Terrible experience with Vue Property, real estate agents at Hunters Hill

We recently negotiated the purchase of a property with VUE Property, which are a real estate agency at Hunter's hill. We dealt with an agent called James Steer.

We agreed on the price, and were told we had a week to exchange contracts. The very next day our bank evaluator went to assess the house, in order to confirm the loan. He was denied access to the property, as the house was sold to a different party.

The real estate agents at VUE property of course denied all prior knowledge that this was going to happen. He claims they were by-passed by the purchaser who, according to VUE Property, went straight to the vendor's solicitor and signed the contract. Incidentally the real estate agent was dismissive of my wife when she called to ask what happened, and instead we had to call the main office to get the details.

I don't believe their story, and I'm told by people in the industry that it is common place for dishonest real estate agents to continue negotiation with other parties, even though they've already agreed to sell the property.

What was really weird, is that later that evening we received a call from another real estate agent from VUE property, and she told us she had an urgent message from James (the agent we were dealing with) saying that "another party is interested in the property and we should exchange contracts ASAP." But we received this message 6 hrs too late, after the property had already sold to the other party.

So we're $600 down, on pest, and building inspections, and back to the drawing board. In my opinion the agent we dealt with at VUE Property was dishonest, and was involved in directing the other party to Gazump us. Overall it was a really heart breaking experience, and I would hesitate to deal with VUE Property again. As I told the principal at VUE Property, I don't think this kind of low-brow behavior wouldn't happen at a McGrath.