Legal threats, backend hacks: How real estate agents can block honest reviews

Real estate agents advertising the most inaccurate property prices boast near flawless ratings on the nation’s largest listing platforms, prompting concerns buyers are being duped by online review systems that fail to capture – and have loopholes allowing agents to thwart – negative feedback.

An investigation by this masthead has also revealed the lengths to which some agents are going to maintain their ratings, with some deploying defamation threats, while others use backend hacks to block bad reviews.

When buyers search for homes on the two biggest platforms – realestate.com.au and Domain – listings also include reviews and an accompanying star rating for the agent selling the property.

However, new analysis from property data transparency tool Homer has found that agents who were the most likely to give an inaccurate price guide also had near-perfect star ratings and scant, if any, negative reviews.

“The review system doesn’t just fail to identify the bad apples — it actively endorses them,” Henry Pedersen, chief executive of Homer, said.

Homer assesses an agent’s likelihood of underpricing a property by looking at the average gap between two key publicly available pricing markers on all of their sales: a property’s initial price guide, which can be hidden in states where laws allow it and can change as a campaign progresses, and its final sale value. This produces an agent’s average pricing error score. The platform is marketed to buyers and sellers as a tool to help them assess the accuracy of real estate agents’ price guides.

Assessing all sales in the 18 months up to May, Homer produced a list of the 50 agents in every state and territory with the highest pricing error scores. This masthead then cross-referenced these agents’ ratings on realestate.com.au and Domain.

A clear trend emerged: almost all are presented as outstanding agents with zero complaints. On the nation’s leading listing platform, realestate.com.au, these agents’ median rating is a perfect five stars, across every state.

One reason for the overwhelmingly positive skew is that most reviews are left by sellers, who are likely to be happy when a property’s sale price exceeds early estimates. Platforms only allow vendors and successful buyers to leave reviews for agents. Those who miss out on a property are barred from airing their experiences.

Spokespeople for both realestate.com.au and Domain conceded their prominently displayed agent ratings better measure vendor satisfaction – who benefit from underquoting – and are not intended to endorse agents for prospective buyers.