Tom Panos issues a brutal message to Real Estate agents

An Australian real estate guru has taken aim at some agents in his industry who he said are putting their own egos ahead of their clients.

Sydney auctioneer Tom Panos, who runs a training businesses for property sellers, said in a 'rant' shared to his social media that some agents were acting like bankers in the years before the global financial crisis (GFC) hit.

'When did agents get such big egos? Wake up call, you are not the hero, the vendor is,' Mr Panos, who is known for his appearances on The Block, said.

Mr Panos said agents focused on their own profile and wallets when selling properties were only damaging their long-term business, likening the behaviour to bankers whose widespread irresponsible lending was the catalyst for the GFC. 

'I don't know when it happened but at some point in the last two decades we moved away from making the hero the client and, all of a sudden, the real estate agent decides their the hero in the transaction.' 

Mr Panos said he was frustrated by real estate agents who forgot they are there to provide a service for their customers.

'You see that in the way real estate agents - not all of them and that the thing that annoys me is that - but a small cohort of agents are acting like the bankers did before the GFC.'

'If you remember the world of banking before the GFC it was a money trail - do what you want sell what you want, make money, don't worry about the client, this is going to be a party that's never going to end.'

'At some point the hero moved from being the vendor and the real estate agent decides to be the be the hero - including the way they act and even the way do their marketing.'

'In some properties the agent is more marketed than the actual home and it has been funded by the vendor ' 

'Is there a real estate trainer out there that's telling people just do what you want to do, look good and screw everyone else.'

Many commenters on Mr Panos's video agreed, both within and outside the industry.

'I also blame franchised agencies that pull kids in off the street put them in a suit and play with peoples livelihoods. Churn and burn,' one commenter said.

'They're all about the KPI's rather than the welfare of the client. They even compete against their own franchise offices for turf.'

Another commenter argued that: 'If they can sell your house for say 20k or 30k less for a quick sale, it doesn't make much of a difference to their commission, but it's a huge difference for the seller to lose 30k'.

'Paying an agent to essentially just market themselves is ridiculous. No offence to all the good agents out there,' a third said.

However some argued that real estate agents were justified in promoting their own interests.

'Top agents keep a lot information about their properties to stop the buyer getting screwed when they find out they got sold a lemon,' one said.

'All agents I know are very down the earth…however I get complaints about the property managers,' another said.

Last year a Ray White real estate agent in Brisbane was sacked after she mocked renters in a suburb where she worked, calling them 'nobodies'. 

Aimee Therese Marsh was a top-performing agent at Ray White Aspley, near Griffin in Brisbane's north, until Tuesday when she was sacked for taunting tenants in a local Facebook group.

'They are a disgrace and irrelevant,' she wrote.

'Half of them don't even own homes in Griffin. They are tenants,' she added, with a laughing emoji.

Her extraordinary comments were made using her professional social media page, meaning she was quickly exposed as the author. 

They have since been deleted, as has her social media profile.

When another user suggested tenants were 'nobodies,' Ms Marsh said 'probably earn $50k a year and envious of me'.

'I pay twice their wage in tax, or I probably pay their Centrelink wages,' she said.

She then made another comment from her personal Facebook page: 'Jealously is a curse and money controls people and emotions lol.'

'I can't wait to sell the houses they rent hehe.'

On Tuesday, Ray White posted a statement to Facebook saying Ms Marsh's employment had been 'terminated immediately'.

A spokesperson for Ray White told Daily Mail Australia she was fired 'within about an hour' of when the agency's social media team found her comments.

'We respect and value each and every one within our community, and we have a big community of people who rent.

'The views of Aimee Marsh do not align with the values of our business.

'We show pride in our customer service, we have a big community of renters, and we don't tolerate anything like this,' the business said.