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A real estate agent and tech whiz have joined forces to combat price secrecy and increase market transparency.
In recent years, Australian home buyers have been increasingly faced with hidden prices, inaccurate price guides and secrecy around sold prices.
It is something that has been a source of frustration for many – 72 per cent of Aussies reported that they would skip over properties that do not include a price in the listing.
Real estate veteran Tori Huxtable and tech expert Tamsin Lapointe decided that enough is enough. The pair have just launched a new app called Auction Snitch that aims to “arm property buyers and sellers with inside information”.
Currently available for home buyers in Sydney, the Auction Snitch team has plans to roll the app out nationally.
“Navigating the Sydney property market can be a nightmare,” said Ms Lapointe. “People spend an average of nine months searching for the right property, often viewing over 300 listings and attending numerous inspections.”
Ms Lapointe wanted to level the playing field for buyers by tapping into an underutilised resource: crowdsourcing.
The free app invites users to “snitch” real-time data on property price guides, sale prices and auction results – information which agents usually withhold in order to procure the names and numbers of potential buyers.
“Auction Snitch stops the secrecy,” said Ms Lapointe. “The transparency of price and sales history means that potential buyers know where they stand.”
According to Ms Huxtable, an experienced agent from Sydney’s North Shore, the app is also of benefit to vendors, allowing them to gain an accurate understanding of their property’s value and refine their marketing campaign.
With underquoting tip-offs increasingly coming from real estate agents themselves, improvements to transparency will be welcomed by industry professionals as well as the public.
“The information the app gathers helps agents price properties correctly and give accurate guides,” said Ms Huxtable.
“It’s astonishing that the results of a public auction, witnessed by many, can remain a secret to those not present. Auction Snitch changes that,” said Ms Huxtable.
“Now, ‘snitchers’ can instantly publish auction results, enhancing market transparency for everyone.”
As well as increasing price transparency, Auction Snitch also acts as a corrective to underquoting. In NSW, underquoting is forbidden by law, and agents caught in the act can face a $2,200 fine. Nevertheless, many agents continue to advertise a price range below what they know the vendor will accept.
Ms Huxtable stated that the app “leverages the power of the hundreds of thousand of people actively looking to buy and sell property and it allows them to share information anonymously, encouraging participation.”
Since its soft launch in August 2022, Ms Lapointe and Ms Huxtable have reported an “overwhelming positive response”, with 42,000 snitches to date.
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