Real estate agency banned from advertising
Auckland real estate agency Property Wizards, founded by former shareholder in the failed Joneses real estate agency Steven Sharp, has been banned from advertising in the Property Press after it accidently failed to adhere to the magazine’s listing format.
Property Wizards follows a similar scheme to the Joneses, with a flat fee charged to customers, but without the flashy advertising.
The new company charges a $7000 flat fee (plus GST and marketing costs). That’s almost $2000 lower than the $8995 fee charged by the Joneses before it failed to raise $1.5 million and went in to liquidation. Its director Peter Gilchrist is now living and working in Brisbane.
Mr Sharp tells NBR that his firm accidently released an advertisement to the Property Press featuring pricing, going against the fine print of its agreement with the real estate listing magazine.
“It was a genuine mistake – a couple of staff were away and the ad was put in to fill our page of advertising,” says Mr Sharp.
Property Press banned Property Wizards from ever advertising again, and declined to comment to NBR.
“The staff member responsible was so upset that he offered to hand in his resignation,” Mr Sharp says.
The most common fee structure charged by New Zealand real estate agents is 4% of the sale price, which equates to $14,000 from the average home at $400,000 with advertising costs at an average of about 1% are then added on.
Mr Sharp says that Property Wizards is now considering starting its own advertising booklet to publicise listings.
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Comments and questions25
Good on yah! Mr Sharp...when a door shuts a window of opportunity opens!
Is the property press under pressure from the major firms to block new competition ????
Semms a bit harsh for a mistake. Must be paid well from the main players eh !!!
...of the non-competitiveness of the residential real estate market in NZ. Can you imagine a magazine banning its advertisers from showing its price for services? Absolutely shocking. Right up there with the failure of the multiple listing service....
It is disheartening to see that these greedy unscruplous Real Esate Agents will stoop to block the Good Guys. At a time when every homeowner is feeling the pinch I think Property Wizards has come up with a really great idea .I know who I will list with if I want to sell my house. I have faith that the New Zealand Public will kick these fat greedy rascals like Propery Press out.
Maybe they are concerned that this company will go broke like all the low fee companies have before and leave a large advertising account unpaid!!
Hi,
Good on ya Mr Sharp. Never buckle down to the bully boys. The great New Zealand public is with you
Hi,
We have always paid our accounts on time. They had also been given a deposit of $1000 from us. It is silly to say that just because we are a small company they banned us for the 'possibilty' that we would not pay our bills. It is not the small man who has created this crisis it is the big boys who have brought the world to its knees because of their greed
There are always two sides to every story, and I suspect Property Press's view hasnt been accurately portrayed.
It is simple-it does not suit the REAL ESTATE Agents to have competition from flat fee agencies .Who cares a toss about the poor homeowner.
Hey Dude,
If they had a story totell how come it is "no comments".
That is what suckers always think.Two sides of the story- yeah right1!!!
Property Press is an independant company who provide a magazine for real estate agencies to advertise in. Of course there has to be black and white rules or the companies advertising in it may choose to take their business else where. As for the flat fee - where has that worked? Why dosent it? The cost of doing real estate is higher than what they charge. Its all very well saying "when we get turnover we will be viable" If it was a burger it would be a mcdonalds hamburger, how many burger bars can make a profit pumping out volume burgers at $2? Any who wants to eat one?
Anyone here who thinks Real Estate agents are worth their 4% commission (plus expenses)? Come on lets see those hands... anyone....
No. Thought not.
Hi,
Is Macdonald shutting down ( or trying to) shut down the other burger joints ? Obviously the Real Estate agents are in cahoots with Property Press and trying to do to Property Wizards what they did to the other guys-the /Joneses.Why not give the public a choice?
The Joneses had a very high advertising profile in Property Press until they went broke
That's an easy fix. Just ask for payment up front. No need to ban them at all. This stinks of collusion and patch protection.
Note that the (not cheap) adds are paid for by the vendor, and can only be placed by a realestate agent. So (big) agents are in collusion with PP to rip off the public
I am a Real estate Agent who sold two multi-million dollar properties last year. The commission I earned helped me pay for my childs private school fees and my other expenses.I would never be able to do that if I worked for this fixed fee company- and after all the owners of the properties I sold are not short of a quid or two. So power to you Property Press. we do not want those guys on our turf.
Of Real estate Agents- protect their pie at any cost. Private school and other expenses- maybe the EMi on your porsche- yeah and the owners are not short of a quid or so- so therefore it is alright to loot them- really the selfishness leaves me dumbstruck
i think somebody should report Property Press to the Commerce Commission.This is the most blatant case of protectionism that I have seen in a very long time.
It needs to get fixed asap.
I think the greedy self motivated bandits at Property Press need to realise that we are not going to be dictated to.
it has breached fair trading act and owner of property press just scare of their competitor property wizard to take too much share of real estate market as they knew they are so greedy and charge too much for vendors. they wont successful in the future if they keep doing this crap.
Anyone here ever used Property Wizards to sell their home? Come on lets see those hands ... anyone ...
No. Thought not. Perhaps if you had you might know how much work a real estate agent puts into selling your home before they receive a single cent?
We have used the Joneses method, which i understand is very similar to what Property Wizards is doing. We have been very happy with the results. We sold our house without any stress and at a huge profit and in simply 3 weeks.
The only time Real Estate Agents work hard is when they are pressurizing vendors to reduce their price so they can pocket their money and hop into their Porsche.
If Property Wizards pose no threat to the Property Press or Real Estate Agents as you say, why such a harsh ban restricting trade? Maybe it does pose a threat... and a big one, don't you think so? Lets see a raise of hands now.
i believe property wizards were advertising in the property press when they were banned.
i wonder what a real estate company advertises in the property press if not homes to sell? clever much?
I do not know what the fuss is about. i mean how many people really advertise in Property Press. it is only those poor suckers who get brain washed by their real estate agents to fork out huge amounts of money Lets look at the efficacy of a print advert which just lasts for a week and costs a whole sh****d of money as compared to online advertising on say Open 2 view and Realestate. Property Wizards are lucky they got kicked out. That ways they will not be wasting any more money on a totally useless and unproductive advertising option
Property Press sucks
this is definitely unfair for a new and rapid growing real estate company.
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