Homeowner Nicole McLeod knows what it’s like to waste her time looking for properties outside her budget — all because of the lack of price guides on home listings.
Ms McLeod bought her home in The Gap five years ago to hold three generations of her family, with her children in university and her father needing to move in.
But when she tried to sell it for a new one, she learned how a lack of price guide could harm her search in today’s market.
When Nicole and Michael McLeod decided to move from 100 Dillon Rd, The Gap, they struggled to buy a new home when agents wouldn’t give them a clear price guide. Picture: Steve Pohlner
“We were on the market for 3 months before [hiring Ray White],” she said. “When we first listed, the real estate agents were telling us it was worth somewhere between $5.5 million and $6.25m.”
“But they would adamantly refuse to tell people a price, and said, ‘The way that you do this at this end of the market is you let the buyers tell you what they think the property’s worth’.
“Then they were coming back and saying, ‘the market says it’s not worth more than $3.5m.”
Currently, 63 per cent of Brisbane’s three and four-bedroom properties go on the market with no price guide. This process has been said to encourage ‘underquoting’, an illegal practice where agents lead buyers to believe a home out of their price range is more affordable than it is, in order to attract more buyers and drive up the property’s popularity.
While trying to sell their home, previous agents refused to give a price guide to potential buyers, and the home remained on the market for three months. Picture: Steve Pohlner
Queensland is also Australia’s only state where homes will go to auction without a price guide, leaving bidders unsure when the homes they seek will rise beyond their affordability.
Ms McLeod said she’d experienced underquoting in her search for a new home.
“There are multiple real estate agents who put back-end prices that are nearly half the price of what they’re expecting to sell the property for [on realestate.com.au],” she said, “even though it’s my understanding it would not be lawful.”
“You spend a lot of time going to look at properties that turn out to actually be outside your budget … how do I know if I can afford this house if you can’t tell me if I can afford to get it? I had a very direct conversation with several real estate agents.”
Their home went under offer for $5 million when they worked with an agent who was willing to be transparent with potential buyers over the cost.
After Ms McLeod let her previous agents go, Ray White Warner agent Natalie Johnston got the home under offer for $5m after a week on the market.
Ms Johnston’s listing did not have the home’s $5m price guide listed publicly, but it was provided to interested parties during negotiation for transparency.
“I think you’ll find more and more as time goes on that more properties will be priced again,” Ms Johnston said. “I think that’s because there is an abundance of buyers. It’s a sellers market. [A price guide] can cull down that buyer pool per property, so we’re not getting 50 groups where 12 of them aren’t qualified to purchase.”
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