This week on Before the Weekend, Kasey McDonald and Peter Schravemade work through a week where the claims did not survive contact with the people who actually do the job.

First, eXp Australia. Three social media posts, no press release and no mainstream coverage, but agents inside the business confirm it: the Class 2 and sales representative pathway is being terminated. Independent contractors with their own licence and entity are unaffected. The recruiters who built teams on the promise of passive income are not. Peter has written to eXp Australia director for a response.

Then the $593 million black hole. realestate.com.au says negatively geared Queensland landlords are heading for a mass sell-off before the negative gearing and capital gains changes land. Peter is not convinced the number holds - the PIPA figure of 35.5 per cent of Queensland investors selling in the last 12 months predates the tax change entirely - but the instruction to principals is the same either way: audit the rent roll for the owners who are negatively geared, and get in front of them before they list.

Then the article Peter filed under T for trash. RentBetter founder Jeremy Goldschmidt told the Sydney Morning Herald that one third of Australia's 2.2 million rentals are now leased without an agent. The Queensland RTA, which holds every bond in the state, says 89 per cent of rentals are professionally managed. NSW is 93 per cent. And 83.1 per cent of RTA infringement notices last quarter went to private lessors, against about 15 per cent for agents. Kasey adds the story of a 22-year-old on a private landlord's lease that contradicted the Act. "Completely fabricated, not true, not even in the vicinity."

Then Consumer Affairs Victoria fines one agency and drags two more to court over late bonds, and former REIV president Adam Docking is punched four or five times and robbed putting out an open-for-inspection sign in Vermont at midday on a Saturday. His warning to every agent and property manager: never leave the keys in the car.

Paul Tommasini of the Tenancy Skills Institute joins to explain why the property manager is the first responder in the homelessness system: property managers say about 50 per cent of failed tenancies could have been saved with simple interventions, the Brisbane and Mackay pilots pushed that above 90 per cent, and PM Assist turns a referral into a two-minute job - because every day a tenancy drifts costs another hundred dollars nobody gets back.

Also this week: rates go up Tuesday and David Koch blames Canberra, nearly half of Australians in share houses are over 40, the Victorian auction rules start next week without the paperwork, and Jellis Craig's Andrew McCann calls it the worst market in 30 years.