Archive for REAA
Good in the bad
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I have been a vociferous opponent of the poor legislative drafting and the tactics of the REAA since its inception, however I was talking to one of the complaint board legal beagles this week and he advised that the REAA had been able to remove several bad agents from the industry who really needed to be dealt with.
So that is a good thing to see happening. Hopefully their assault on innocent traders may taper off now that their former cop hatchet man has departed the agency and they will focus more on cleaning their own industry up.
In the mean time there is a rumour that they may be looking at allowing buyers agents to exist in NZ. That makes so much sense and is so reasonable I don’t believe it is true but you never know, larger miracles have occasionally occurred.
And speaking of miracles I find it amazingly clever of the government to plan an election smack bang on top of the world cup. It is nearly October and there is no interest or publicity around the issues because we are all watching rugby 
.
Should be good for a National shoe in!
And lastly, whilst on politics, I also hear there is a serious inspection/referendum regarding MMP coming up. This is the worst thing that ever happened to dear old NZ so if actually egt any chance to get rid of it make sure you vote. When it came in we were told it was a one term trial and would then be reviewed. This never happened. It has been a disaster, we were lied to when it came in, let’s make sure we get rid of it if we can!
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Talk about Mysogyny
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I found the uproar over Alasdair Thompsons fundamentally true statements costing him his job sad and unfair. So today to read the comments regarding the real estate agents fighting, article here, totally unbelievable.
Whoever the REAA spokesman is should be drawn and quartered based on the previous case. How can it be ok to say:
A spokesman for the Real Estate Agents Authority said he was not particularly surprised to hear of the agents’ fight last year.
“I think it tends to be the females more than the males going for each other,” he said, adding he had seen a number of complaints involving physical assaults.
Yes we see women beating each other up all over the place in our industry, not the genteel metrosexual men though, not they hug and love each other fine.
What absolute nonsense .
Have a great day and look out for those violent female agents if you are house hunting…..
Get Going and Stay Inspired ~ Dean Letfus
Circle them wagons
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Interesting to see the impact of the 2 recent legislation changes regarding financial advisors and the REAA.
REAA. The recent failed appeal by Premium Real Estate has the REAA rubbing their hands together with glee. Whilst the event predated the REAA they have taken the outcome as a successful precedent to attack finders and traders. I have spoken to 2 licensees already who have had to warn their staff not to accept contracts from evil finders/traders. The Premium case was a property sold by an agent and then it was resold 4 months later for a 980K profit.
Premiums losing the case now means legal precedent has been set that it is “illegal” to sell a property low and then see it resold high in a short time frame. To call this ludicrous is being kind but there you go, that is our brave new world.
I understand the intent of the law to stop agents acting for traders when they are being paid to act in a vendors best interests but the result is going to finally allow the REAA to drive almost all non agent activity out of existence.
AFA: I think it is great that the government has moved to remove Blue Chip style operators out of the market and provide more accountability, however a disappointing story this week of a long standing, almost iconic New Zealand property guru/mentor being denied AFA status because of his behaviour in the late 70′s and 80′s.
Surely there should be some timeframe where bad behaviour is accepted as being learned from and forgiven. (I guess there could be more recent bad behaviour but only the historical stuff was quoted to me). If I wanted advice in specific real esatte areas outside of my own expertise this would be my go to guy so it is sad that less competent people will get approved because they have never taken any risks in their lives where as this advisor who has learned through being in the trenches and making mistakes is denied??
Stay tuned for more nonsense, especially against traders, mentors and finders 
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Never mind, whatever the left try to throw at hard working people committed to financial freedom, WE WILL FIND A WAY OVER, UNDER, AROUND OR THROUGH THEM RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don’t sit there reading, GET GOING!!!! Dean Letfus
Showing their hand?
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At the risk of appearing slightly conspiracy theorist I thought it was most interesting that real estate agents have just been excluded from the Financial Advisors requirements.
This fully confirms my thoughts that the REAA and the FAA were largely targeting property investors and traders specifically and unfairly.
If you looked at it quantitatively there would be several hundred, maybe several thousand percent more real estate agents giving people financial advice:
“This would make a great investment”
“In ten years imagine with it will be worth”
“Give it a lick of paint and I can onsell it for you”
yet that is ok now. They have been excluded from any responsibility for their “advice”.
They theoretically are controlled through the REA legislation but it is incredible that they are specifically let off the hook in this way.
Incredible, unbelievable and criminal in my opinion.
We are one of the few countries I know of that deliberately creates an unfair playing field designed to protect what has historically been a largely incompetent and corrupt industry. So they protect it even further and attack the people who bring a correct balance. If we allowed buyers agents in NZ then we would have a level game and consumers would benefit. I was explaining to a friend in Hong Kong yesterdy that we only have selling agents and he said:
“But that’s terrible, that means they are working for only one side. Who works for the buyer?”
Answer = NOBODY!!
So I have no solution, just an observation that we must be very careful out there. The power brokers are against us and the sin binned players now have complete immunity in the game. Even worse they are being required to report minor infractions by anybody who doesn’t have REINZ stamped on their forehead.
Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Property Tip ~ BE CAREFUL!!
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In sadly typical (underhanded) fashion the first prosecution has been initiated against a property trader.
Not bad enough that they can’t interpret their own legislation and refuse to communicate reasonably they have resorted to basically setting someone up to make an example of them.
It is impossible to give anybody comprehensive advice in this area because nobody including the body governing the legislation actually knows what the rules are but it appears that the REAA, as we expected, will try to remove anybody who is not a real estate agent from being involved in any sort of property transaction.
Hopefully their initial case will be lost and we may see some sense in terms of interpretation of the new act but let’s take a paranoid view for a moment and be clear on a couple of points for you.
1. Double settlements. Do them at your peril. I even saw a fellow trader talking of one of his deals in his newsletter this week. They are at the moment definitely going to get you prosecuted UNLESS you can prove 100% that you can settle on the property yourself.
2. Assignments. Previously a QC ruled that assignments were a contractual transaction NOT a property transaction so in theory these are ok under the current rules, however I would ensure you novate the contracts until we know where we stand.
3. Options. The good news is that options could become the way of the future. They are clearly not caught under the rules and make an ideal solution to a wild untamed landscape created through this churlish legislation. I have used and taught them for some years and now finally they may become more common.
4. The other alternative of course is to become a real estate agent. This is not as punitive as it used to be and there are a large number of licensees who understand what traders do and would happily take you under their wing. It does constrain some activity but is a workable solution for many of us.
So Get Going and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
PS: Watch yourself in any transaction with an agent who is acting weird or asking a lot of questions. I have heard numerous stories of low agents looking for people to set up. (Obviously all the bad eggs haven’t yet left the fold)
If you feel like you are being interrogated or suddenly have the licensee wanting to talk to you, DON’T DO THE DEAL!!
Strongly suggest staying close to your trusted agent also to be kept up with any skulduggery being promulgated by REAA!
More Bad Laws, again!
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Maybe it is just because I notice it more but it saddens me to see such bad legislation being passed on a regular basis and then to see it implemented even more poorly is almost inexcusable.
I open my paper this morning to see a Howick Real Estate Agent censured under the new, ridiculously poorly written, REAA rules.
Reading the headline it appears the agent sold a leaky home without disclosing it, if true then that is fair enough.
However upon reading the article in its entirety the facts are quite different.
Firstly the agent is actually a local licensee with an impeccable reputation so he is most unlikely to behave in this manner. And the intention of the legislation is certainly not to pick on good quality agents such as Grahame.
But it transpires the facts are that there was a tiny leak in the conservatory of the home, nothing to do with “leaky home” issues and the purchaser was using a translator so there were 2 opportunities for bad questions and miscommunication.
To publicly censure an agent for (allegedly) forgetting a water leak in a conservatory is both heavy handed and given the Herald totally misleading headlines simply unacceptable behaviour.
The agent added a building report to the S and P for a start and given the tripartite discussion who knows whether he advised them or not.
My point is that given the minor nature of the issue and the agents assistance and reputation is it siimply ridiculous that this was made public.
I have seen 2 recent cases of deliberate fraud by agents that goes completely ignored. A recent example of that is where an agent allowed a deposit to be released to a third party knowing that another bank had the property in mortgagee.
My client then loses $100,000 thanks to incompetent agency who refuses to even refund their fees.
But REAA don’t worry about that because that would make to many people look bad maybe??
This new organisation truly is becoming a joke, which is no surprise given I have been trying for a year to get them to give a legal opinion on their own rules and their comments were: “The legislation is so vague we can’t interpret it for you
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
Who did let the dogs out?
Posted by: | CommentsIt is interesting the recent REAA activity. To employ an ex detective and instruct him to deceitfully gather information from property finders is quite scary when you think about it really.
We have an industry that contained a significant number of extremely dishonest agents, especially in areas like South Auckland, which you would have though could have kept the REAA busy for years cleaning up the bad eggs.
Any of us who are actively involved in property can attest to the lack of professionalism and sometimes downright bent things that happen.
Now to be fair the lack of activity with agents may be down to the fact that so many agents have left the industry and given the level of compliance required it is hopefully the bad ones who have left.
If that is the case then that is fantastic to know we can trust agents more and have better working relationships with them in general.
But even if that is the case, and more importantly if ti is not the case, why on earth are they having a go at property finders, of whom there are maybe 50 to a hundred in the whole country. And whose sole “crime” is to help people buy great property deals?
We were assured the REAA would not contain the protective cronyism of REINZ, that was part of the reason for declawing the latter and replacing them. But given the incredibly targeted and underhand behaviour of their current investigator one could be forgiven for thinking the same people are calling the shots.
Finders had ongoing problems with certain agents and agencies previously even after a QC’s report forced them to stop threatening legal action constantly as we were operating WITHIN the law.
So now here we go again.
Stay tuned and ……………………………..
Stay Inspired and Stay Safe ~ Dean Letfus
