant give legal advice' Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 99Nov 19, 2015 1:39 pm I recommend for selling your own property. http://www.noagentproperty.com.au/ Re: Anyone sell their own property (no agent)? 100Jan 05, 2021 8:36 am There is a site called RENTBETTER, which charges around $500 to list on realestate and domain and lots of free ones. I found tenants thru them, so I would only have to pay $350 to sell it myself. The first tenant ran a brothel in my house, but the second tenants are worth their weight in gold. When I wanted to report the brothel tenant to the database the rental agents keep, I was told that for privacy reasons I cannot do that, so the tenants rental agencies send you may still be criminals! Where a lot of money is at stake as in the real estate game, morality goes out the window! I do not know how much Fleabay or Gumtree charge for ads. You can always try it yourself and if you are not successful, then get an agent and negotiate the commission with them. Good points were made before re agents only opening houses for one or two hours, which is very convenient for them, but not for buyers having to rush around, so open it longer yourself or offer "By Appointment". Another question is why you have to sign an exclusive sales contract, does the agent believe you could also sell it yourself? If your house is still lived in, then make sure children cannot "relocate" anything. My house will be empty as I have a newly built house to go to. My daughter's house in Melbourne was empty after tenants, so she paid a company $4,000 to temporarily put in fancy furniture and take professional photos. What is very interesting is that as a seller I have to sign a "Property Condition Report" as part of the "Offer and Acceptance" claiming in gruesome detail everything is OK. The agent is not legally obliged to inform buyers that such a report is available for viewing! When I bought what later became a "brothel", I would have appreciated such a report as the condition of the house was not the best. Not much in this responce. My suggestion is, what are you looking to build and why. This will all be impacted by the local councils planning scheme. Familiarise yourself… 6 6194 Use a product like Equisol's Vitalise to clean the deck then coat with a penetrating timber oil. It will look 10 years younger and add value to your home. Visit for… 1 16666 Hi Mofflepop, I would recommend finding a building designer to prepare plans, they should design to your specified budget. The benefit is you can tender the project out… 9 22059 |