Underquoting

No, this is against the law. Statements such as ‘offers above’ and ‘offers over’ and using symbols like ‘+’ are misleading.

If you and your agent agree, you can decide not to make any statement about the likely selling price and not publish any price estimates. If so, prospective buyers will need to rely on other means to help inform them about the value of your property in the current market.

An estimated selling price must be reasonable and based on the factors likely to impact on the sale price. Examples include comparable sales, location, architectural design, future use of the property such as zoning or rights of way, market demand, and seasonal and economic factors.

The agent must always provide you with evidence for their selling price estimate for your property. They also need to give you written notice if they revise their estimate, provide you with evidence of the reasonableness of the revision and amend the agency agreement to include their revised figure. They do not need your consent to amend the agency agreement with their revised estimate.

No. Under the laws, an agent must comply with the requirement to revise their estimated selling price if they receive evidence, such as market feedback, that changes their professional assessment of what your property is likely to sell for.

They must advise you in writing that they have revised their estimate, provide you with evidence of the reasonableness of the revision and amend the agency agreement by including the revised estimated selling price.

The agent must be able to demonstrate that they have made reasonable attempts to update any marketing material that no longer shows their reasonable estimated selling price.

It is expected that a professional, experienced agent would be able to approximate a property's price within a 10 percent range. For the estimated selling price of a property to give any meaningful information to consumers, it needs to be within certain limits. A range of between $500,000 and $900,000, for example, would be too wide for most consumers to assess whether the property is affordable to them.

While agents cannot be expected to predict exact sale prices, their profession is responsible for making informed assessments about a property's likely selling price.

The agent is not required to disclose the estimated selling price to potential buyers, whether in advertising, in writing or verbally. This situation could arise if you instruct the agent not to reveal the estimated selling price.

The agent must disclose their estimated selling price in the agency agreement, and notify you if it changes. They must provide evidence for their initial assessment of the selling price and update you with any future evidence if they revise their estimate.

If a property is advertised with a price, the advertised price cannot be less than the estimated selling price in the agency agreement. If you have an open house and the agent provides information regarding the price, again it cannot be less than the estimated selling price in the agency agreement.

If you are comparing agents, it is possible to get some variation in different agents' estimated selling prices, however all agents should be relying on the similar evidence to formulate that estimate.

Sellers should be wary of choosing an agent just because their estimated selling price for the property was considerably higher than other estimates provided by competitors. This could indicate that the agent doesn’t understand the market and that the estimate is not reasonable.

All agents must provide evidence that their estimate is reasonable and Fair Trading inspectors can demand that evidence. If it is found that the estimate isn’t reasonable, based on the evidence, the agent is guilty of an offence.

Market demand is just one factor agents need to take into account when determining the estimated selling price for property they are marketing. If there is a change then the agent will need to also look at any other evidence of the likely selling price of the property to decide whether they need to revise their estimated selling price. If they do revise their estimated selling price, they need to:

• advise the seller in writing and provide the evidence for making the revision
• amend the agency agreement with the revised estimated selling price.
• take all reasonable steps as soon as is practical to update any marketing of the property with the revised estimated selling price.

No. The underquoting laws are designed to ensure that buyers receive more accurate information. This should maintain competition between buyers who can afford the property, but stop misleading potential buyers into believing that a property is in their price range because an agent has underquoted their estimated selling price.