You'd think these massive fines handed out between 2014 and 2020 would deter the practice, but no. Sure it hurt the agents at the time, but even fines in the hundreds of thousands had two thirds covered by the commissions and the balance no doubt was made up from business won due to underquoting.

Consumer Affairs Victoria receiving 877 contacts about underquoting from July 1 to December 31, 2021 compared with 320 from the same time period in 2020. And since then underquoting is still rampant.

Why?

There are loopholes and the industry has gone soft on fines. It is laughable the 'penalties' imposed on agents now. When agents were made examples of and fined in the past it exceeded their commissions and the net loss was about 1/3 of the fine value.

Now states have got serious and things have got worse!

In NSW a special underquoting team was established in 2021. They have dished out 161 fines for $2,200 each. Agents would see as simply a cost of business.

Victoria are not much better. Their $3.8m underquoting taskforce (sounds scary but that is about it) have issued fines of $520,000 to 48 agents. At just over $10,000 per offence, that is less than their commission cheques and in no way going to change their behaviour.

Even back in to 2010 there was a big raid of 400 agencies to check for underquoting. This resulted in just $2000 in fines and 15 warning letters. Whoopee do, the lack of follow through in these early days allowed the situation to get out of hand.

What this has toaght me is...

For the 15+ years I have been in real estate educator, underquoting has been the #1 frustration of potential buyers and even sellers who do not want to participate.

As a former real estate agent I am uniquely placed to reveal exactly why agent underquote, how the industry gets away with it and MOST IMPORTANTLY how you can combat it so you don't waste time and money.

This 'Tell All' Playbook has the potential to stamp out underquoting once.

I cover:

1. Why Agents Underquote

2. How Agents Legally Get Away With Underquoting

3. How To Beat Underquoting

This resource gives you the upper hand and if collectively more and more people follow the steps in the report, underquoting will be a thing of the past.