No Confidence in REIV, so Board Member Quits
Mr O’Callaghan, one of 10 board members, has quit his position representing the commercial and industrial chapter of the REIV.
Mr O’Callaghan said he resigned because he had "lost confidence" in Mr Raimondo, the REIV chief executive, and had "no confidence" in Mr Laws, its president.
The prominent commercial real estate agency director also said he "despised the insidious influence" that the board management and finance committee had over the REIV board.
Sources speculate this comment may be in response to the sale of a REIV property last month, which was marketed at $700,000 less than the REIV’s reserve price.
Mr O’Callaghan declined to comment further on his reasons for quitting, and on the reception to his resignation last Friday. Mr Raimondo and Mr Laws did not return calls.
The REIV is partly funded by and represents real estate agents in Victoria.
Last week, it was revealed the REIV may have inadvertently breached Consumer Affairs Victoria underquoting legislation by setting a $3.7million reserve price for a Camberwell development site. Mr Raimondo said the board wasn’t aware it was being marketed as "in excess of $3million".
The REIV has failed to provide paperwork, which would show a price the institute agreed the property would be quoted at.
In November, Mr Raimondo told REIV members to ignore tough new CAV-imposed guidelines aimed at curbing the practice of underquoting, and advised them to stick to its guidelines, some parts of which the CAV deems misleading.
In May, Mr Raimondo said prospective home buyers in high-demand areas were "naive" to think properties would sell for the price they were advertised.
About the same time, he also rejected claims the consistent "20%-plus" difference between quoted and eventual sale prices recorded by The Age was an issue, or represented underquoting.
CAV says the practice of underquoting is directly linked to the seller’s asking price, reserve or agent’s estimated selling price, rather than the eventual selling price.
