A fed-up buyer’s agent has slammed a real estate agent for trying to dupe his client into buying a shoddy property.
Melbourne Property Advocate founder Simon Murphy was outraged after making the shocking discovery while inspecting a property in Melbourne’s west.
Mr Murphy, who has more than 14 years’ experience, said the agent refused to include a building and pest inspection clause in the property sales agreement.
The agent, who Mr Murphy chose not to identify, initially offered to sell the property at $510,000.
When Mr Murphy insisted his client would only go ahead with the sale if it passed the inspections, the agent insisted the closing price should be increased to $550,000.
Mr Murphy said it immediately set off ‘alarm bells’ and prompted him to ask the agent whether they were aware of any damage to the property.
The buyer’s agent recalled the unbelievable experience on his TikTok channel, Melbourne Trusted Advocate, and claimed he told the real estate agent they were required to tell him the ‘material facts’.
The agent insisted they were not aware of any issues, and Mr Murphy decided to arrange for a building inspector to visit the property the following day.
Property advocate Simon Murphy (pictured) is fed up with dodgy Melbourne real estate agents
Mr Murphy was stunned by the agent’s reluctance to accommodate his request to include building and pest inspections as a condition of the sale
After booking an inspector at his client’s expense, the agent told him they were unable to find the key to allow the inspection to go ahead.
Shortly after, the agent called Mr Murphy and insisted the unconditional offer at the initial price of $510,000 was still available.
‘I’m like, “Are you joking? We’re doing a building inspection, we’re going to do one before we even make an offer”,’ he said.
‘In my head, I’m like, “I don’t trust you at all”.’
The former agent said he was already wary of the property’s condition, given it had been on the market since the beginning of the year.
When asked why it had not yet found a buyer, Mr Murphy said the agent told him previous attempts to buy the property had fallen over ‘due to finance’.
They also said the sale had been stalled due to the owner becoming pregnant.
Mr Murphy’s suspicions were confirmed when his building inspector gained access to the property and found the sub-floor alone needed an estimated $40,000 in work.
Many agents are ‘doing whatever they can to get sales over the line’, Mr Murphy said
‘It just goes to show, and this has been happening a few times with the agents out in the west, they are doing whatever they can to get sales over the line.’
While Mr Murphy refused to identify the agent by name, he added: ‘If you are watching this, I know who you are and I will never be dealing with you again.’
He closed the video with an urgent warning to homebuyers to be wary of real estate agents who are reluctant to facilitate building and pest inspections.
Social media users were horrified, with many claiming they had been persuaded to proceed with a sale without conducting prior inspections.
One said an agent had told him inspections ‘don’t do anything’, before finding the property was infected by termites.
Another said the behaviour was all the more despicable when it involved first homebuyers whose emotions often cloud their judgements.
‘Buying their first home, people are attached more emotionally than financially, and those crooked agents know it very well,’ he said.
Some were less sympathetic, including one man who claimed the onus should be on the buyer to do their due diligence.
Mr Murphy said the problem was particularly pronounced in west Melbourne
‘Well, that’s the message: do your due diligence prior, no matter what,’ Mr Murphy replied.
Another woman agreed, going so far as to say agents ‘should be held accountable for future costs’.
Disturbing as it was, Mr Murphy said he had encountered similar agents in the past.
‘The agents in the west of Melbourne are absolutely to the point where Consumer Affairs needs to go out there,’ he said.
