Many ‘special places in hell’ have already been designated in the public debate for groups within our society that would not behave properly. It started with Sigrid Kaag, who thought that women who don’t support each other deserve hellfire. Locksmiths, dating fraudsters and flash dealers soon followed.
I personally hope that there are still some square meters left in the inferno for brokers who mislead their customers. Let that special place not be a turnkey corner villa with herringbone parquet, but a poorly maintained social rental home, where cold Senseo coffee is served and matches House for Sale through the speakers.
Of course, there are conscientious, empathetic brokers, my own broker is one of them. And no one ultimately deserves the damn, or Senseo coffee. But in a market characterized by inequality, I am amazed at the fast guys and girls who seem to have so little empathy for the insecure home buyer.
Sometimes they are outright cheating. Last year, the Home Owners Association set up a complaints line about real estate agents. There came hundreds of notifications inside, from selling brokers who made up bids to drive up the price to a broker who just pretended there were no viewers, so that someone from their own circle could bid nice and low.
consumer program Radar also secretly filmed eleven purchase brokers last year. They turned out to give their customers compelling risky financial advice, such as bidding without reservation of financing. They made themselves indispensable by dividing homes among themselves and excluding home seekers without a purchase broker.
The trade associations promised to improve, but not much has changed. And that’s bad news for starters. They often do not have their own money to bid heavily and cannot afford to bid without financing.
But transferees also need to be better protected. At the beginning of this summer, a colleague made an offer on a house in the, currently somewhat quieter, higher segment. The selling broker hinted that there were higher bids. He threw in a huge amount of money and got the house. But no sooner had the champagne bottle been uncorked than he found out that he had outbid himself – there was no other bidder.
Scams, but prove that you were deliberately misled. In any case, the bidding process is hardly subject to legislation or regulations. In this way, brokers can drive up the price and catch the highest commission, a percentage of the purchase price.
Retiring chairman of the Dutch Association of Real Estate Agents and intended new chairman of the VVD Onno Hoes has changed little in that profit-oriented culture. However, as acting chairman, he has been participating in VVD meetings for months, also about the housing market. Being a substitute chairman and a representative of the brokers is possible, according to the VVD board.
Perhaps it was too much to ask of Hoes to play a hero role, if the Jerry Maguire to proclaim a better revenue model among the brokers. (Fewer clients! Less Money! More attention!) And a profession with so many financial interests shouldn’t self-regulate. Legislation is the best way to protect society from the greed that resides in all of us.
Just before the summer, Minister Hugo de Jonge stated that he wanted to speed up the process of introducing a mandatory ‘bidding log’, in which consumers can see all bids. I hope he goes even further, by tackling any form of cheating, enforcing a flat rate for brokers and banning unreserved bidding – that’s what the PvdA has wanted for some time. That would make the process a little fairer and that’s good news for all involved, sweet real estate agents who want to do the right thing, but are powerless against the perverse incentives in this tight housing market.