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It's about For Sale
by Owner, Private Sales, Real Estate Agents, Saving Money, DIY.
It's also about Big business and Government.
A fascinating bit of Western Australian owner sales
history and how private sales nearly didn't happen.
The ANREPS story is a typical David and Goliath tale which we tell
as a tribute to our clients and their buyers who kept faith with
us through difficult times. To those who shared our struggle, and
to our customers we say a big “Thank You" for
sticking with us through all the tough years and an even bigger
“THANK YOU" for coming back to us time and time again.
Stories of battles like ours involving governments and big business
are all too common and should be kept on record as both a warning
and encouragement for others.
Big Business and
the Little Guy
How It All Started
Tony Wiles
Back in the 1980s I tried to
sell my home privately because I didn't believe real
estate agents were worth the commissions they charged. I thought
I was pretty smart at the time, after all I had a terrific background
in sales and marketing and selling my property myself meant I could
save around $5000 – a significant sum, especially in those
days.
Unfortunately I didn't make it – I ended up going to
an agent - but I knew I should have succeeded. The problem was that
I didn't understand how the system worked.
My failure that day prompted me to make a decision; I decided to initiate a system for anybody who wanted to sell their property privately so that they could be part of a real estate sales system which would give them all of the sales tools and advantages that agents enjoy. So, after getting to know my agent a little better, I shared my idea with her – she was all for it and after a year of tracking private sellers and realising the majority made the same mistakes as I did, we put together a comprehensive ‘For Sale by Owner package' and launched ANREPS IN 1989.
Dorothy Lowrey
I really wanted Tony's house on my books.
I must have hounded him a bit. I know he told me he didn't
need a real estate agent parasite like me! But, apart from the obvious
commission for the sale, I could see that he really didn't
know what he was doing. He thought a sign in the ground and an ad
in the paper would do it, he even thought he had a buyer, but I
knew the lady in question had other ideas.
When Tony said there should be a service for people like him –
private sellers that is – and he would like to provide it
with my help - I was immediately very interested. Coming from England
where most home owners showed their homes to buyers themselves,
it seemed to me that sellers here were brainwashed by agents into
believing that buyers wouldn't deal with the owner. Rubbish,
I knew differently!
I'd also been a teacher for 20 years before I went into real
estate so I felt we could put together an effective home selling
guide for owners and by providing all the other essentials such
as signage, brochures, a 24/7 answering service and ongoing support
they would succeed.
Before we started, we actually cut every private sale ad out of
the weekend papers, for a whole year, and pasted them into a scrap
book (there was no internet in those days, neither were we into
computers) and followed the fortunes of those sellers. What we found
was found that 70% had gone to an agent within the first week and
all but about 4% of them had gone the same way within 3 weeks! What
a waste of effort in advertising, money and opportunity!
We just had to get going, so we did.
People often ask us what ANREPS stands for; it's an acronym
for Australian National Real Estate Private Sales. Back then
people sometimes said they thought we should change the name but
we're glad we didn't, it's different, unique and
solid.
As anyone who has ever challenged a monopoly industry would appreciate,
our journey over the last 18 years has been one of extreme highs
and even more extreme lows. The road along the way has been
rocky, full of challenge, excitement, indignation, fun, fear and
determination - a mix that makes survival and success all the sweeter.
Sticking with what we believed in and persisting against all the
odds when everyone except our customers wanted to wipe us out was
tough - some would say ‘You wouldn't read about it'
but you can, below.
ANREPS – A
Potted History
1989
There is definitely a market. Our surveys showed
that there were around 200 private sellers new to market every month;
we knew that if just 10% of them used our services we would have
a good business. The plan was to offer a Home marketing pack that
included For Sale and Home Open signs, a Sellers' Guide with
Offer & Acceptance forms, the Joint Form of General Conditions,
property brochures, title searches, Buyers' Guides and a telephone
answering service – few people had mobile phones and buyers
detested answering machines.
REIWA approval. Out of courtesy we asked REIWAfor
permission to use its Offer and Acceptance form and the Joint Form
of General Conditions in our package even though these documents
were already available in newsagents. We also approached the Department
of Consumer Affairs for tacit approval of what we proposed and we
left a copy of the kit with them. We realised the Department couldn't
actually endorse our product but at least we felt we had done the
right thing by bringing our enterprise to its attention. They simply
said that anyone could sell their own home then added that there
had been a number of similar services around like ours 10 years
previously. We didn't think to question why none of them were
still in operation!
Real Estate and Business Agents Supervisory Board. In
1990 it was suggested to us that we should approach the Supervisory
Board to explain to them how our services worked and if it might
not be to everyone's benefit that a special license be issued
to private sale companies like ourselves. Mr. Bob Rossi
was the registrar of the Board (still is in fact) and he calmly
said that he had better things to do than waste his time on such
matters. We think he missed a great opportunity, as we were accumulating
a fair bit of knowledge in this area and were prepared to help set
guidelines and ethics to control a whole new industry.
More support wanted. Over ensuing months, as our
business grew and we evaluated our clients progress it became obvious
that a rounded service that provided ongoing support during the
sale and conveyancing was required. They wanted guidance, for example,
on the layout of advertisements and how to choose a settlement agent
– yes, even questions as basic as that. There is so much information
available today that you may smile at the naivety but that is how
it was.
This is illegal! Above all, our clients wanted
advice on how to deal with aggressive real estate agents who would
walk in on home opens, browbeating and accusing them of operating
outside the law by selling their own homes! (Some of them still
try it on). Our telephone service became, of necessity, a screening
service so that clients could elect to return calls or not depending
upon the nature of the message left with ANREPS. The great white
chief of REIWA Michael Griffiths was the leader
of the band publicly stating on ABC radio that we were operating
illegally.
Harassment and Investigations. In spite of considerable
harassment by agents our clients succeeded in selling their homes
and as ANREPS began to grow so did agents' hostility. It wasn't
long before agent complaints brought an investigator from Consumer
Affairs to our door. The file was opened and closed on the same
day. We were confident we hadn't breached state legislation
but it was a relief to have confirmation. We thought that was the
end of it, little did we know that this signaled the beginning of
a war that would last for the next 6 years.
1990s
Fighting the battles. Agent complaints, fuelled, we were
to discover, by REIWA, continued to roll in and grow. Consumer Affairs
are obliged to investigate written complaints so they kept turning
up on our doorstep. REIWA wasn't getting too far with these
tactics so guess what they did next?
Withdrawal of O & A and Joint Form of General Conditions.
We're often asked why we have our own form of Contract
of Sale and General Terms of Sale. The simple reason is that REIWA,
in its attempts to put ANREPS out of business, withdrew these documents
from sale to the public. The Law Society didn't think too
much of that and instructed REIWA that the Joint Form of General
Conditions (copyright is vested between the Law Society and REIWA)
must be available for private use, so after some months it was again
for sale in stationers and newsagents though the O & A was not.
Determined not to be outmaneuvered this way we engaged a law firm
to draw up all the legal documents for our clients to use.
Irdi Legal. It's fitting to mention here
that shortly after this we were introduced to Gus Irdi who had a
small practise in Leederville. Gus undertook a full review of our
service, drafted a new form of Contract of Sale and Terms of Sale,
provided free legal advice and subsequently settlement services
to our clients. It is thanks to him that we were able to sustain
our operation through the tough times and remain independent. He
now has a large law firm and a sizeable settlement agency; he's
a great guy with enormous personal integrity, you would go a long
way to find a better person or solicitor.
We heartily congratulate Gus on his Member of the Order
of Australia awarded this Australia Day 2007.
1992
REIWA Rage. When clients began to queue on the patio we
realised we could no longer accommodate the business at home. The
old butcher's shop on Manning Road had been empty for some
time and we thought it would be an ideal spot for us. It was an
exciting time ripping out the meat hooks, Tony pulling the asbestos
off the walls without a second thought, painting and fitting out
the place. Awnings were painted ‘Private Property Sales'
, window displays shouted ‘All Properties For Sale by Owner';
we invited Consumer Affairs Officers to inspect the premises, which
they duly did. As you can imagine the location on a busy road
increased our profile hugely and correspondingly inflamed agents
and REIWA. The complaints flooded in ------- and so did a death
threat!
Investigation 3. It seemed like full scale war
this time. Back came the investigators, they went through our paperwork,
photographed the shop front and our clients' properties without
their consent. Several clients were questioned about the service
we were providing which alarmed them initially but we were able
to reassure them that everything was fine and it was just real estate
agents trying to get their rocks off creating problems for us. We
guaranteed that we would not disappear overnight.
Newspaper Advertising. Everyone knows about the
power of advertising but did you know that the real estate industry
controls who and where you can advertise in community papers and
the like……..Now that's power.
In their attempts to thwart ANREPS business, real estate agents
threatened to withdraw all their advertisements from the Community
papers if the papers accepted ANREPS or their clients advertising
in the property sections of the papers. Believe it or not the papers
complied. So much for Community papers. Mind you they wouldn't
put the reasons for refusing advertisements in writing but were
quite happy to trumpet it down the phone.
This wasn't just a local phenomenon. In Adelaide the Advertiser
said no, the Messenger Press said no. The Adelaide Sunday Mail ran
a full page headed
Dream
Home NIGHTMARE
BUYER BEWARE. SELLER
BE WARNED, ATTEMPTING TO BUY SELL OR LET
REAL ESTATE
PRIVATELY CAN TURN INTO A REAL NIGHTMARE
Running down the page on one side was a huge picture of the very
famous Silent Scream by Edvard Munch. It had been rearranged and
showed a house in a storm with a Private Sale sign. Very artistic
and it must have been very expensive. On the rest of the page was
the REISA scary message.
Not to be outdone all the Sydney Cumberland Press local suburban
papers followed suit and banned private sale ads as did the Queensland
papers.
There is a Government body that's worth a mention here and
that is the Trade Practices Commission as it was
called in those days. Despite repeated requests from us to look
into what we considered the discriminatory practices of the press
they weren't in the least bit interested. It makes you wonder
doesn't it?
Back here in the West. Things were really hotting
up. In 1990 REIWA started running ads in the West Australian and
the Sunday Times specifically targeting ANREPS by disassociating
itself from us (what a relief) and suggesting that we were misleading
the public. The size of the ads in 1990 was 6 cms x 2 columns. By
1992 the size of the ads had jumped to 18cms x 12cms. REIWA was
throwing some serious money and mud at us in the media. In the Home
Buyer they were taking out full page ads headed:
PRIVATE SALES?...... WHY TAKE THE RISK? REIWA obviously
just didn't get it. That was the whole point of our business.
Reducing the risk in private sales, empowering the public and of
course saving them money.
Michael Griffiths was the REIWA executive director
during the early 1990's. He was the chief REIWA architect
planning our downfall.
Richardson and Wrench real estate agents in Duncraig
in 1993 couldn't help themselves they published an A4 size
scare ad headed:
BUYERS (AND SELLERS)
BEWARE of Private Sales Organisations
They didn't get it either.
Then we had Ron Hayward the then President of the Geraldton
Branch of the REIWA having a go in The Mid West
Times. He neatly twisted a warning from the Ministry of
Fair Trading about unlicensed travel agents to mean the same applied
to our business. The paper gave him a nice little spread.
Lyn Faul was another estate agent having a go in
the press. Under the banner:
PRICE PRIVATE SALES ARE THEY WORTH THE RISK?
She wrote an article in the Wanneroo Times. Good old Lyn was as
scary as she could be .. .. but she missed the point as well.
Listen to this excerpt from Chris Jones, JP,
and Managing Director of ABPS
real estate agents in a facsimile to REIWA. Dated 10 August 1994:
We can and must beat ANREPS in its own market place .. .. Over
recent months I have waged a one man campaign against ANREPS through
my own organization .. .. in my fight to do something really positive
about containing the expansion of ANREPS .. .. I have single handedly
done more to contain the ANREPS expansion and demoralize its members
than any other individual.
This is a JP and a past member of the Queensland
Law Society!
By the way, he was trying to get elected to the REIWA council in
'94.
Here's Something Outrageous. The Ministry
had asked us to change our corporate logo and signage for reasons
we will never understand, so we agreed to do so. The company we
employed to give us a new image was a fairly high profile player
Vinten Browning. We told the Ministry what we were
doing and who was doing it and the next thing Vinten Browning
gets a dawn raid by the Ministry who cart off all the files
on ANREPS. Can you believe that? And who on earth would put them
up to it?
The West Australian. Over the years the West has
been pretty good to us. They never appeared to succumb to real estate
industry threats and have almost always contacted us for comment
when they have been running Government and REIWA statements. Dave
Reardon, Roger Martin, John Duffy were the main reporters and quite
often their slant was in favour of private sellers and our business.
I think they all recognised the blunt instrument that REIWA was
wielding at the time. REIWA still wield it today but in much more
subtle forms and never directly.
The West Australian Headlines
ANREPS happy to make change. This was in
reference to our window signage, Consumer Affairs wanted us to make
it very clear in our windows that all the properties displayed there
carried a notice that they were for sale by the owner and not ANREPS.
We did that anyway so that was easy.
REIWA gets legal aid in sales battle. In
September 1993 as reported by Roger Martin, "REIWA has commissioned
a firm of solicitors to convince the Real Estate and Business Advisory
Board to take action against ANREPS".
ANREPS.. Doubts raised .. .. By Sandra O'Malley.
Fair Trading Minister Peter Foss told the Legislative Council
that there was new evidence which indicated that a W.A. homes sales
advisory company "may be undertaking other unknown activities……."
That's a great piece of doubletalk. How do you work
that one out? NEW EVIDENCE which indicated we may be undertaking
other UNKNOWN activities. In the same article it went on ... Freedom
of Information documents showed that the investigations into ANREPS
were initiated by an indirect competitor ---- The Real Estate Institute
of WA which had the former Liberal Party President Bill Hassell
working for them. Good old Peter Foss said there was no record in
the Ministry or in his office that Bill had ever lobbied on behalf
of REIWA.
(Peter Foss always refused to meet with any spokesperson from the
company. His office always said it would be inappropriate)
Former liberal in real estate link .. .. by Dave
Reardon
Former Liberal Party President Bill Hassell worked
as a consultant for the Real Estate Institute of WA. which has campaigned
to have a small competitor investigated by the Ministry of Fair
Trading .. .. Yvonne Henderson who was the opposition
consumer affairs spokesman went on to say that the ministry had
vindictively pursued ANREPS ---- which has been the subject of enquiries
for four years --- and asked Premier Richard Court
whether his zeal was because of Bill Hassell's
party links. "He was employed by REIWA on a contract
reputedly worth $100,000 a year specifically for the task
of combating ANREPS success in the home sales area," she said.
Fair Trading Ministry spokesman Richard Ward said
"We have had some dealings with Bill because of his involvement
with settlement agents, but no one can remember him doing anything
with ANREPS". Back came Minister Peter
Foss saying that the Ministry had been lobbied for years
on the matter.
REIWA set off probe into competitor …………
by Dave Reardon 6/12/94
Good old Dave had heaps to say in this article. Part of it reads
.. . Fair Trading Minister Peter Foss denied ANREPS
was being harassed and said the Ministry was obliged to respond
to complaints from the public. He said there had been three public
complaints since 1989 (remember this is now 1994) but he could not
reveal who made them.
Just as a matter of record in 1994 the Fair Trading Ministry admitted
that it had received 462 complaints that year about real estate
agents, presumably REIWA members. They only investigated 13 agents,
with 12 found guilty. Dave went on in his article to say
that .. . A letter from REIWA to the Consumer
Affairs Department in August last year ---- obtained through FOI
----thanks the department for “having instigated further investigations
into the conduct and marketing practices being used by ANREPS."
This was done "in the absence of any consumer complaints to
the department about the conduct of ANREPS".
ANREPS "already cleared" ………………..
by John Duffy Dec 1994
Another nice little story about all the investigations clearing
us but Peter Foss was about to have another investigation.
This one was dragged out a full 12 months and wasn't closed
until 1996. Can you imagine the enormously difficult trading position
we were in. You would think we were a bunch of crooks ripping off
the public and anyone else we could get to. Instead we were saving
them thousands of dollars. By now the overall savings was running
into many millions of dollars.
COURT LOOMS FOR ANREPS ………………….
by Dave Reardon
In part reads ……………..Peter Foss
responding to Jim McGinty the Opposition Leader said the ANREPS
issue would be laid to rest only after Fair Trading Ministry investigations
and subsequent court action. This is last throw of the dice stuff
and of course it went the same way as all of the rest of the investigations
– a full clearance for ANREPS.
THE BIG PICTURE WAS….. What ever happened
in the West was happening in all the other states. REIWA was constantly
pumping up the adrenalin interstate with its institutes and State
Governments. It was an endless battle attending meetings and hosing
down bush fires. We logged up more frequent flyer points than you
could point a stick at. Here today, Sydney tomorrow, back down to
Adelaide, off up to Cairns, down to Brisbane over to Canberra, it
just went on and on.
We fought governments and real estate institutes in each state that
we operated in. In 1996 they finally gave up. Here in the West a
Ministerial Statement was read out in the House and since that time
the government has left us alone.
Unfortunately the same can't be said of quite a few REIWA
members. These immature and sadly misinformed agents still enjoy
slinging mud at every opportunity, so when you meet one you know
the sort of person they are. They talk ethics, service, and added
value. We don't think they really understand those words.
It's like the rhetoric you read in the real estate columns
every week end. They all claim to be the best.
Rob Druitt the REIWA PRESIDENT just couldn't
help himself on 3rd February 2007 in the West Australian. He trotted
out all the old rhetoric that his predecessors have said before
him, trying to throw scares and doubts into private sellers'
minds. You would think he would be intelligent enough to understand
that those hoary old stories don't hold water any more. Again
he is just another agent that doesn't understand the value
to the community ANREPS offers. He simply doesn't get it that
we make private sales safe.
The Good Things. For those who watched it, who
can forget the day Channel 9 let Australia know
about our business on A Current Affair. Thank you Channel
9.
Choice Magazine gave us a virtual thumbs up in
1994
Property Investment gave us a good run in 1994
The Sydney Morning Herald told everyone "The
way to get around agents". Nice article
The West Australian ran an article in its business
section. ESTATE AGENTS' PITCH YIELDS NEW BUSINESS.
Nice publicity, our thanks to The West.
The Australian devoted half a page to our services
complete with big pictures in 1995
SO WHAT HAS HAPPENED SINCE 1996? We are proud to
say that we have built the most comprehensive and successful private
sale organisation in the country. Our private sellers now enjoy
all of the direct and indirect marketing and information advantages
that real estate agents enjoy. No one within the industry has any
technological or marketing advantage over our customers. In fact
in many instances our clients' advantages are superior to
the industry.
We make it our practice to constantly improve our ANREPS
sales staff skills to the point where we can honestly say that you
will never find someone as good or better. They are a brilliant
team.
Through our association with SuperSell Realty, Offer and Acceptance
Contracts are now drafted for our clients leaving nothing to chance.
For those that require greater assistance SuperSell Realty negotiate
on behalf of the seller or offer full real estate services.
SuperSell is the name and that is exactly what
it is. It's a great way to sell and save money. SuperSell
combines old fashioned service with yesterday's commissions using
tomorrow's technology. That's a mouthful isn't it, but
we're not kidding, If you want to fly with the eagles give
them a call.
Was the ANREPS fight worth it?
Yes it was worth it. Empowering people is very rewarding.
Would we do it again? Yes. It's very easy now, but, we wouldn't
like to start from the beginning again.
Once again to our customers we say a big "Thank You"
for sticking with us through all the tough years and an even bigger
“THANK YOU" for coming back to us time and time again.
Now you have read our story think about this. Between
1990 and 1996 there were (we were told but cannot be sure) 1.5 investigators
in the service of Consumer Affairs. During those years the Ministry
kept those investigators hot on our tails for no other reason than
complaints by REIWA.
During those same years investors lost millions of dollars in the
finance brokers' scandal. Denise Brailey who championed those investors
and eventually achieved some justice for them said that the Ministry
said they were unable to investigate complaints about the brokers
as they were understaffed!!!
The Real Estate Industry and Consumer Affairs really have a lot
to answer for. |
