Who does the REA work for - Really

[Fuzz]

As a PM I've had an interesting time with a REA whom my client has engaged to sell the tenanted property.

After a number of discussions/texts/emails over the RTA entitlements I got this response by email:
"Also I do not work for you, Only the Vendor and Purchaser"

New I'm glad this REA doesn't work for me but I'm surprised the last portion of the sentence. Perhaps this is a new line all us PIs should use when quoted the REA rhetoric "I work for the vendor".

I'm yet to find a REA who works for the purchaser, the only one they work for is themselves, the more they can ring out of the purchaser the greater their bread basket. End of line is if they don't sell they starve. Poor sods.

Perhaps this working for both parties to the sale is one of the great changes in culture which has been bought about by the intro of the REAA. LOL, oops just fell out of my chair.

Now all you out there who looking to purchase, get the REA working for you, all you out there selling beware the agent may not actually be working for you.

[halfempty]

Most Real Estate agents are private contractors, they work under an umbrella agency (Barfoots, Remax) but they get paid, work and pay for liability insurance under their own private trading name.
The liability for the larger real estate industry for them to do it any other way would be huge.

This means that each agent has a fidiciary duty to act in the best benefit of and to make profits for their company/entity.

And so agents work for that company, or themselves.

[Perry]

Seems to me less a matter of who they work for,
in any formal sense, and more a matter of whose
interests are foremost: seller or buyer.

[halfempty]

^^^ I'm still with the agents interests being first

[Perry]

They work FOR themselves, and, after
that obvious 'interest,' put the seller
or buyer's interest first/next.

[halfempty]

Yeah and it's that First (Slash) Next that's the reason why we have the FMA

[Perry]

FMA? Or the REAA whatever?

[halfempty]

Same Same.....

[ladyagent]

Poor Sods!!

And loving it.

[Hec]

Rea's work for the vendor. Thats it. ....... honest ...
eye twitches, nose rub, pocket billiards etc included

[toryfleming]

agents work for themselves i think, but that doesn't mean they aren't going to do right by the sellers. the more money they can get the better, but don't forget that if they can please both the buyer and seller then they are going to do so. that's why i always try to use online agents, as they work for less and are more interested in doing a good job, and quickly.

[essence]

The REA works for themselves.

We've recently had our PPOR on the market. We had an offer come through, which we accepted, it was subject to LIM, Engineers Report, Building Inspection Report, Solicitors approval, finance.

Right from the word go, it's been a saga of errors from the purchasers REA, purchasers Lawyer, the building inspector.

The purchasers had two visits accompanied by the REA. The purchasers also made an unauthorised, unaccompanied by the REA, visit to the property (which I observed!! WTF). I rang the company and complained. The purchasers agents never called me to apologise for her clients behaviour, which I thought would've been the smarter thing to do. Then five days later, the same REA asked for the House Inspector to come through "and could the purchasers come through again?" If they purchasers hadn't come to the property by themselves, I may have said yes, as it was I was so peeved off I said no. She still didn't apologise for her clients behaviour but tried to explain it away because "they were new to the country". I don't give a flying fig, why didn't you apologise to me?

The purchasers signed the contract on xxxx date (three weeks before unconditional date) and four days before unconditional date, the purchasers lawyer asked for an extension for the LIM - which they knew took 10 working day with the local Council!! It was all slanted towards getting an extension for this, that and the other. In the end we just said no, we are not giving extensions.

Last night we had the listing REA come around (the night before it's was due to unconditional) and try and talk us into giving the extension.

Enough was enough. We don't have to sell the property, it would've just been convenient for us to do so.

We are now going to take the property off the market and rent it out.

I will definitely not be listing with that company again, if someday in the future I decide to sell the house.

An absolute exercise in frustration.

[TheLiberalLeft]

What exactly does "The purchasers also made an unauthorised visit to the property" mean?

They walked around it and peered in the windows? Why is that such a crime? You say you witnessed it. Were you home and refused to let them in? You obviously knew who they were, so why not welcome them in for another look around - the fact they were there shows they were interested enough to take another look. Perhaps they didn't WANT the agent involved at that point.

I may have the wrong end of the stick, but yours sounds like a wee overreaction.

[TheLiberalLeft]

Why didn't you grant extensions? You'd agreed to the offer and obviously wanted to sell. If the dates/deadlines were sound to start with presumably you'd have gone thru with it. Granting extensions would have seen it pushed out to those "normal" dates in any case. What an odd story.

[essence]

An "unauthorised visit" means they came to the property without the REA. For every viewing, the agents had rung beforehand. It's just common courtesy, it also allows me to know when viewings are taking place.

Yes, I understand they were keen. However I don't believe anybody would allow another person/s onto their property to just wander around. I only knew who they were because they have a distinctive car.

It is not my job to show people through my house - that's why I went to a RE company. REA's do that as their job, that's not mine. If it was, I wouldn't need a REA.

I don't believe I was over-reacting. You want to view the house - great!! Go through the REA.

How would anyone feel if someone just rocked up to their property and said "Oh hi, we're just looking around"? Most people would be on the back foot wondering WTF??!! Others would call the cops.