Secret sale prices
One of the most disappointing aspects of buying property is the lack of transparency during a sale, particularly with price guides. Many agents do their best to be accurate in regard to price guides. However, there are instances when price guides are used purely as a manipulation, leaving buyers frustrated.
My team and I avoid this approach and often start our campaigns without a guide until we have established an interest level. On all enquiries prior to establishing a guide, we offer comparable sales to give buyers a genuine idea of what we think the property will sell for. Once we have established such a level within our campaign, we then advertise the price guide at the top end of our interest. This is what buyers want to know.
Our feedback from the buying community around this approach has been encouraging and has been reflected in our results. Once a property is sold however, the opposite occurs and we are frequently asked by vendors or buyers to keep the final price the property sells for confidential and away from the public records.
So why do people want to keep the sale price secret?
Privacy is one of the obvious benefits, however it does make it difficult for prospective buyers and sellers to get a good idea of the sale price of a comparable property. Understandably people get frustrated when we can’t tell them what a property sold for but, we always abide by our seller or purchaser wishes.
One reason and one I often recommend is so their sale price doesn’t have an influence on the negotiations of their next purchase.
Other reasons are high profile people who want to fly under the radar when it comes to their personal life and, most commonly people just don’t want others to know what they’ve paid for their new home or, how much they’ve received for their sale – all perfectly good reasons.
So is it legal to keep the sale price a secret?
The answer is yes but…whilst it’s completely legal to request that a sale price is withheld from agency websites as well as major players like Realestate.com.au and Domain.com.au, it’s important to understand that should the agent not be notified at the point of sale, there is a strong likelihood the price will be disclosed and once it’s out, there’s no getting it back. Also, many of the data collecting companies would only have to watch the live streamed auctions to gain that information as well.
Finally, all property sales information – including the price – is collected by NSW Land Registry Services when the property transfer is registered. And this information is publicly available. As they write on their website,
“NSW Land Registry Services does not under any circumstances suppress or withhold the purchase price of any property. NSW LRS is required by legislation, including the Real Property Act 1900 and the Valuation of Land Act 1916 to collect property sales information and make it available for public inspection.”
The above reasons are also why asking your agent to withhold a price can work for a period of time. However in reality, it is likely to appear in all the common public places later.
More Team Bloom real estate tips and tricks can be found here.
