The least and the most trusted professions
In a survey undertaken a fortnight ago, 645 respondents gave their vote of confidence to different professions. The results once more reaffirmed our belief that the car salesmen are the most untrusted profession around, says Gareth Hutchens for the Sydney Morning Herald. While only 4 percent of respondents trusted car salesmen, the figure was 12 percent for the real estate agents, putting them at the 28th spot, just one ahead of advertising agencies.
FYI, nurses topped the poll closely followed by doctors and pharmacists.
More people have reposed their trust in the property market
The faith shown in the real estate agents has not taken a beating and there is an increase of 3% (compared to the previous poll) in the percentage of respondents trusting them. You can read the full article here.
Conflict of interest
Being a property agent is like walking on a tightrope. The public perception is almost always prejudiced because people do not associate fair-play with those who are expected to make a fortune out of selling you a plot (or selling your plot). It is not to say that the agents involved in the game are saints. Sometimes, they suffer from conflict of interest and facilitate a property sell-off simply because they typically need the seller to reduce their price and the buyer to increase their offer. At such times, some might argue they do not work in the best interests of either the seller or the buyer.
More transparency required
In my opinion, a little more transparency is required to win the public trust. For instance, off-the-shelf properties or pre-construction units promise a lot but more often than not fail to deliver even half of what is promised. At any rate, various hidden clauses emerge on a later day. This has to change and pretty quickly too.
