I guess its stating the obvious but the Real Estate industry is not best known for its high moral stance Agents cop flack but this article will uncover a murky underside behind the ancillary services of agents and will look at the symbiotic relationship between agents and some of the sites that get paid by the agents
Its not usually a topic of conversation that agents not only rely on these sites but also actively lobby them to keep the publics own listings out. Its interesting to know that property agents and the property sites that they use have a vested interest in locking out the public from any independent use of the sites.
This results in a poor outcome for private sellers who of course cannot hope to sell their property without the much needed national exposure of these mega sites
At this very moment a real estate portal in Australia has acted to go increase the already existant inequality between fsbo or agent assisted sales and regulation property sales.
Not content to prohibit private sales the market power website has sought to hinder a small company which helps fsbos via an agent assisted sale. With no option to prevent the extremely poor behaviour the PropertyNow Australian portal has sought the intervention of the industry regulator named the ACCC.
The lettering signifies Australian Consumer and Competition Commission. It is hoped and appears very likely that the market power will be found to have breached the law.
The restraints are both powerful and enforceable. There are enormous financial penalties and other remedies that might be levied if a company breaks the very onerous Consumer and Competition Act.
It seems bizarre that an already powerful company and one which is a recognisable would jeopardise its own business operations with the prospect of gaining next to nothing even if successful and one which in any case, has so little upside potential.
It only necessitates a proof that the huge property site is in fact a Market Power, in order for the allegations to be legal a positively serious breach of law.
If so then shareholders value of the media conglomeration could fall dramatically.
Given anything like that kind of newsthe support of the real estate agencies might evaporate.. The attempts to deny the tinier site may prove greatly litigious and a PR disaster for the bigger player.
The efforts by those who design these agent onlyportals in an effort to keep private seller listings as persona non grata are inevitably sure to fall foul.
The attempts of industry websites to keep the minor league out of the loop is one thing, but when it begins to hit sellers in the hip pocket, then its a radically different situation.
The cause of the real estate agent only websites, to exclude diy sellers will eventually die Eventually the portals and agents will need to accept the umpires verdict.
The regulators pressure will be the main causative factor for the changes to occur.
The co-operating amongst real estate agencies and portals in order to uphold the world order is a worldwide contention in real estate marketing but gradually agents are beginning starting to lose their foothold and so fsbos are proudly achieving better results.
PropertyNow has added info about their fight with Domain and you can also see what the site provides in the area of Home Loan offerings as well.
This real estate commentary was researched and written by.
Sedwick Arthurs.
contracting for.
Gospel Property Marketing. We Obey All Your Marketing Commandments.