Book Review > Don't Sign Anything

You see the title and you see the author's name and maybe you will think: "Not that mad fringe real estate identity Neil Jenman, dumping on his own profession again. Hasn't he already said all there is to say?"

I could not put this book down! Jenman does not come across at all lunatic or alarmist. He appears to be chillingly sane, fair and rational as he reveals how 'professional' the real estate industry has become and how conniving these 'professionals' can be when it comes to stripping money from unsophisticated property sellers.

Most AIA members would probably NOT consider themselves 'unsophisticated', but the way Jenman explains it, many more real estate agents than vendors come out of a house sale satisfied. Let's face it, he says, house sellers are rarely 'professionals' - how many properties do the majority of us sell in a lifetime? One? Two? So we hand over the sale of probably our biggest ticket item to 'professionals' who, it appears, are rarely worthy of our trust.

You must make your mum and dad read this book before they sell the family home. You should read it before you sell any real estate, and then pass it on to your friends. It is very easy to read and the ramifications of not reading this book could have a significant impact on your financial and emotional health. You won't be able to just 'tell' someone what Jenman is saying; they won't believe you. They'll have to read it for themselves.

Jenman reminds us that selling a family home generates hundreds of thousands of dollars, even millions of dollars, and real estate agents around the country are helping themselves to many hundreds of thousands of dollars more than they deserve because they have become increasingly sophisticated at fleecing money from sellers, bright, trusting, fair-minded sellers, who have lagged way behind the real estate industry in the sophistication stakes.

"Agents are clambering aboard the real estate gravy train in order to pocket money at every stop along the home buying and selling journey."

You might not agree with all of Jenman's points of view, but you will be better informed after reading the reasons for his views.

For example, Jenman says in his book that sellers should not pay even one cent in advertising money to an agent - that all advertising money should come out of the agent's commission, since most advertising features the agency and agent more prominently than the house for sale.

Jenman reports that Real Estate Institutes around the country receive millions of dollars of taxpayers' money each year to provide a 'public information service'. Yet most of their time is spent loudly defending agents that have been 'dobbed in' by vendors for appalling service, and sometimes criminal activity, labeling them at worst as 'rogues' and 'isolated cases', when Jenman's research shows that sadly, an agent with the seller's interests at heart is almost an oxymoron.

"If deceit in real estate were isolated it would be easier to prevent. The reason it is so hard to stop is because it is everywhere."

"A Brisbane woman who felt thoroughly cheated after selling her home later said 'I should have listened to my 'little voice', but I just didn't know there was another way."

Jenman says there is another way - he says every seller should not sign anything with any agent until the agent signs a guarantee to protect the seller's interests. Jenman includes a 16-point guarantee in an appendix at the end of the book.

Jenman and real estate agents like him who want to speak out about thieving practices in the industry are unable to advertise in mainstream newspapers. Newspaper budgets rely heavily on real estate industry advertising. An ad by a Victorian agent, saying 'no commission paid unless I sell your house for the price I quote you', reportedly was not accepted by the newspapers, because it would alienate all the other agents who advertise.

"Like a miner with a light on his helmet, I have shone the light on some of the darkest places in real estate. I have seen lovely families terribly and deliberately hurt. What I have seen has affected me deeply. At times I have been moved to tears, at times, I have felt a level of anger I didn't know I possessed. As Irish statesman Edmund Burke said 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing'. Do something please."

"If you feel this book will protect you from the tricks and traps of real estate, please tell others what you know." - Neil Jenman

Naomi Cescotto is a member of the AIA.