A real estate boss has called agents ‘cowboys’ who jump into the industry to make a quick buck without taking the job seriously.
A-Class Estate Agents owner Amir Jahan said he had noticed a growing trend of tradesmen, barbers and other “blue collar” workers taking up real estate as a sideline.
He told Daily Mail Australia that many had no idea of the hard work or responsibility involved and showed little or no commitment to doing the job correctly.
“They can’t even last six or seven months because they think it’s easy money,” he said.
“When they get into this and deal with all the stress, all the calls, all the clients, they say ‘it’s not for me.'”
Jahan said a lack of interest had led many “cowboy” real estate agents to establish bad habits and take shortcuts.
He said some came to home inspections without doing their research and were unable to answer basic queries, leaving buyers frustrated.
Others deliberately misled customers about the sales figure before trying to sell them other services.
A-Class Estate Agents owner Amir Jahan said he had noticed a growing trend of tradesmen, barbers and other manual workers taking up real estate as a sideline.
Jahan said he was recently showing a property when a casual-looking man appeared, and he turned out to be an agent from an upstairs unit on the same block.
“This guy came in wearing a short-sleeved shirt, baggy pants, Asics sneakers and took a customer upstairs,” he said.
“They think they just have to show the property and it will sell itself.”
Jahan said there are countless anecdotes of people making the effort to go to inspections, only to have the “cowboy” agents have no idea about the properties.
‘People ask “when was the building built?” said.
And they tell me: “I don’t know, I’ll get back to you.”
“What’s the point of people going to inspections when they can just stay home, look at the pictures and read the information online?”
“At least have some knowledge based on what you’re selling to inform people.”
Jahan said it was frustrating for potential home buyers when the property was such a large and important purchase.
“A lot of officers are knowledgeable and know what they’re doing, but a lot of cowboys know absolutely nothing,” he said.
The agent said that non-professional agents often responded with the same “stock-standard” response: “Do you want me to send you the contract?” regardless of the home buyer’s question.
‘I’m not asking you for the contract, I’m asking you for the questions I need to know. “At least read up on the property before you come and visit the open house,” he said.
Jahan said potential buyers can tell who the cowboys are because they rarely have an office, landline or staff, and they work from home.
‘I see someone coming out of this old house with a folder. The house seemed unreliable. These people had a business there,” Mr Jahan said.
They also have minimal and expensive inventory.
“One of them has only two properties that would be impossible to sell at the advertised prices,” Mr Jahan said.
‘But when I asked, “Why do you have that price?” He told me he was doing it to receive questions.
Jahan said the agent was using the properties as bait to get clients for his other services – such as mortgage brokerage and accounting – as well as to attract new suppliers who thought he could get them “unbelievable” prices.
‘The only thing they want is to expand their database. Buyers should do their research to avoid purchasing these overpriced properties.”