Exposing the baiting tricks of real estate brokers

Brokers "drop bait" to "herd" customers

The real estate market is entering the final days of the year. Signs of recovery in some segments such as real estate and apartments are becoming more and more evident.

However, during this period, the market has seen a resurgence of tricks by unprofessional real estate brokers and real estate agents. This situation has disrupted the market and created risks and inconvenience for buyers.

Mr. Tran Nguyen Duc in Hoai Duc district ( Hanoi ) admitted that he was a "victim" of fake real estate information. He said that since October, he has been looking to buy a house, but until now he has not been able to buy because of confusing information and prices.

A townhouse in an urban area in An Khanh area was advertised for sale on many real estate channels and social networks with different prices. When I met the broker, they took me to another townhouse with information that did not match the one being advertised for sale," Mr. Duc was upset and affirmed that it was difficult to determine which information was real and which was fake.

It is worth mentioning that when he was satisfied with the location and needed to negotiate the price with the homeowner, the broker made up an excuse not to do so. Then, the broker announced on behalf of the homeowner to increase the selling price.

"At first, the house I intended to buy was listed for 7 billion VND, but when negotiating the price, the broker told the owner to increase it to 7.2 billion VND before selling. I agreed to increase the price, but they "asked" for 7.5 billion VND," Mr. Duc shared.

According to Mr. Duc, to "legitimize" this price increase, they also continuously push out the same sales information as before, but with different prices. "They prove the price increase with new sales information. But I think this is a trick of a group of brokers, to "eat" the high price difference," Mr. Duc said.

Bóc mẽ chiêu trò thả mồi câu của môi giới nhà đất - 1 — The market is just starting to "warm up" again, brokers have launched tricks to "herd customers" (Illustration: Ha Phong).

Similar to Mr. Duc, Mr. Hoang Van Tung in Hoang Mai district (Hanoi) almost became a victim of fake sales information from brokers. When looking to buy land in Thanh Tri district, Mr. Tung got lost in a "matrix" of sales information from brokers.

"According to the advertisement, the land plot in Ngu Hiep commune has an area of 85 square meters, but when I went to see it, the land plot with private use rights was 35 square meters, and the remaining 50 square meters was the common walkway area for the remaining four plots," said Mr. Tung.

Previously, according to data from the Vietnam Association of Realtors (VARS), in the third quarter, the market witnessed the reappearance of large-scale fraud, causing many people to lose money due to "ghost projects". The above developments continue to be a wake-up call for "amateur" investors who lack information and understanding of the real estate market.

VARS emphasized that it is urgent to strengthen management and supervision measures and assign responsibility to all subjects participating in transactions related to real estate products.

Difficult to verify the reputation of the broker

Sharing with Dan Tri reporter - a professional real estate broker in Hanoi admitted - posting fake information to find real customers. This trick is often done by many unprofessional, "quick-fix" brokers.

"A professional, conscientious broker usually has a large client base. However, new brokers or "land brokers" have to post fake information to find real customers," this person shared.

According to this broker, the main and most recognizable trick in the market is posting a lot of attractive but untrue information or leading customers to real estate products that do not match the posted content...

"To sell a plot of land, brokers post information about many other plots of land in the area with different prices. It could be higher than the actual selling price to mislead buyers, or lower the price to find customers in need," the broker said.

Bóc mẽ chiêu trò thả mồi câu của môi giới nhà đất - 2 — Experts say it is difficult to verify the reputation of brokers (Illustration: Ha Phong).

According to Mr. Tran Duc Khang - Sales Director of Region 2 of OneHousing, there are brokers in the market using the "bait" trick. The usual scenario is that they post a beautiful house for sale, in a good location, at an incredibly low price to attract the attention of buyers. When customers interact, they will move from house A, to house B, then house C...

"A house worth 4 billion VND but the broker posts it for 3 billion VND will definitely have customers contacting. The broker informs that the house is no longer available and refers the customer to another house with a higher price or not as nice," Mr. Khang gave an example.

According to Mr. Khang, those who buy a transferred house when encountering this situation will be very tired and "disillusioned" with the manipulation of the broker, but they also do not have many options when there is no way to check the reputation and honesty of the broker.

Sharing the same opinion, an expert from an online real estate listing platform said that no platform can confirm 100% of the listings are real, there will be a number of fake listings.

Advertisers have many reasons for posting fake ads, such as using customer data to sell other properties, posting prices higher than the real value in the hope of pushing up prices, or posting lower prices for other purposes.

Accordingly, this expert recommends that home buyers should consider postings that are too good in price and always compare them with the average market price. To ensure safety, users should absolutely not transfer money or make a deposit before verifying the information.

Regarding the handling direction, Mr. Le Hoang Chau - Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City Real Estate Association (HoREA) - suggested that the authorities need to be more strict in handling subjects posting false information with the purpose of enticing customers to buy land in another area or committing fraud. The law clearly stipulates that if anyone provides false information, causing consequences, they must be fined, and more seriously, they will be held criminally responsible.

Mr. Chau emphasized that websites that post information about buying and selling must also be responsible for the truthfulness of the information posted on their websites. The government needs to have regulations that if an entity posts incorrect information, it must be handled, punished, or even shut down.

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