Real Estate agent referral sites a scam

13 Oct 2016| Posted by: Geoff Baldwin

The Real Estate Institute of WA is to be congratulated on taking action to expose the latest scam in real estate, so called agent referral websites that claim they can put you in touch with the best agents in your area but who are little more than hired guns according to RE/MAX WA MD, Geoff Baldwin.

There are now a plethora of these sites with more popping up each month and it is extremely important that the public see them for what they are as they certainly are not free to either the seller or the agent.

In some cases the agent pays these sites to promote themselves and many of them demand thousands by way a slice of the commission paid by the client resulting in the agent having much less to actually market and administer the sale.

Quite obviously, the best agents do not need to rely on these sites to attract business so it is often the lower skilled battlers who find it hard to gain listings and even harder to attract buyers to those listings.

What is a disgrace is that the people behind these sites claim a holier than thou approach to looking after the client while at the same time adding huge cost to the process which is inevitably paid by the seller.

The best way to select your selling agent is to look out for who is active in your area, arrange three appraisals and then choose the agent who can demonstrate the appropriate skills and importantly go with the person who you feel comfortable with rather than one who is paying a third party a large slice of the commission you are paying.

If there is room for agents to be paying huge rewards to referral websites for sending them your business then surely those excess funds should stay with you the seller.