It started well enough…

We picked David because we liked his calm and soft spoken manner, and non-pressure tactics. We were told at the start of the campaign that the market was strong, and by the end it was weak and seemingly out of the agent’s control. David advised us to do basic renovations on the property to increase its value; we spent just under $30k. The final price we achieved was well below the value we were lead to believe. What bothered us more was the tactics and, in hindsight, we feel that David did not serve us, his clients. David also advised us to remove a built-in to make the bedroom “feel bigger”, only for buyer to use it against us. I suspect he advised the buyer to write all their grievances in an email to present to me as a list of “it’s not me, it’s you” reasons as to why my property needs to be sold below market, and as an extension why David failed to negotiate a better price for me. I had to push back against ridiculous conditions and offers and advocated for myself. Furthermore, there was no scheduled updates or meetings; I had to do most of the chasing. David was too quick to say “an offer is coming in today” only to hear nothing back. Why? If nothing is firm, just don’t say anything! An hour after settlement the property was up for rent by Cobden. They come out winning either way; the vendor looks like a fool doing renovations that benefits the agent regardless if how much less they make on commission. We don’t recommend C&H for sales or property management (yes, they managed the same property years earlier). Maybe the Sydney housing market have produced desperate agents with questionable tactics but should not be this way!