Put simply, this is what I am after. I seek contributions for a range of pieces I wish to write and publish describing the negative experiences suffered at the hands of real estate agents by either the seller or buyers of residential property.
As my experience of dealing with such folk has only ever been negative, I know I am not alone in having suffered recently at the hands of no less than three agencies, both in selling our house and attempting to buy a new apartment.
Consequently, I am casting around for examples of the worst of real estate agent behaviour I can find to build and promote an index of poor customer experiences (CX) suffered at their hands.
As it is likely the only way they can be persuaded to lift the quality of the CX they offer us, we need to drive such unscrupulous businesses into direct competition with each other on the basis of that CX comparison.
And it is by sharing the stories with which to compare them that they may be most effectively chastened if this warns off their potential future customers.
The essential model of residential real-estate agencies is that they comprise mainly small companies competing locally against each other.
They compete first to sign up the business of owners selling their houses.
Because real estate competition is intensely local and likely dog-eat-dog, with each agent trying to deprive its rivals of properties to represent, this encourages their worst behaviour.
Second, they then represent and sell those properties at the highest price they can attract.
In my own recent experience, both as a seller and as a buyer, with separate agents is that these characters disappoint at both levels.
First, if you are the vendor, in order to get you to sign up with them exclusively, they tell you your property is going to fetch a price it most likely will not. You only discover that they will fail in this after they have signed you up.
Second, when you are the buyer, they will tell you whatever untruths are necessary to extract the maximum amount of money they can from you, and/or drive you into a competition with another fictitious buyer to drive up that price.
In my own most recent experience, the agent tried to rip me off further by trying to get me to pay – and sending me an invoice – for some electrical work whose absence when I pointed it out as a potential deal killer had already been done.
As a journalist, having formerly occupied an editorial role at the Australian Financial Review, to draw attention to this project, I aim to use social media and the Cloud Citizen index to solicit, write up and publish real-world customers’ examples of the worst extremes of agent-driven CX.
And, as I explain here in a connected world, in which customers seek greater reassurance, CX is becoming ever more important and the reputation it builds can make the difference between a local agency winning every available customer with something to sell – or possibly none at all.
So, please tell me your stories, or point me towards those of any others you know. Contact me at graham@cloudcitizen.com.
Now, on this page, please find our initial alphabetical index of just over 1,000 individual Sydney real estate agency offices, with a link here – https://bit.ly/3HGK9Qy – to a proven, winning formula for how to complain about them and ensure they feel it.