I went to six auctions in one day looking for the perfect home… this is the dodgy tactic that real estate agents need to stop doing

An outraged homebuyer has let loose on real estate agents who put low price guides on properties with no intention of selling at that amount.

Chris Sassine and his partner have been looking to buy a property in Sydney and have been frustrated by dishonest real estate agents.

‘If anyone that follows me is a real estate agent,’ Mr Sassine said in a TikTok video before spitting at the camera.

‘What do you think about that?’

Mr Sassine explained the price guide for countless properties had been greatly undervalued by hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

‘Don’t put $800,000 guide if it’s going for $1.3million or $1.4million, brother. Put it at $1.2 to $1.3 million guide,’ he said.

He admitted estimates were not always going to be accurate and that there was some wiggle room between the price guide and final price of the home.

‘If it’s $900,000-$950,000… if it goes for $1million… all right, whatever,’ he said.

‘When it goes for $16 million?! It’s got one bathroom cuz!’

Mr Sassine explained that he went to six auctions in a single day and each property sold far above the price guide.

‘Every single auction went for over $300,000 off the guide they have given online cuz,’ he said.

‘Why? Why? That’s lying!’

He then spoke of the emotional impact the false price guides have on him and his wife.

‘Not only do you waste my time, you waste my missus’ time, then she gets annoyed, then she takes it out on me!’ he said. 

‘Cuz why?’

Agents routinely pitch their advertised asking price lower than what they intend to accept in order to get more people to look at it, and hope buyers spend more than they had budgeted. 

Many TikTok users agreed with Mr Sassine revealing they had experienced the same issue. 

‘It’s an absolute joke honestly,’ one wrote.

‘As an agent. I 1000 per cent agree with you. under quoting is a big problem in our industry. very frustrating,’ another wrote.

Mr Sassine replied: ‘I appreciate the honesty mate.’

‘100 per cent should be illegal all these agents low balling the price,’ another TikTok user wrote.

Another added: ‘100 per cent bro… buyers guide $1m… sold for $1.4m… suckers us in bro.’

However some commenters disagreed with Mr Sassine, arguing real estate agents should not be blamed. 

‘How is it the agents fault if people are fighting to buy it and want to pay more to get it?’ one wrote.

Mr Sassine replied: ‘It’s the guide that is soo off.’

Real estate agent Veronica Morgan told Good Deeds some may deliberately underquote a property to draw in a deeper pool of buyers.

‘But if they quote it too high, then buyers won’t react well and they won’t generate the interest that they need to run a competitive auction,’ she said.

In July, property guru Andrew Winter told realestate.com.au it was the ‘Great Australian Scam’.

Some states have laws that require agents to accept any auction bid that is within a given percentage of the advertised price, but Mr Winter said it was difficult to make any sense of the contradictory rules that apply across the country.

‘The path to a fairer and more transparent property market is simple,’ he wrote.

‘All we need is to allow sellers to ask for the price they want and for buyers to make sure that price works for them.’