Who needs real estate agents when we can do it ourselves?

http://business.asiaone.com/Business...22-187479.html

Sun, Dec 27, 2009

The New Paper

Who needs real estate agents when we can do it ourselves?

By Jeanmarie Tan


FINDING my dream home has turned increasingly nightmarish these past few months.

And with the real estate boom and record number of complaints about rogue property agents this year, it looks like I'm not the only one having sleepless nights.

Three years ago, my husband and I found a three-room resale HDB flat in the Holland area.

We had hired an agent to help us suss out the best deal and duly paid him the standard 1 per cent commission for his efforts.

With a baby now, we looked to upgrade to a five-room resale HDB flat closer to the city, where my parents live.

We sifted through the classified ads and found the flat - at Zion Road - in September.

The seller's agent insisted we pay him the 1 per cent commission, which amounted to more than $6,000. According to him, by responding to his newspaper ad and giving us the unit number, he automatically became our agent and will then handle the administrative paperwork for us.

So due to ignorance on our part, we signed on his commission form at our first and only viewing because we were afraid of losing our dream home.

Well, not many are aware that it's not mandatory for buyers to pay dual agents that fee. Such hindsight struck us a little too late.

Even though the Ministry of National Development (MND) recently suggested prohibiting an agent from acting for both seller and buyer in HDB resale transactions due to the conflict of interest involved, this hasn't stopped them from exploiting "the free and open market".

Our appeals to both MND and Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies to help us intervene with the negotiations came to naught.

MND can recommend measures till it's dry in the mouth, but who will ensure that the agents obey? At present, there is really no option for buyers but to pay any commission demanded.

It's either that, or potentially lose your dream home to other parties during the time spent complaining to the regulating bodies.

The expensive lesson we've gleaned from this episode?

We don't need agents, really.

And we certainly don't want to pay them thousands of dollars to help sell our current place - especially since we now know we can do it all by ourselves, thank you very much.

If more consumers act on this belief, we can help rein in the bad practices in the real estate industry.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

Few points to engage an agent:

1. They have a much wider network of buyers/sellers.
2. They know of properties otherwise not known to the public media.
3. They are trained professionals in mind games and negotiation to achieve your desired outcome.
4. To suss out the sustainable market price for the unit.
5. To sieve out the genuine sincere buyers from the look-see kaypo types.
6. To answer questions that otherwise will be too embarassing / hurtful to address by yourself.
7. To represent you and your interests only.

etcetc

It's up to one to decide if the commission is worth paying for the agent services. In any case, you can always give whatever amount you deem fitting the efforts he/she has put in to close the sale/purchase. There is no hard and fast rule. For agents who come to me, I usually give 2% if they hit or better my price target. If not met, 1%. Agents whom I go to, from 0.5%-1% depending on target reached. I do not give anything for purchases as they would have been rewarded by the seller side.

One should look at them as a freelance professional working FOR YOU and reward/negative reinforce them accordingly where necessary.

Would it be unrealistic for a way where Sellers and buyers can directly connect...

Im sure most buyers and sellers today are already quite savvy enough to know how much the unit they want to buy/sell should and can fetch..

Here lor! Where else...

If not there are tons of property sites out there...

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Originally Posted by mr funny

http://business.asiaone.com/Business...22-187479.html

Sun, Dec 27, 2009

The New Paper

Who needs real estate agents when we can do it ourselves?

By Jeanmarie Tan


FINDING my dream home has turned increasingly nightmarish these past few months.

And with the real estate boom and record number of complaints about rogue property agents this year, it looks like I'm not the only one having sleepless nights.

Three years ago, my husband and I found a three-room resale HDB flat in the Holland area.

We had hired an agent to help us suss out the best deal and duly paid him the standard 1 per cent commission for his efforts.

With a baby now, we looked to upgrade to a five-room resale HDB flat closer to the city, where my parents live.

We sifted through the classified ads and found the flat - at Zion Road - in September.

The seller's agent insisted we pay him the 1 per cent commission, which amounted to more than $6,000. According to him, by responding to his newspaper ad and giving us the unit number, he automatically became our agent and will then handle the administrative paperwork for us.

So due to ignorance on our part, we signed on his commission form at our first and only viewing because we were afraid of losing our dream home.

Well, not many are aware that it's not mandatory for buyers to pay dual agents that fee. Such hindsight struck us a little too late.

Even though the Ministry of National Development (MND) recently suggested prohibiting an agent from acting for both seller and buyer in HDB resale transactions due to the conflict of interest involved, this hasn't stopped them from exploiting "the free and open market".

Our appeals to both MND and Singapore Accredited Estate Agencies to help us intervene with the negotiations came to naught.

MND can recommend measures till it's dry in the mouth, but who will ensure that the agents obey? At present, there is really no option for buyers but to pay any commission demanded.

It's either that, or potentially lose your dream home to other parties during the time spent complaining to the regulating bodies.

The expensive lesson we've gleaned from this episode?

We don't need agents, really.

And we certainly don't want to pay them thousands of dollars to help sell our current place - especially since we now know we can do it all by ourselves, thank you very much.

If more consumers act on this belief, we can help rein in the bad practices in the real estate industry.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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if you response to an ad ..and if you eventually purchase the unit .. you have to pay copmmission ... and hey 1 pct only ...

agent probably gets 1 pct from u and 1 pct from seller ...

if you seek the help of an agent ... be prepared to pay for the service simple as that why complain ???

would the writer be doing free service herself ?

the guy who wrote the article is probably disgruntled because he feels that doing minial paper work should not entitle an agent to earn $6000 commission. When agents advertise on whichever medium, they are casting their nets out. Whichever buyers that respond to a seller's agent's ad will have to pay him 1% com for the hdb property, but it does not apply to private. If a buyer is not prepared to pay, the agent can refuse to sell the property to the buyer even if the buyer is prepared to offer the sky to the seller. This is and has been the problem with sellers signing exclusive with the agent. I know of an agent who sold a 3 rm flat for the seller at 248k but agreed on 250k with buyer (all done behind thr seller's back coz seller is abroad). The buyer agreed to pay her 2k in cash on 1st appointment just for her to give the buyer a chance to buy the flat. She gets to earn an additional 2% com from the seller and for the sale of this 3rm flat, she gets to pocket a handsome sum of $7000. In my opinion the agent is a shameless bitch but this is going on everywhere in the estate agency industry unless the authorities step in to do something about it. Agents can be very useful in providing certain info not avaliable to the layman and they can also act as the market pulse, but agents can also be unscrupulous and conduct themselves like scum, so i can say that in this profession, we tend to see extremities.

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Originally Posted by proud owner

if you response to an ad ..and if you eventually purchase the unit .. you have to pay copmmission ... and hey 1 pct only ...

agent probably gets 1 pct from u and 1 pct from seller ...

if you seek the help of an agent ... be prepared to pay for the service simple as that why complain ???

would the writer be doing free service herself ?

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It's pretty obvious that you are an agent who practice this duality. I just purchased a unit by responding to an ad, and the agent didnt charged me a cent. That's simply plain common sense, you want to sell something, its yr job to make things easier for the buyer. Its for the agent's own interrest what?

Sad enough the world does not work this way. If the agent did not charge you a cent, perhaps you have bought a private property. If it is HDB property, even the authorities benchmark 1% payable to the seller's agent. They are coming up with a law now to say that buys and sellers should have separate agents to avoid conflict of interest and I think that is right. If that is the case, a buyer who chooses to represent himself as his own agent should rightly not pay com to the seller's agent.

Why don't we say the government should come up with a central system where sellers and buyers wanting to sell or buy or rent their properties should go to a central government database or office to post their ads or look for ads, bringing buyer and seller or landlord and tenant together without the need for an agent? If this was done, all agents would instantly become jobless coz the only middle parties required are the lawyers who do the conveyancing work or HDB to process the sale application.

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Originally Posted by Pomatoasia

It's pretty obvious that you are an agent who practice this duality. I just purchased a unit by responding to an ad, and the agent didnt charged me a cent. That's simply plain common sense, you want to sell something, its yr job to make things easier for the buyer. Its for the agent's own interrest what?

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nationproperty exists for that purpose today doesn't it? It would be hard to find one single outstanding channel since buyers and sellers being typical kiasu Singaporeans WILL post anywhere and everywhere that is FREE.

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Originally Posted by Regulators

the guy who wrote the article is probably disgruntled because he feels that doing minial paper work should not entitle an agent to earn $6000 commission. When agents advertise on whichever medium, they are casting their nets out. Whichever buyers that respond to a seller's agent's ad will have to pay him 1% com for the hdb property, but it does not apply to private. If a buyer is not prepared to pay, the agent can refuse to sell the property to the buyer even if the buyer is prepared to offer the sky to the seller. This is and has been the problem with sellers signing exclusive with the agent. I know of an agent who sold a 3 rm flat for the seller at 248k but agreed on 250k with buyer (all done behind thr seller's back coz seller is abroad). The buyer agreed to pay her 2k in cash on 1st appointment just for her to give the buyer a chance to buy the flat. She gets to earn an additional 2% com from the seller and for the sale of this 3rm flat, she gets to pocket a handsome sum of $7000. In my opinion the agent is a shameless bitch but this is going on everywhere in the estate agency industry unless the authorities step in to do something about it. Agents can be very useful in providing certain info not avaliable to the layman and they can also act as the market pulse, but agents can also be unscrupulous and conduct themselves like scum, so i can say that in this profession, we tend to see extremities.

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Heard of these things happening before too.

Moral of the story, if as a seller you just leave everything to the agent, this may happen to you.

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Originally Posted by Pomatoasia

It's pretty obvious that you are an agent who practice this duality. I just purchased a unit by responding to an ad, and the agent didnt charged me a cent. That's simply plain common sense, you want to sell something, its yr job to make things easier for the buyer. Its for the agent's own interrest what?

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sorry to disappoint you ... you must be new to the forum ... or maybe dont log in often

i am NOT an agent ...

for that matter .. i am not even living in singapore ... at least for the past 6 over mths ... and will be so for the next few years ...

Yes, I came across this agent from PxxNet. She charged the seller 3% (private properties) even the market is only at 1% and the buyer $6,000. Otherwise, she refused to have this deal closed.

Another one, sold for the seller a lower price, as the higher price come from one, need to have a co-broke arrangement

Hope the new Govman body can tighten all these

But ask yourself who advertises more on nationproperty, the agent or the seller/buyer?

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Originally Posted by mcmlxxvi

nationproperty exists for that purpose today doesn't it? It would be hard to find one single outstanding channel since buyers and sellers being typical kiasu Singaporeans WILL post anywhere and everywhere that is FREE.

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Last year, i offered 4 an ideal flat in Holland n u was turned off by pxxx seller's agt who told my representing agent (my own friend) that if i want to buy their unit, i have to pay her n her partner some incentive about 4-5k :simmering: my friend put on speakerphone so i can hear their conversations. she said got buyer willing to pay additional 1% to them despite having their own agent. this really pissed me off n i called off the deal. Just because no direct buyer offer n they want to try their luck on buyers with agent. anyway i wonder which fool is willing to pay 2% comm to purchase. they might feel the pinch n regret later :banghead: i had seen this lady photo ads in another listing. don't understand why she dare to expose her face while being a :money-faced1: :money-faced1: :money-faced1: agent

if u r so angry with her, why not disclose her name here? make use of this channel to shame these shameless agents!!!!

That is why I never have 'exclusive' agent, and I never just use 1 agent. While some people may say it is not fair, but the one who can find me the customers get the commission. Having said that, HDB agents representing sellers are notorious for asking buyers for commisions (for doing nothing!).

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Originally Posted by yunjc

Last year, i offered 4 an ideal flat in Holland n u was turned off by pxxx seller's agt who told my representing agent (my own friend) that if i want to buy their unit, i have to pay her n her partner some incentive about 4-5k :simmering: my friend put on speakerphone so i can hear their conversations. she said got buyer willing to pay additional 1% to them despite having their own agent. this really pissed me off n i called off the deal. Just because no direct buyer offer n they want to try their luck on buyers with agent. anyway i wonder which fool is willing to pay 2% comm to purchase. they might feel the pinch n regret later :banghead: i had seen this lady photo ads in another listing. don't understand why she dare to expose her face while being a :money-faced1: :money-faced1: :money-faced1: agent

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Originally Posted by teddybear

That is why I never have 'exclusive' agent, and I never just use 1 agent. While some people may say it is not fair, but the one who can find me the customers get the commission. Having said that, HDB agents representing sellers are notorious for asking buyers for commisions (for doing nothing!).

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I too do not use exclusive agents.

Also, as a seller try to at least know who is viewing and perhaps speak to them. You want to know what goes on behind your back. You don't want your agent to gang up with the buyer against you right?