Brokers last week answered the call to help drive unscrupulous spruikers from the property advice market.
DomaCom head of sales and marketing Warren Gibson last week called on the financial services sector - including financial planners, accountants and mortgage brokers - to get behind efforts to regulate the property investment industry. He has urged brokers to join one of the sector's industry associations, PIAA (Property Investment Association of Australia) or PIPA (Property Investment Professionals of Australia).
Gibson's call seemed to resonate with commenters on the Australian Broker Online forums. Regional Broker said Gibson raised an important point, but stopped short of vowing to join another industry association.
"Aggregators and Brokerage groups really need to look at their relationships in this area. Will not have anything to do with the 'spruiker' element , I will not accept a referral from them , for me it is just too risky , still write a fair share without them. As to joining another profession body - probably not."
Papery pointed out that some property spruikers resided in the mortgage broking industry.
"Many Spruikers are either Brokers themselves or employ Brokers & are pretty slick with the sales pitch when they suck the consumer in...& Conflicts of Interest are never discussed. Not sure how you can drive any one out of an industry when they havent technically done anything wrong."
SteveL said brokers could help mitigate the influence of spruikers themselves.
"One way to take control. Always MAKE the contract subject to val coming in. Don't go unconditional unless this is met. There are plenty of providers that will do this for you if you push them."
Comment of the week goes to Andrew Edwards, who said clients can be confused by the entire property buying process.
"I would be more than happy to steer my clients to a reputable source such as the PIAA so they can do their own research.
There is just so much confusion out there and the feedback I get from my clients is they feel real estate agents will tell them anything (fact or fiction) to get them to buy the property they have listed.
As a mortgage broker I have to be extremely careful recommending anyone or any business because if it all falls in a heap we are held accountable."
