Msg to Ed: Misleading property adverts

Posted by Aussierules (292 days ago)

Hi Ed,

Would love to get some advice from you. I am flat hunting & recently used the Asiaxpat property section for a search for properties for sale. There is this property agent who advertised the property for 4.5M but when I rang her she stated that the price is no longer current. She then called the landlord and advised the price has gone up to 5.5M. When I asked her for more info on the property, she apparently knew very little but was adament to find out my budget and preferrences etc. From what I understand, property agents are not allowed to place false advertisement. I don't not think this is an isolated case to Asiaxpat, as the same happens on gohome.com.hk. Your advice would be greatly appreciated. Alternatively, any suggestions on where I should take it up to? Thanks

Posted by ken (292 days ago)

I have seen many old properties listed on GoHome, long ago sold or leased, some well over a year. It is difficult to keep up constinently updating listings and vendor and lanlords are allways changing their minds about the property being on the market, its' condition(s) and price, as well as the prospective tenant/buyer. If you have a viable complaint you can take it to the Estate Agents Authority. ExpatAsia and GoHome and a few others offer a free and good source of advertising for Agencies and prospective tenants/buyers, it is well beyond their medium to have 100% control over such matters.

Posted by Aussierules (292 days ago)

Not expecting Asiaxpat to conduct any surveilance over their advertisers, it's not possible. However, after what has happened, inevitably I have lost faith in the site in providing creditable source of info. Fundamentally, this is not Asiaxpat's fault nor responsibility but the advertisers'. Same goes for GoHome, I am unsure why they even bother to advertise - to get leads? Anyway, thanks for your advice, I will take my comments to Estate Agents Authority or Consumer Council. BTW, don't think property sale advertising on Asiaxpat is free.

Posted by Ed (292 days ago)

We have a report abuse option on all listings... if you find misleading info please click that and it will fire a notice to us... we will then warn the agent... we allow them to post listings FOC so if they abuse that privilege we will terminate their account.

In this case if the property price has changed the agent should amend their listing on our site.

Posted by Aussierules (292 days ago)

That's brilliant, thank you Ed.

Posted by pebbles1 (290 days ago)

Welcome to HK Aussierules! Unfort this is common practise with agents over here both from lettings & sales esp if you are western! I've been here a few years now & have just about sussed out the agents that do this hence why I now use & trust 100% one lady whom I've been dealing with for over 4 years. She was referred to me by another expat as she is great with westerners & totally honest. I have referred her to many people & they keep coming back to use her. If you want her contact details feel free to mail me & I will respond. I can guarantee that I get nothing for introducing her to you even if you do business with her as I don't work that way & believe in Karma - the what goes around comes around stuff. I buy & sell properties here in HK as well as rent & even though she searches for properties for me, I also check stuff out but I get her to call the agents first to get the correct details - price etc etc as I know if they hear my western voice things will be different.
Anyway goodluck with your property search.

Posted by Patrick Yiu (290 days ago)

As an estate agent, I can tell you is illegal to post faulse advertisment in this business, agents can have their licence suspended. The law doesn't bond the same to the landlord/vendor who frequently changing their prices. In a hot market , they change every single week. If we call them in this interval without client viewing, they give us a bad look and avoid taking up our phone calls.

Landlord/vendor here allowed to give as many agents as they like, at different time and given different prices. Put up $4M for a property asking $5M won't get any clients but compliants. Whoever silly enough to do that deserves one.

Asiaxpat having the best system in this issue, our listings deleted automatically after two weeks, you can rasie your voice as an user by clicking a botton, put us out of the game. Gohome prices are from last year, listings stay there forever, agents just needed to update the "date" to put it back up without penalty. Don't waste your time there.

Posted by Aussierules (290 days ago)

Thanks Pebbles1

Hi Patrick - thanks for your advice. Agree with you that Gohome is a waste of time. I reckon the agents use it to get leads so they can up-sell to home buyers. Frankly I've been looking on & off for approx 9 months and I have bought & sold in the past. I find dealing with property agents a real drain. First of all, you MUST do a lot of home-work before your appt. Secondly, you MUST do a lot of research after the appt. And then they play mind-games which I am so tired of. One time, this agent showed me 2 flats within the same building, 1 on 7th floor and another on 18th floor. According to him, landlords are both asking for the same price. And of course you will think the one on 18th floor is a great deal. In actual fact, it's only at market price and he's inflated the price of the one on 7th floor. I ditched him, naturally. So far, I have come across at least 50 agents, there is not a single one I can trust - and I am not the untrusting type either.......

Posted by Patrick Yiu (290 days ago)

Hey Aussierules, as a matter of fact, you can treat advertisment as a reference. If you like to get a set of true listings, only tell the agent your requirement, no need to mention a particular listing, save the trouble of listening to made up story.

There are two major factors determined the value of a property:
(1) Recent transactions (pick 3 samples within 3 months, if none, take nearby similar buildings).
(2) Bank valuation - add 5% on an upstream market, minus 5% on a downstream, decoration is not part of the consideration from the bank but it reflects on market price. Water view counts only 5% from the bank but it could be 20% in some buildings/area. Quote from 3 banks.

When you withhold these principles, disregard what the vendors are asking, make your own offer based on these data, tell your agent how you achieve this figure, let him pass the messge to the vendor.

In your case, the 7th floor may come down 10-15% on price, the 18th floor can be non-negotiable, then you'll find out the bottom line from both owners after a brief verbal offer.

Everyone selling his property try to get the most out of the market, some lower floor ask more than the higher floor, but they could be more negotiable.

Posted by Aussierules (290 days ago)

Thanks Patrick - that's useful information from a pro. Cheers