Advice to anyone thinking of using Hockingstuart A recent experience selling with HS Caulfield was more stressful than it had to be. Here a few tips to avoid some of the issues I experienced. - This is not a personal critique and probably applies to most agents. The staff at HS Caulfield nice, but things could be done better. - Ask what extension they have beyond auction day. Check this on the contract. 30 days is normal. On my contract they wrote 60, and took care not to mention this, then asked for a signature. All happened in 5 minutes. Keep the contract to peruse then call them when ready to sign. - When the marketing material is organised, ask for a file with examples of each product paid for. (I had to ask 3 times and never saw the 300 postcards of 2 types) - Ask how and when the postcards you pay for are delivered. Check this happens. - Ask what it costs to keep the property high in the listings online - Ask for data on most effective marketing media - Insist on detailed feedback after each open - The staff seemed to think a week is just the weekend opens. There is no sense they are working productively on your place during the week. Insist every potential buyer at the open is rung and followed up by Monday. - Insist on clear and regular communication. Do not buy into the that is not a good use of my time. While I am talking to you I could be out selling argument. - If offered 1.5% commission, take it and do not accept that the argument later that this is cheap. - Pay attention if they try to talk down your house after signing you up. Or talk down other recent good results, so your expectations are lowered. They will argue the great result around the corner was not evidence of the value of your place. - Commission is for 4 weeks WORK, not auction day. They get thousands every week to sell your place. Ask what they are doing for this. - Lots of the marketing expense can be cut or reduced. The marketing packages are a rort. I paid for an expensive twilight shoot that was not worth it. Are you sure you want to pay for being able to see the lights on? There is evidence outcomes do not depend on marketing spend alone. - When I complained and asked for a small refund of expenses in light of cavalier treatment, they were very keen to rush round and tell me how beaut they actually were, then refused. - Being charming is not enough. You want someone who will earn that commission for four weeks. Talk this stuff through before signing and HS contract. If not satisfied, go elsewhere.

Probably not much difference to most real estates, certainly know how to spin it but focus most of their effort on lowering your expectations as a vendor rather then trying to talk up the property to prospective buyers. We were in particular very disappointed in the pre-auction talk with the staff where we very clearly stated what we wanted him to focus on in his auction spiel. Should have realised that the reason he didn't take any notes was that he couldn't care less of what we said, rather he thinks about cafe precinct and the general state of the market was good enough rather than our details about a unit that was a copy of ours that had been subdivided and sold just a few weeks earlier for 200k more then we were asking... We had also printed up a map with our favourite places close by including cafe's that we showed him but 5 minutes before the auction was to start he still asked us what cafes we liked...Their argument is that no-one listens to the auction spiel anyway, but then it's hard to understand how they can charge so much for it! Anyway, truly disappointed in their ability to listen to us as vendors, it was clear afterwards they only pretended to listen. Of course we never know the difference in $ it would have made on the day to someone that was truly trying to work with the vendor on 'selling' the place rather then only working on lowering your expectation to get an easy sale. Also surprised to see that a big organisation like HS was not the least interested to receive any feedback what so ever that was anything other then glowing praise. Real Estate must be one of very few industries where a business can have total disregard for continuous improvement and still prosper.