Property Point

OPINION PIECE

I don’t like the whole “nanny state” thing. You know, governments, councils, agencies, faceless bureaucrats and the like putting their noses into our lives and creating endless rules and regulations that are usually none of their business.

Whether it’s the economy, public policy or just everyday life, I am in the camp of less is best when it comes to government interference and bureaucratic meddling.

I love the scene in the movie Wild at Heart when Nicolas Cage passionately describes his snakeskin jacket as a “symbol of my individuality and my belief in personal freedom”. Yeah baby!

Personal freedom, freedom of speech, free economies … the less government involvement, the better. A pretentious column would make reference to a “laissez-faire” philosophy, but not this one mate.

What about road rules? Some years ago I was in Argentina in a vehicle heading south on a six-lane freeway and I could not believe the apparent lack of road rules.

There probably were road rules but no one was paying any attention to them, with cars changing lanes without indicating, swerving around traffic at absurd speeds. It was dodgem cars at 100km/h.

I had been on the roads in Nepal and Thailand as well but somehow I expected Argentina to be less chaotic and I remember thinking that it was a good thing people aren’t allowed to drive like that in Australia. We pay attention to the road rules.

Argentina’s annual road death toll is 13.9 per 100,000 people, compared to Australia’s rate of 4.4 per 100,000.

So, sometimes rules can be a good thing ... there are plenty of rules when selling real estate as well and I can tell you that this is also a good thing.

Rules keep it simple, leave little room for interpretation and guide us on what is the correct thing to do. There is an ethical and moral side to it as well, but it is a lot simpler when you have rules that will be enforced.

Take the situation with multiple offers on a property. There was a time, some years ago, when an agent who had several offers on a property would play one buyer off against the other to push the price up.

These days the rules are simple: When there are multiple offers on a property the agent must inform the buyers of that fact and suggest to them that they put in their best and final offer because they may not get a chance to make another offer.

It is illegal to tell one buyer what another buyer has offered. Submit your best and final offer. That’s it. What happens after that is up to the seller but the agent has done his or her job by enforcing a rule that, while not popular among buyers, is equally unfair to everyone.

So, on reflection, there are times when having rules and enforcing them is important and in real estate it keeps things fair, equitable and predictable when there is a lot on the line.

Of course, you can still turn up to an open house in a convertible wearing your snakeskin jacket.

‍