Property Sales Agents and Related Workers
Facilitate the sale and lease of commercial and private properties, and agricultural products.
Auction day on the lawn
You are a licensed real estate agent and auctioneer in a country town, at a Saturday morning auction of a family home with eleven registered bidders. It is 10:30am and the auction starts in half an hour. The seller is nervous, the street is lined with cars and your assistant has just told you there is a problem with one of the bidders.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
Look, I want a lot for this house. If the bidding is slow, can you have someone in the crowd, a friend of mine, make a few bids to get the price moving? Nobody will know. It will make buyers more confident.
Say fake bids are not allowed, and talk about a real reserve and price guidance
Mr Zhao is disappointed but understands. You agree on a reserve price, and an honest auction, which is the only kind that holds up later.
Say you cannot do that, but quietly hint that his friend can bid honestly if he wants the house
You avoided a fake bid, but the hint puts you in a grey area. If the friend's bidding looks suspicious, you will have to prove it was real.
Agree quietly, since it only nudges the price and buyers expect a bit of theatre
A bidder realises the friend is not buying. The sale is investigated, and you could lose your licence. Pretend bids are not a bit of theatre, they are a serious breach.
Before the auction begins, I have heard there was a dispute with the neighbour about the boundary fence. Is that true? I would not want to buy trouble. Please tell me what you know.
Say you do not know of any problems, because the seller did not mention them
Ms Reilly buys, then finds out about the dispute from the neighbour. You knew the seller had mentioned it in the past, and a complaint follows.
Tell her what you know about the dispute and where she can find the official records
Ms Reilly thanks you for being straight with her. She still bids, because she now understands the situation, and the sale is solid.
Tell her it is a small matter that is not worth worrying about, and move on to the next bidder
You did not lie, but you decided for her what matters. She may find it matters more to her than it does to you.
I have sixty ewes in the yards and I need a good price today. Another agent says prices have dropped but I think you can do better. If you tell the buyers they are in-lamb, even though I am not sure, the bidding will go up.
Stay silent about it in the catalogue, but let the buyers draw their own conclusions about it
Nothing false is said, but the lack of detail disappoints the buyers who expected more. Reggie gets a slightly lower price than he hoped.
Say they are in-lamb, since Reggie is the owner and should know his sheep
The buyers find out when the sheep are checked, and demand the sale be cancelled. Your name is on the catalogue, and you cannot defend a claim you knew was uncertain.
Describe the ewes only as Reggie can confirm, and suggest he gets them checked first
Reggie is irritated, then has the ewes checked. The results are good for most of them, and the claim you make is true.
How it went
The hammer fell on a fair price, a bidder knew the whole story and a farmer had his ewes checked before they were described. Property and stock agents are paid when deals close, but their reputations depend on what they say before then. Would you be able to stay honest when a seller asks you not to?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The honest walk around the farm
A fictional case set in a real estate agency in a regional town that also runs rural livestock sales and property auctions.
The situation
Hamish was a stock and station agent hired by the Morgan family to sell their sheep property after thirty years. The family hoped for a very high price and wanted it listed quickly. Walking the property with them, Hamish noticed a dam that had silted up and several kilometres of fence that needed replacing. Buyers would see those things straight away. The family had not mentioned them, and would be disappointed to hear that they might affect interest.
What they did
Hamish told them gently what a buyer would notice, and showed them photos from his walk. He explained that it was better to fix or price the problems in than to be surprised by them during negotiation. He suggested clearing the dam before the first inspections and repairing the worst section of fence. He also set out how long that would take, and what each option meant for the timing of the sale.
How it turned out
The family cleared the dam and repaired the fence. The property sold after the second inspection, a little below the first hope but without the long delays that had hurt other farms nearby. Mr Morgan said it was the first time anyone had walked him through what buyers would see.
What would you do?
- Why was it important for Hamish to say what buyers would notice?
- How would you tell a family their dream price might be too high?
- What would you like about working with rural landowners?