Wednesday, November 12, 2003
Real estate agent truth-telling shock
"It is just an old house" is what agent John Michael Talia seems to have said to the buyers of a Melbourne property whose vendors he was acting for.
Not surprisingly, the buyers ended up getting a bit of a bargain, with the house selling for at least $16,000 under true market value.
Talia denies, however, that the fact that the buyer bought the house as part of a secret trust in which his wife was a beneficiary had anything to do with it.
It is here that Talia’s attitude towards truth-at-all-costs becomes contradictory. With the couple’s actual profit being $175,000, and fined a paltry $5000 (along with his agent's licence being suspended for 4 1/2 months), Talia retorts:
"This is just over the top."
Ya reckon? You know what, Mr Talia – I think your arse would be a nice little “renovators delight” in the shower block of a maximum-security prison, where you and it most assuredly belong.
And that would only just be meeting the reserve price. I'm sure the boys could run a competitive bidding system, to get the action really spiralling upwards. Eh, Mr Talia?
"It is just an old house" is what agent John Michael Talia seems to have said to the buyers of a Melbourne property whose vendors he was acting for.
Not surprisingly, the buyers ended up getting a bit of a bargain, with the house selling for at least $16,000 under true market value.
Talia denies, however, that the fact that the buyer bought the house as part of a secret trust in which his wife was a beneficiary had anything to do with it.
It is here that Talia’s attitude towards truth-at-all-costs becomes contradictory. With the couple’s actual profit being $175,000, and fined a paltry $5000 (along with his agent's licence being suspended for 4 1/2 months), Talia retorts:
"This is just over the top."
Ya reckon? You know what, Mr Talia – I think your arse would be a nice little “renovators delight” in the shower block of a maximum-security prison, where you and it most assuredly belong.
And that would only just be meeting the reserve price. I'm sure the boys could run a competitive bidding system, to get the action really spiralling upwards. Eh, Mr Talia?
