Your encounter with Property Agent!

[2bfree]

not to long ago i sold one of my property

told agent i want to sell at this price

but keep asking if lower price ok

then finally i relent and said ok eg $10

 

the agent next day found a buyer for $10 and is coming to let me sign on the preliminary S&P

basket, if i blur blur sign, it actually was for $9.50

question why he act as if it is ok

i was really pissed off

i told him i cannot sign and cut his commission

b u s t a r d

 

unscrupulous agent

s h i t agent

we as consumer got no recourse for complain

complain also so what

no action taken

 

Veri soon, u will hav a place to complain. Its good for everyone. Including agents.

[2bfree]

cant agree more

look at the amount of work the australian property agent has to do

when compared to singapore agents

my god the difference is glarring

 

U do knw hw much an Aussie agent is paid right? Give peanuts & u get peanuts.....Btw, wat type of work does an Aussie agent do? Care to share wif us? U sound as if u sold a property thru an Aussie agent in Aus. Care to share wats the process like? I wld really like to knw & improve myself too.

Edited July 24, 2010 by 2bfree

[Lamemonster]

2bfree:

 

i agreed with you .....

 

Recently a friend secured a matched offer for his seller on a HDB 4rm (D19-D20).... KNS, he tell seller price is match lao OTP can sign lao ... NB last min his seller says wanna up selling price !

 

Imagine, the time and advert cost spent on this flat....,

 

in the end, the flat is still not sold till now .... cause they asking for 90K COV ...

 

 

if every seller is like tat than , agents eat grass , families member of agents also follow eat grass lao lo.....

 

** there's good and bad in every industries, just like when you r on the road, isnt there bad driver's around ?

If you were to condemn all agents when you only met with 2 bad apples ... than, wont agents be the first to condemn themself?

Agent have to face bad agent , bad buyer , bad seller and so on ...... every single day .

Edited July 24, 2010 by Lamemonster

[Lamemonster]

....

Edited July 24, 2010 by Lamemonster

[Creative_tec]

in my dealings with property agents

I have NOT encountered a single honest hardworking agent YET

 

I pray for one but the act of GOD has not given me one yet

I hope i dont have to wait for 50 years

 

my very first property that I bought

b u s t a r d, the agent ask me for kopi money $15,000

if i dont give the property will go to another agent buyer

s h i t

how to complain

complain cannot buy the property

further more kena drink kopi and long long interview

where got time

so paid kopi money

s h i t

 

 

will continue

 

please do contribute if you think will benefit our bros and sis here

 

my agent who sold my flat is really good and we became good friend after that. now he have joined my gang and we leave all the buying selling to him only..

[Aeromania]

It's part and parcel of the industry. Do you know why they have to stage? Because owners ain't stupid either. They will get a whole lot of property agents to sell their house. When there a many cooks, there will be many patterns coming out. Some of the owners ask for sky high prices. Agents know they will not be able to fetch these kind of prices, but if they advertise so high, the cost will 100% go down the drain (mind you, owners are not paying a single cent for advertisement). How? Advertise lower price then try to stage higher price to meet the owner's high asking price lor. If they don't do it, some other agents will still do it.

 

It's all part and parcel of the industry, can't complain about it. Still got many patterns and ways used to also bring owners down to ground as well. Face it, buyers always low low price, sellers always want high high price. If there's no staging, both ends will never meet. Same for any kind of sales job. Even buying clothes also tio stage if it's no fixed price.

 

I ever encountered one scenario. The agent pressured a little asking for 750k for a condo. So after few days of consideration finally agreed to pay 750k, the agent said owner wants 780k, so decided to let go. In the end that unit was sold for 700k by another agent. WHAT THE FCK. Obviously is trying to increase own commission. kan si lang doo lan....

[Freestylers09]

Tats wat i meant

 

pple introduced by word of mouth are alot better

 

pple will come to u in the end than going to find pple

[Ask98]

I ever encountered one scenario. The agent pressured a little asking for 750k for a condo. So after few days of consideration finally agreed to pay 750k, the agent said owner wants 780k, so decided to let go. In the end that unit was sold for 700k by another agent. WHAT THE FCK. Obviously is trying to increase own commission. kan si lang doo lan....

 

 

no logic, 700K comm 7k, 750 comm 7.5k, only $500 differ, agent will not take risk to lose a deal, must be owner want high price, after few week or mth can't get it and nobody view n offer, then LL sell at 700k thru other agent....

[Unitek]

When i bought my unit, the agent showed me another agreement signed by another prospective buyer. It was 50K higher than my offer. then i noticed it contained another property agent name card.

I insisted on my offer and guess what? my agent say 'Ok, deal if you can give me your cheque now, the other party only meet me tonight for deposite'.

 

Buying/Selling houses are like buying/selling cars. Do your own homeworks, find a comfortable Agent/SE and then make your own decision. Caveat emptor!

 

[Ask98]

When i bought my unit, the agent showed me another agreement signed by another prospective buyer. It was 50K higher than my offer. then i noticed it contained another property agent name card.

I insisted on my offer and guess what? my agent say 'Ok, deal if you can give me your cheque now, the other party only meet me tonight for deposite'.

 

Buying/Selling houses are like buying/selling cars. Do your own homeworks, find a comfortable Agent/SE and then make your own decision. Caveat emptor!

 

 

Agreed! for buying good to prepare chq to offer to proof u r serious with it, no verbal. "most" agent will consider chq first then verbal.

[Ask98]

no logic, 700K comm 7k, 750 comm 7.5k, only $500 differ, agent will not take risk to lose a deal, must be owner want high price, after few week or mth can't get it and nobody view n offer, then LL sell at 700k thru other agent....

 

 

no logic, 700K comm 7k, 750 comm 7.5k, only $500 differ, agent will not take risk to lose a deal, must be owner want high price, after few week or mth can't get it and nobody view n offer, then LL sell at 700k thru other agent....

 

Sorry! is 750k comm 7.5k, 780K comm 7.8k, only $300 differ.

[Tireburner]

There are always 2 sides to a story. I have been doin property part-time for quite awhile. I started out in the Pte Property in the beginning nw doin HDB more. Yes, there are indeed f**k up agents out there. I have been conned, played outside inside left right centre by some agents too even tho I m in this industry. But its a full circle, if the seller's are realistic & pay according to market comm, no agent wants to drag a deal. No logic in that. All sales must be made ASAP for time efficiency. Time is money. Let me put in my 2 cents but I m not defending the industry.......I will explain later.

 

1. The agreed comm from all agencies was 2% frm seller but in real life, most will pay 1%. In alot of countries. seller pay 3%<, example USA. A beach house bought at 3mil, with 1mil in renovation, Reno 10 years ago, can be market at 5.5mil. Even if the property is Co-broked, at least a decent income for the money & time spent. Cos the asking is alot higher then the Val, a longer time is needed & also alot more money is needed to market the property. Got it frm Cable TV.

 

Thus, its harder to market a property here becos rather thn market 1 property with a better marketing budget, local agents have to market 2-3 properties with same budget yet the price asked frm Seller is above val & some are really very high. The properties sold within a mth are usually

 

a. less than 100K frm val. C'mon, HDB flats already asking 30k -40k for 4Rm frm Val 340K. Of cos, easy to sell.

b. Selling below val due to some reasons but dun worry, NO GHOST involve.

 

2. There are as many f**k up sellers out there as well as f**k up agents. Why? Cos I hav heard so many agents including myself kena play out by them. My own case example, 1% comm for sale of Corner Terr, Val 1.88mil Asking 2.18mil. Realistic but there was construction goin on next door, damn noisy & a nearby unit was asking the same price but has a bigger land.....After 1mth, money spent, time spent, effort spent, 2 offers, 2mil frm my buyer & 2.05mil frm co-broke agent later, seller threaten to cut my comm if 2.18mil not reach. Hw to cut? Highest offer 2.05mil is frm co-broke agent, co-broke agent not entitle to comm frm buyer in Pte. So bite my tongue, spent more money, time, effort & nearly lost my listing halfway......Finally, in my 3rd mth, 2.18mil frm co-broke agent........NNBCCB, 2.18mil offered then wants 2.23mil, second nite 2.3mil. My co-broke lucky is my district kaki, I damn malu. On the 4th day, seller wants me to sell at 2.38mil.......I said BYE BYE. I spent 6 sat open hse 3-6pm, weekday nites weekend day viewing, at least 2.5k on advert, fuel & other expenses. Even if the deal went thru, 1% of 2.18mil is $21,800/- share with co-broke 0.5% is $10,900/- minus $2500, left with $8400/-, minus agency share left $7560/- divide by 3mths to get sale, 2 weeks to excercise option, 3 more mth for sale transaction, 2 weeks to receive money, total 7 mth, is $1080/- a mth. I tink my Bangla supervisor earns more than me...with no OT.

And tis is not the only case, Its veri common in pte property. Dont get me started with me on the other side as co-broke serving buyers, do offer to so many sellers with the price so near if not at the asking price, still kena play out by seller.....both me & the seller's agent.

 

2. Seller threatens to cut comm if expected selling price not reach.

And wats the normal Cash expected frm Val? Other district I duno, D15 inter range from 250k- 350k, corner 300k- 400k, semi 500k-800k.

So hw? I serve my buyers, help them nego a great deal, a great price but COMM. not frm buyers. So if I nego the price & seller agree but cut seller's agent comm. then I oso no comm. I eat "SAI" huh? My own case example again, helped nego a price for a inter, did my homework, knw hw much the seller bought & will earn frm sale, hw long in the market etc. Helped my buyer saved $60k but when agreed, seller cut agent's comm right in front of me. Everyone knws dat in Pte, buyer dont pay comm. If dont cut comm then no deal, so hw? So I went to my buyer & told him abt it, lucky for me buyer paid me comm. I am lucky becos I was paid by buyers twice. One was this & the second was before the offer. The buyer told me if I can help them get a good price, they dont mind paying me the portion of the comm......Hw i wished most buyers are like dat.

 

3. For the record, most sellers wont want to talk to buyers. Unless buyer's offer is near to asking price, buyers will nvr hav a decent or honest response frm seller. Frm the begining, seller will usually give us a price indication of wat to look out for. Let's take my example 01 above, anything below 2mil dont even bother letting seller knw. The exact sentance was," Dont come to me with a low baller & waste my time." And trust me, I have heard even worst in my short stint in Pte property selling. Of cos we want the seller & buyer to meet, its so much easier to close the deal when all parties are arnd. We can get it done right on the spot. Save everyone's time & esp ours, agent's time & effort too. We can move on to our next sale.

 

4. Sellers need us to do the dirty work. The rejection, the time, the effort, the blame etc are all on us. And the free marketing too. But if buyers tink for a sec dat they can do without a buyer agent then sori hor. Unless buyer is like some of our MCF bros here, then u will be so call "stage" until u can reach a "stage" where u duno where is the "stage" ur offer is at. This is wat my "ATAS" management told me, "Remember, AS A PROFESSIONAL PROPERTY BROKER, WHEN WE REPRESENT A SELLER ,WE GET THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE PRICE. WHEN WE REPRESENT A BUYER, WE GET THE LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE. WE ACT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PARTY WHOM WE REPRESENT, THATS BEING PROFESSIONAL. THATS CALL ETHIC."

So, will a seller's agent if not for the fear of being unprofessional, at least for the fear that their comm will be cut or being reject by the seller too often & terminate the listing, nego for the buyer who dont have any benefit for the seller's agent? Think. We as buyer's agents oso kena frm seller's agent sometimes when the seller really press them too hard. We understand, we are sometimes in dat shoes too, BUT we will minimise the impact on the buyers thru ourselves.

 

I can go on & on with wat I have observed during my stint in Pte property.....But in short, the ball has always been in the seller's hand in Pte property. Cos the oni legimate "pay master" is the Seller, & oso tis is Singapore. In the near future, very near in fact, agents will only represent 01 side of the sale. Either the seller side or the buyer side. And hopefully, the comm will be spread out by the seller & the buyer, like HDB sales. That's 01 reason why I do HDB more nw & lesser pte. The money is almost the same, lesser staging.....in fact none so far in the last few sales. Cos I get my comm frm buyers or I get my comm frm sellers, I dun need to stage others or be stage by others. Much simpler. More paperwork, more hassel but MUCH SIMPLER.

 

I am not trying to defend myself or this industry, there are always black sheeps. I used to HATE agents too. I choose to join property full time at this age not becos it pays that damn well. I am earning comfortable money for myself as I m single.. I was tinking, F**K! Property agent, hw hard can it be? Anyway, just do part-time try try lor. But after some time, I start to realise the misconceptions abt property agents & why I HATE them.

I m just speaking in fairness for property agents who are not the f**k up ones.......

 

Sori, tink I veri naggy again.......old man by nature.

Cheers

 

Unker, you rant like Mel Gibson...

[Chewbacca]

Hmmm. My experience with agents are okay so far. But then again, I've been using the same agent for my pass transactions (2 rentals, 1 HDB purchase, so, not that much).

 

I've always gotten about market price. For the HDB purchase....well, that one got a bit of story to tell.

 

That one we bargained very hard. Because we've actually given the option money for another HDB, we told this one "if we don't get this price, we don't have to discuss at all". After all, nothing to lose. So, in the end, we actually paid for below valuation (about....3.5-4 years ago).

 

Then, the sellers agent told us that, because we got such a good price, the sellers were unhappy, going to cut his commission. I thought about it, haven't really decided what to do yet, but brought this up in a subtle manner when I chatter with the seller. Apparently, they still gave the agent full commission. I confronted the agent about it and he gave me some c--k and bull story. Didn't bother pursuing it further...

 

[Billyone]

Sir

the way you put it

it is like as an agent you are doing for free or charity

 

btw you are paid to work

 

like in all profession there are their ups and downs

 

only those agents that can take GIANT S H I T

these are the ones that can make it BIG

tua KI

 

 

 

 

There are always 2 sides to a story. I have been doin property part-time for quite awhile. I started out in the Pte Property in the beginning nw doin HDB more. Yes, there are indeed f**k up agents out there. I have been conned, played outside inside left right centre by some agents too even tho I m in this industry. But its a full circle, if the seller's are realistic & pay according to market comm, no agent wants to drag a deal. No logic in that. All sales must be made ASAP for time efficiency. Time is money. Let me put in my 2 cents but I m not defending the industry.......I will explain later.

 

1. The agreed comm from all agencies was 2% frm seller but in real life, most will pay 1%. In alot of countries. seller pay 3%<, example USA. A beach house bought at 3mil, with 1mil in renovation, Reno 10 years ago, can be market at 5.5mil. Even if the property is Co-broked, at least a decent income for the money & time spent. Cos the asking is alot higher then the Val, a longer time is needed & also alot more money is needed to market the property. Got it frm Cable TV.

 

Thus, its harder to market a property here becos rather thn market 1 property with a better marketing budget, local agents have to market 2-3 properties with same budget yet the price asked frm Seller is above val & some are really very high. The properties sold within a mth are usually

 

a. less than 100K frm val. C'mon, HDB flats already asking 30k -40k for 4Rm frm Val 340K. Of cos, easy to sell.

b. Selling below val due to some reasons but dun worry, NO GHOST involve.

 

2. There are as many f**k up sellers out there as well as f**k up agents. Why? Cos I hav heard so many agents including myself kena play out by them. My own case example, 1% comm for sale of Corner Terr, Val 1.88mil Asking 2.18mil. Realistic but there was construction goin on next door, damn noisy & a nearby unit was asking the same price but has a bigger land.....After 1mth, money spent, time spent, effort spent, 2 offers, 2mil frm my buyer & 2.05mil frm co-broke agent later, seller threaten to cut my comm if 2.18mil not reach. Hw to cut? Highest offer 2.05mil is frm co-broke agent, co-broke agent not entitle to comm frm buyer in Pte. So bite my tongue, spent more money, time, effort & nearly lost my listing halfway......Finally, in my 3rd mth, 2.18mil frm co-broke agent........NNBCCB, 2.18mil offered then wants 2.23mil, second nite 2.3mil. My co-broke lucky is my district kaki, I damn malu. On the 4th day, seller wants me to sell at 2.38mil.......I said BYE BYE. I spent 6 sat open hse 3-6pm, weekday nites weekend day viewing, at least 2.5k on advert, fuel & other expenses. Even if the deal went thru, 1% of 2.18mil is $21,800/- share with co-broke 0.5% is $10,900/- minus $2500, left with $8400/-, minus agency share left $7560/- divide by 3mths to get sale, 2 weeks to excercise option, 3 more mth for sale transaction, 2 weeks to receive money, total 7 mth, is $1080/- a mth. I tink my Bangla supervisor earns more than me...with no OT.

And tis is not the only case, Its veri common in pte property. Dont get me started with me on the other side as co-broke serving buyers, do offer to so many sellers with the price so near if not at the asking price, still kena play out by seller.....both me & the seller's agent.

 

2. Seller threatens to cut comm if expected selling price not reach.

And wats the normal Cash expected frm Val? Other district I duno, D15 inter range from 250k- 350k, corner 300k- 400k, semi 500k-800k.

So hw? I serve my buyers, help them nego a great deal, a great price but COMM. not frm buyers. So if I nego the price & seller agree but cut seller's agent comm. then I oso no comm. I eat "SAI" huh? My own case example again, helped nego a price for a inter, did my homework, knw hw much the seller bought & will earn frm sale, hw long in the market etc. Helped my buyer saved $60k but when agreed, seller cut agent's comm right in front of me. Everyone knws dat in Pte, buyer dont pay comm. If dont cut comm then no deal, so hw? So I went to my buyer & told him abt it, lucky for me buyer paid me comm. I am lucky becos I was paid by buyers twice. One was this & the second was before the offer. The buyer told me if I can help them get a good price, they dont mind paying me the portion of the comm......Hw i wished most buyers are like dat.

 

3. For the record, most sellers wont want to talk to buyers. Unless buyer's offer is near to asking price, buyers will nvr hav a decent or honest response frm seller. Frm the begining, seller will usually give us a price indication of wat to look out for. Let's take my example 01 above, anything below 2mil dont even bother letting seller knw. The exact sentance was," Dont come to me with a low baller & waste my time." And trust me, I have heard even worst in my short stint in Pte property selling. Of cos we want the seller & buyer to meet, its so much easier to close the deal when all parties are arnd. We can get it done right on the spot. Save everyone's time & esp ours, agent's time & effort too. We can move on to our next sale.

 

4. Sellers need us to do the dirty work. The rejection, the time, the effort, the blame etc are all on us. And the free marketing too. But if buyers tink for a sec dat they can do without a buyer agent then sori hor. Unless buyer is like some of our MCF bros here, then u will be so call "stage" until u can reach a "stage" where u duno where is the "stage" ur offer is at. This is wat my "ATAS" management told me, "Remember, AS A PROFESSIONAL PROPERTY BROKER, WHEN WE REPRESENT A SELLER ,WE GET THE HIGHEST POSSIBLE PRICE. WHEN WE REPRESENT A BUYER, WE GET THE LOWEST POSSIBLE PRICE. WE ACT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF THE PARTY WHOM WE REPRESENT, THATS BEING PROFESSIONAL. THATS CALL ETHIC."

So, will a seller's agent if not for the fear of being unprofessional, at least for the fear that their comm will be cut or being reject by the seller too often & terminate the listing, nego for the buyer who dont have any benefit for the seller's agent? Think. We as buyer's agents oso kena frm seller's agent sometimes when the seller really press them too hard. We understand, we are sometimes in dat shoes too, BUT we will minimise the impact on the buyers thru ourselves.

 

I can go on & on with wat I have observed during my stint in Pte property.....But in short, the ball has always been in the seller's hand in Pte property. Cos the oni legimate "pay master" is the Seller, & oso tis is Singapore. In the near future, very near in fact, agents will only represent 01 side of the sale. Either the seller side or the buyer side. And hopefully, the comm will be spread out by the seller & the buyer, like HDB sales. That's 01 reason why I do HDB more nw & lesser pte. The money is almost the same, lesser staging.....in fact none so far in the last few sales. Cos I get my comm frm buyers or I get my comm frm sellers, I dun need to stage others or be stage by others. Much simpler. More paperwork, more hassel but MUCH SIMPLER.

 

I am not trying to defend myself or this industry, there are always black sheeps. I used to HATE agents too. I choose to join property full time at this age not becos it pays that damn well. I am earning comfortable money for myself as I m single.. I was tinking, F**K! Property agent, hw hard can it be? Anyway, just do part-time try try lor. But after some time, I start to realise the misconceptions abt property agents & why I HATE them.

I m just speaking in fairness for property agents who are not the f**k up ones.......

 

Sori, tink I veri naggy again.......old man by nature.

Cheers

 

[Acemundo]

do u know that in the property agent training, one of the session is to teach them how to close the deal or persuade seller to accept less favorable deal?

 

the only bugbear i have about agents is that they work for their own interests only, never in the interest of the party paying the commission.

[Chewbacca]

do u know that in the property agent training, one of the session is to teach them how to close the deal or persuade seller to accept less favorable deal?

 

the only bugbear i have about agents is that they work for their own interests only, never in the interest of the party paying the commission.

 

But....it's to be expected what. I mean, I can go on to lengths about proper level of ethics, where mutual benefits provide better long term returns than selfish benefits, etc etc.

 

But, you get what I mean.

 

I think.

 

Do you?

 

 

[Acemundo]

i get what u mean.........in fact I am not askign them to put client interest for everything else.

 

but imagine.....client say only willing to sell $620k and he go tell the buyer give cheque $595k can close deal liao....

 

is like he is more keen to close the deal fast and let out information to the buyer which compromised the interest of the seller.

 

if he starts accept cheques at $595k, how do you expect any buyer to offer close to 620k?

[Grindcore888]

i ask the agent who sold me my current home to sell late last year, he said 'as you know, you location not good, very difficult to sell'.... wtf, he hard sell me then... recommended him a successful deal, no comm....