Underquoting debate continues

Tom Panos, real estate coach and head of real estate sales at News Corp, is in favour of agents giving price guides.  "Buyers will be turned off looking at things and not knowing whether they can afford it or not. They would stay away from properties where they were given no idea at all of the selling price. So, I think it would be against the vendor's best interests,” he said.
This misses the key point, that buyers are turned off when they see houses they thought they could afford being auctioned at prices way above the guide price.  And by then the buyer has spent hundreds of dollars on inspection fees.
Tom goes on to say "The legislation states that it’s illegal to underquote, so the solution is very simple - punish those who are doing it”.  But as we found when we complained in 2011, the OFT won't act if the vendor and agent agree on the price guide to be advertised.
We believe the key is to have compulsory display of comparables, so buyers and OFT inspectors can see for themselves whether the guide price is justifiable or blatant deception.