Our Philosophy
At Baker MacCallum Law we have a Client Care Charter which sets out our commitment to provide you with care and protection as a client. Clients of Baker MacCallum Real Estate can expect the same commitment and the Charter can be viewed here.
Some of the benefits of my system to sellers (and buyers alike) and the points of difference that will improve the selling and buying experience for both sellers and the buyers are set out below:
- Under the traditional real estate business model, pretty well anyone could become a real estate agent. The agencies put an emphasis on hiring as many agents as they could, with an eye to obtaining as many listings as possible rather than providing a first-rate service by knowledgeable persons. Every agent was competing with the others, not only in the other agencies, but within their own agency, and therefore the incentive was to just put a deal together as quickly as possible in order to secure the commission. That inevitably meant that lawyers were kept out of the process as much as possible because of the perceived delay and, therefore, detriment to the agent (though not to the seller or buyer).
In my twenty years of acting for buyers and sellers I do not believe there has been one instance where my involvement has slowed the process down to the detriment of either party, nor has it done anything other than improve the outcome and nor has it added to the final costs, given that it is often more expensive to have a lawyer remedy a badly drawn agreement than to draw it up properly in the first place. After all, we are trained to write them properly and we have a wealth of precedents and experience to back that up. My regime encourages involvement from the lawyers for both parties as early on in the process as is warranted and I can guarantee that it will cause no prejudice to either side, no delay and no extra cost. - Instead of having lots of agents working all listings, I will have only one agent (maybe two) who will handle all listings but:
(a) because he or she will not be wasting time in sitting around my office waiting for queries (my legal staff be the first point of contact);
(b) because he or she will not be involved in writing the contract, running around to negotiate the final terms and obtain signatures;
(c) because he or she will just be making sure the property is properly presented and promoted and bringing interested parties to view;
my sales person will have the time and energy to concentrate solely on making sure the property is sold. - I know from comments my clients have made over the years that it is frustrating for a seller to give a set of instructions and preferences to the listing agent and then have other agents in the firm ignore them, sometimes deliberately. By having only one agent involved, that frustrating behaviour will not be possible.
- The lack of competition between agents within my office will remove the secretiveness and selfishness that has sometimes motivated agents under the traditional system whereby an office had literally dozens of agents all competing to sell all the properties, often to the detriment of their principal, the seller.
- In the commercial world a true salesperson is not involved in promoting the business, finding the customers, negotiating specific terms and prices but only concentrates on presenting the product in the best way and promoting it to buyers. So it will be under my system.
- Unlike traditional real estate firms who place great emphasis on signing up as many listings as possible for as long as possible (usually a minimum of 3 months), my office is only interested in the owner selling the property and therefore listings will only be for I month at a time. If the property isn’t selling or the owner is unhappy then they are able to move on to another agency without any cost.
- Again, because my office wants only to sell the home but not give the seller inflated estimates of price just to secure a listing, owners will be encouraged to obtain a valuation whether from a registered valuer or a ‘desktop’ one from Quotable Value. To assist in that regard, my office will make available Quotable Value’s website to obtain information on the property and similar recent sales in the vicinity. A big help to buyer and seller alike is to be able to provide prospective buyers with a council Land Information Memorandum (LIM report) and my office will arrange that early on in the process if desired.
- My office will encourage sellers to try and arrive at a (confidential) range of prices at which they would sell. To give the seller confidence that their listing is not being ‘bought’ by inflating the quoted sale price, a minimum price will be agreed.
- Nor under my system will sellers be encouraged to auction their property or put it out to tender. The vast majority of properties do not warrant that sort of attention and all that happens is:
(a) the costs to the seller go up,
(b) the number of prospective buyers is reduced,
(c) the time taken to obtain offers is increased, and,
(d) the price obtained may be lessened,
all quite needlessly. - An Australian real estate consultant, Neil Jenman, has for many years commented and written on the failings of the traditional real estate system. He places a strong emphasis on ethics and integrity and placing the seller’s interest above that of all other interested parties, especially the real estate agent’s, and my philosophy will reflect his. To see what he says on open homes, auctions, tenders, agent’s selling practices and the like, visit www.jenman.com.au especially his section on Ethics.
- My real estate agent will not be wasting your and his/her time in open homes. Not only because:
(a) they are a security risk; and
(b) they operate to open your home to all and sundry especially nosy neighbours; and
(c) they put the seller to the effort of making the house immaculate once a week for six weeks; and
(d) they are really just a device for the real estate agent to obtain prospective buyers for other properties he or she is selling;
but because they simply do not work. - An interested buyer will make the effort to go through a property with an agent; they will prefer to do it solely with the agent; the real estate agent can check their bona fides and make sure they are genuinely interested in that type of property; the inspection can be at a time convenient to the buyer and the seller; the number of inspections can be timetabled to occur one after the other so as to reduce the inconvenience to the seller.
- The Agreement for Sale and Purchase will be professionally drawn up by a lawyer, it will reflect the years of experience in my office in drafting such agreements, it will make sense and it will cover all the relevant matters that need to be settled between the seller and the buyer; furthermore, both parties’ lawyers will have the chance of checking and approving the contract before signing takes place. This will eliminate the current common situation of unnecessary legal expenses to both parties in remedying a badly drawn up agreement arising because both parties were pressured into signing by a real estate agent fearful of losing the sale (for which, read “commission’). That will not happen in my office under my system.
- I am not allowed to charge for real estate services on a commission basis. The fee for selling the property will be fixed at the time you sign with my agency to sell. It will be significantly less than you would be charged by the traditional real estate companies and it will not change.
- The traditional real estate agencies write agreements for sale so that the deposit is paid to them and they then take their commission from it, sending the seller’s lawyer the balance. That inevitably occurs well before the sale is settled and the buyer pays the rest of the purchase price. Also, inevitably, the deposit asked for is only slightly more than the commission.
I believe the seller should receive a 10% deposit; the real estate agent should only be paid if and when the sale is actually completed; I believe the seller should receive the deposit as soon as possible and in its entirety so that the seller is able to reduce their mortgage, have sufficient funds to pay the deposit on their purchase or simply put it in the Bank to obtain interest, buy a new car, pay for the trip overseas. The real estate agent should be paid only when the seller, the lawyer, the Bank and the removal firm are paid; I see no reason for the agent to be given preference over those others and especially over their own client. - All lawyers place great importance on having ongoing relationships with their clients. They want that relationship to continue and to prosper for both sides. That cannot happen if the lawyer treats the client badly or, worse still, unethically. Whether it is me acting as agent for the seller, or me acting as lawyer for the seller, or one of my colleagues acting as lawyer for the seller or buyer, both parties will know that the lawyer is acting only in their interests and with a view to the relationship with him or her continuing for many years. That, I say, is a huge advantage both seller and buyer obtain through using their lawyer as much as possible in house transactions. With my fee structure, the overall cost compared to using a traditional agent and being discouraged from involving lawyers, will still mean significant savings which go straight into the seller’s pocket.
