I have been railing against Vendor Funnellers for many months and even years now. Many of you would be aware of my growing fear of the threat posed by third party commercial operators that seek to step in between you and your clients and act as brokers to that relationship.

It is very gratifying to note that many members have heeded my concerns and have made the decision not to support these commercial operators who at the moment are seeking up to 20 per cent of your hard earned professional fee for the referral.

The Institute believes the marketing used by a number of these commercial operators is misleading to the public; inferring that there are no costs for using their services when in fact the real estate agent who may use the service pays a significant portion of their professional fee. Some also purport that the agent selected is the best agent in the area, when they only represent a small portion of agents active in any given area. What is even more concerning is the advertising commentary inferring that the particular Vendor achieved a great result because of the advice from the commercial operator!

REISA introduced www.myreiagent.com.au to provide the public with a credible and reliable source when searching on-line to select an agent to list their property. This has been made available free of charge to REI Forms Live users (and also attracts two Certified Professional Member points for its use).

To help combat the activities of these third party commercial operators, we will shortly be launching a broad MyREIAgent public campaign on social media in which members will be invited to participate. After all, as an agent you want:

- to take control of this space (given online "word of mouth" is an ever growing process used by Vendors to choose their right agent);

- a guarantee that the person making a comment in social media is actually your Vendor (and not some phoney alias or competitor);

- a guarantee the poster of any comment about your service is a customer of yours;

- a guarantee that there are reasonable rules and review points and policies associated with any posting;

- a guarantee you have a right of last response on any feedback whether it be good or bad (after all, it is how you respond to an adverse customer comment that makes you a professional);

- a guarantee that we won't misrepresent you, the costs and your services;

- a guarantee we won't take twenty percent of your professional fee (unlike various vendor funnellers and rating sites); and 

- a guarantee that you cannot simply "pay your way to a five star rating or glowing testimony" from one of your customers.

Please remember that these operators offer leads in exchange for a significant percentage of your professional fee when you list and sell. We must not let them gain momentum by agreeing to participate in their ‘lowest fee wins’ listing opportunities. If they succeed we lose control of our own profession, compromise our professionalism and give an anonymous eastern states-based provider a slice of our professional fees in exchange for nothing more than running a web portal.

The Institute has raised the issue of agent rating sites with the Commissioner of Consumer & Business Services, and in conjunction with other REIs, is preparing a submission for consideration by the ACCC. These actions together with a range of other steps, including media articles, advertising in community newspapers and individual actions taken by members, all add to increasing the public awareness of the risks of using such services to select an agent.

To assist REISA in preparing its submission to the ACCC, I urge you to provide information from clients who have used these referral sites, as well as your own experiences, especially if the information concerning costs and any other matter may have been misleading.

Please email any information you may have to assist REISA in preparing its submission to [email protected] by 7 December 2016.

Thank you for your support.

See also:

Beware of vendor funelling

DocuSign demonstration: REISA

Underquoting and 'walking the talk'