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A top real estate agent has praised Queensland’s new seller disclosure laws as a major step for transparency, despite lengthy delays to the contract signing process.
Will Torres, agent and CEO at Torres Property, said that Queensland’s mandatory seller disclosure requirements are important for transparency in the industry.
The laws, enacted on 1 August, mean that sellers are now required to provide extra information to buyers before a property contract is signed.
If the seller fails to disclose relevant information, which includes a collection of documents and certificates, the buyer may terminate the contract.
Torres said that the laws are a positive and important step, given the real estate industry is renowned for not always being transparent.
“The industry doesn’t have the best name because of being deceiving or not telling the truth,” he said.
“That’s the general consensus when you see it on social media, or you have people having an opinion because they’ve been burnt by an agent.
“I think it’s really going to wash out a lot of the cowboys in the industry.”
Torres said that he had already chosen to disclose many issues that the law covers, even before the new requirements came into place.
“Sewer lines, stormwater, title searches … catchments, character listing of a property or heritage listing of a property. We’ve always done that,” he said.
“And it’s not new to us, and had it on display for buyers to buy with confidence and do their due diligence themselves.
“And of course, they might take it one step further and speak to their solicitor … They need to do their own research as well. But I don’t see this as a bad thing. I actually see it as a great thing.”
However, Torres said one major shortfall is the time-consuming process for completing the disclosure form, as he called for a streamlined procedure to boost efficiency.
“When we’ve got a property coming on the market, there is a delay of a week to two weeks on getting that form … That’s where I see the challenge, and time does kill deals,” he said.
“When we went into doing a contract, we’d go straight into contract that same day and try and close it that same evening. Now we have to wait.”
“I think that there needs to be a fast-tracked program because it will kill deals if the information isn’t there at hand for buyers, when they want to act, because you need to strike while the iron is hot,” he concluded.
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