Lucas Cannan: Quoting price after an offer's been rejected, so important we get it right, Brian, what are the do's and don'ts?
Brian Cannan: When you're offering your property for sale, without a price or price range, and an offer is made, and it's rejected on price alone, then the next time you offer that property to anyone else, you must let them know that the offer has been rejected, you don't have to tell them that you can offer at a lower price than what's been offered. So let's put that in context. And offer's come in at $800,000. And the owners rejected on price then you would have to offer that property for more than $800,000, so $800,001 or $800,005. You can't offer it any less than $800,000. If you did offer less than $800,000, that would be the misleading deceptive conduct under the competition consumer act. So it's very important you understand that once an offer is rejected, move your pricing up and I think most agents understand that. But the tricky part around this is is if an offer is rejected on terms and not price. So let's give an example where you know, a purchaser wants you to buy a property and they make an offer and it's $800,000. And it's 1% deposit and 3 years settlement. Well, the owner is not even going to worry about the $800,000 the term isn't acceptable to the owner. So they're rejecting it on terms, not the price. So you wouldn't need to move it up in that case, but you want to make good notes around why they're rejecting it.
Lucas: Is it important to note also that we're talking about Australian Consumer Law rather than the Property Stock and Business Agents Act because what are the penalties if you breach Australian consumer law?
Brian: If you breach Australian consumer law, they can cost you a lot of money. You know, you're talking hundreds of thousands of dollars. The maximum penalty in the property stock and business agents act is $22,000. Both you can't mislead, but you don't want to breach the Australian Competition consumer act. That is going to cost you money.
