Selling Agents required to be more transparent!

When looking at purchasing a property you must remember that the property will almost always be shown in its best light from the attractive online photos through to the manicured gardens. But sometimes this facade goes too far and people are misled about the property they are about to buy.

I recently caught an agent out who had asked the neighbours to keep quiet and stay out of the back yard during inspections to make the property seem more private than it actually was. In the same way, I’ve heard of other agents who have asked neighbours to take their noisy dogs for walks when an inspection is due to create a more calm, quiet environment.

I am ok with the obvious tricks to hide road noise and pet and damp smells such as putting on classical music and asking the owners to bake bread just before an open for inspection but directing the neighbours on what to do during open for inspection times and trying to conceal negatives about a property in that way is going too far and as far as I am concerned falls under the heading of misleading and deceptive conduct.

While it’s impossible to really know what your potential neighbours are like to live with before you do there are a few things you can look out for such as neighbouring balconies that overlook your property of interest (another reason why you should never buy a property sight unseen). In addition there’s nothing stopping you from knocking on your potential neighbours door and introducing yourself to get a feel for the type of person you may soon be living next to.

In a step in the right direction there are also new laws that require agents to tell potential buyers about problems with the property such as noisy neighbours or heinous crimes. For example Selling Agents must now inform buyers if there’s been a murder on the property so that people have the choice to decide whether they wish to proceed with the sale. For more information take a look at this article on news.com.