Fake Property Listings

[ArrynField]

Report them to EAA

EAA > Consumer Corner > EAA articles published in the media > EAA article (published in South China Morning Post) > 26/2/2019

[jobin]

You will probably need also to send some $$, in a brown envelope. After all, that's what the other side does.

[freeier]

Ricacorp website, if you find a 'fake' posting, reporting it can net you $1000...

[hkgcat]

This bait and switch tactic used to be the norm > 15 yrs ago when I was renting.. very annoying. Have not looked at the rental market for so long. Are property agents/companies no longer allowed to do it now? If so, that would certainly be good news! Hopefully punishable if found guilty..

[tparker]

Are property agents/companies no longer allowed to do it now?

I don't know about allowed but it very much still happens.

Had recent experience (< 6 months ago) of our own property mysteriously appearing on 28hse.com (without our permission), complete with photos, but listed for well below an acceptable price. Clearly done to attract attention, but very annoying as it drags down the market price and frustrates buyers. Then other agents start asking, and in the end it's a bitter taste in the mouth all round for everyone. Agents who do this should be shot.

[Paxbritannia]

I saw a property advertised for $8m that I was interested in, went to inspect but agent said 'oh the owner wanted $8m 6 months ago, but now he changed his mind and wants $8.2 plus' even though the ad was only posted a few weeks ago. Very dodgy!

[Paxbritannia]

Original Post Deleted

1. I thought it immediately went to 80% of the whole lot once you went $1 over the 8M mark, if you can still get 7.2m on say a 8.5m property that's very helpful to know.

2. Going back to the original point, agreed that vendors can change their mind but for an advertisement posted in June at 8M when the owner already decided they wanted 8.2M plus before the ad was posted, that's deliberate underquoting to bait people...

[Paxbritannia]

Original Post Deleted

Supposing it was a genuine 8M offer in January, it's now July and the guy wants 8.2M or more. Shouldn't the agent update the advertisement accordingly?

[james_hklocal]

Try this agency - they have been claiming that all their listings are real -

https://www.ricacorp.com/en/

[tal56]

1. I thought it immediately went to 80% of the whole lot once you went $1 over the 8M mark, if you can still get 7.2m on say a 8.5m property that's very helpful to know.

2. Going back to the original point, agreed that vendors can change their mind but for an advertisement posted in June at 8M when the owner already decided they wanted 8.2M plus before the ad was posted, that's deliberate underquoting to bait people...

We found this exact same situation with the property we rented. Our landlord had listed it for sale and for rent with an agent, we knew the landlord through friends that introduced us directly. Anyways, our landlord told us that the agent had listed the property around 300k cheaper than the price they were asking, without telling them. When they told the agent that the price was wrong on the posting, the agent never gave them a straight answer.

Also the agent never pulled the listing even after it was rented out to us, and in fact asked for more pictures to update the listing, even though they clearly knew it was already rented out. Probably because it was not rented out through an agent, no one in the industry knew it was already gone, and could not call them out on it.