Price on Application

"Price on Application" when selling a home, is really off putting. When I see this displayed on the internet I think one of two things. The first is that vendors are asking too much for the home and the second is that the agent won't answer my email or phone call. I would have to say that 5 out of 10 enquires of mine go unanswered.

My most recent example would be when I asked Fletchers- North Balwyn for a price on a home for sale recently but received no response. I guess the agent had enough "buyer interest".

I attended the April 10 auction and I must say there were at least 150 people present. About 7 to 10 people fought it out on the day. The auction seemed to drag on forever. I think that was due to the fact that the auctioneer was accepting small bids sometimes going as low as $50- $100.

Asking price for the Somervile Rd, Doncaster home was "price on application". But later enquiries revealed that asking price was 600,000- $660,000. The house was a 3 bedroom brick home with 2 bathrooms and 1 car garage.

I was speaking to a few people in the crowd and they too were saying that the agents/vendors did not quote correctly. Our circle of potential bidders were now having bets on how much over the quoted price the house would sell for. I thought the home would sell for $760,000, another said $720,000, another said $800,000 and lastly someone said $820,000. But we were all wrong.

Everybody agreed on one thing and that was, that they would have appreciated a more accurately priced range. Most were saying that they wouldn't have attended if they knew it would go for $200,000 over the quoted range.

The "Real Estate Guidelines for real estate salespeople - price advertising and underquoting" page 6 states that: "While a salesperson should use their expert knowledge of the market to assist the vendor to set a realistic price or range for the sale of their property, the vendor’s expectations should not influence the salesperson’s opinion of their estimated selling price. A salesperson must not overstate or understate an estimated selling price."

I totally agree with this statement. I just wish that it was considered and practiced more efficiently in the market.

Anyway the house sold for about $825,000.