Selling a home in BKK - Agent referrals wanted

[Gabriel1]

I am planning on selling a home in a great area of BKK and would like some referrals of sales companies and agents,

that are experienced, hard working, reliable, and competent in English.  I know this may be asking a lot in

Thailand, but that is the hoped for list.  Helpful advice and referrals greatly appreciated.

[Nyezhov]

PM Me I have an Thai/American english speaking agent who is a great dude.

[richard_smith237]

Having bought and sold and bought again in Bangkok, I have found for the most part that agents have been a total and utter waste of time.

 

Never had I encountered a group of people who expect so much for doing so little. 

They bring the people to view the property who are clearly not interested (i.e. a large family to a 2 BR apartment), they have also taken my Wife and I to view properties which were clearly well outside of our spec. 

When recently dealing with agents we refused to view any property until we saw a full range or photos.

 

When selling we had so many agents contact us, they came and took photos, we never heard from some of them again. 

We ended up selling our place directly - Facebook ads etc may help, getting the word out etc.

 

The most reliable agents I've come across are Remax, I also found Bangkokcondorentals.com good. 

 

 

 

 

[Gabriel1]

Richard, thanks for taking the time to share you experience.  Seems like a lot of the middle to low end countries offer this type of experience.  I am looking at Portugal and their agents disappear if you ask them to do anything.  It is frustrating.  I will try Remax.  Do you have any specific contacts at Remax that you can share?  Also your experience there may indicate that the international agencies may operate at a hight level. I am not selling a condo, but a very large townhouse, so option number two seems to be condo's only. Correct me if I am wrong. 

 

How did Facebook work for you? Any meaningful responses?  Did you just post a normal posting, or arrange for a specific type of target based advertisement? How did you structure you adverts and maximize exposure in BKK or selected areas??  I am not an expert on Facebook.  My wife is more active there.  Any help in this area is also appreciated.  

 

Again, many thanks for the help.

[scorecard]

5 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Having bought and sold and bought again in Bangkok, I have found for the most part that agents have been a total and utter waste of time.

 

Never had I encountered a group of people who expect so much for doing so little. 

They bring the people to view the property who are clearly not interested (i.e. a large family to a 2 BR apartment), they have also taken my Wife and I to view properties which were clearly well outside of our spec. 

When recently dealing with agents we refused to view any property until we saw a full range or photos.

 

When selling we had so many agents contact us, they came and took photos, we never heard from some of them again. 

We ended up selling our place directly - Facebook ads etc may help, getting the word out etc.

 

The most reliable agents I've come across are Remax, I also found Bangkokcondorentals.com good. 

 

 

 

 

 And beware of the 'agents' who have no intention of being active but will come quickly on your initial phone call to get you to sign a contract which will probably include them getting a commission regardless of which agent actually generates a sale of your property. 

 

 

[timendres]

If in Bangkok, I highly recommend Tomas Mraz of HeroRealtor.com. I know him personally. Honest, hard working, and speaks excellent English and Thai. PM me for his email address.

[Gabriel1]

timendres

First I would like to thank you very much for the recommendation.  Next, if you don't mind, I would appreciate some more info on Thomas that can help me understand his strengths and value proposition as an agent.  What type of experience have you had with Tomas related to real estate sales.  Has he sold a home for you?  Any qualities you can define that make him a strong candidate to successfully sale my property?  These decisions are always complicated, so I hope you don't mind my wanting to dig deeper before I begin my contact with Tomas.  I believe a few well chosen agents are more effective than a large number of unknowns.

Hopefully, I am not asking to much of you.  Anything that gives me insight into Thomas will help the both of us as we explore developing a relationship.

[moontang]

www.rinmarketing.com

[Gabriel1]

Moontang, first I would like to thank you for taking time to respond to my posting. R u recommending the company. Just to be clear, I am selling not buying.  If this is a referral, can you give me some insights and the value proposition this company represents.  Also, If you have had direct experience with this company, can you please share some details that you found as significant in the sales process.  A specific contact name would also be helpful.  www.rinmarketing.com  Again thanks for you intentions to help.

 

[moontang]

10 hours ago, Gabriel1 said:

Moontang, first I would like to thank you for taking time to respond to my posting. R u recommending the company. Just to be clear, I am selling not buying.  If this is a referral, can you give me some insights and the value proposition this company represents.  Also, If you have had direct experience with this company, can you please share some details that you found as significant in the sales process.  A specific contact name would also be helpful.  hwww.rinmarketing.com  Again thanks for you intentions to help.

 

Rin is the lady owner...She will likely want an exclusive listing.  I have seen her signs around town.  If anything, she will let you list too high, which is not a good idea, if you are ready to deal.  She is very attractive.  Look at her listings, and if you like what you see, give her a call.  I would also consider FSBO on DDPROPERTY....but be ready for the usual parade of lowballers and deadbeats..some think a foreigner selling, means he is desperate..

[ThomasThBKK]

On 9/4/2019 at 10:34 PM, Gabriel1 said:

Richard, thanks for taking the time to share you experience.  Seems like a lot of the middle to low end countries offer this type of experience.  I am looking at Portugal and their agents disappear if you ask them to do anything.  It is frustrating.  I will try Remax.  Do you have any specific contacts at Remax that you can share?  Also your experience there may indicate that the international agencies may operate at a hight level. I am not selling a condo, but a very large townhouse, so option number two seems to be condo's only. Correct me if I am wrong. 

 

How did Facebook work for you? Any meaningful responses?  Did you just post a normal posting, or arrange for a specific type of target based advertisement? How did you structure you adverts and maximize exposure in BKK or selected areas??  I am not an expert on Facebook.  My wife is more active there.  Any help in this area is also appreciated.  

 

Again, many thanks for the help.

 

 

ive rented through a remax agent before, she was stalking me then... These agents are all bat<deleted> crazy if you ask me.

Would go to a european one a la knight and frank or www.fazwaz.com

 

Whatever you do stay away from thai agents imo.

[gunderhill]

What and  where ?

[gunderhill]

6 minutes ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Would go to a european one a la knight and frank

Who get info from all those  agents  you dismiss, I  know as  Wife  deals with Frank Knight and is  not employed  by them.

[gunderhill]

14 hours ago, moontang said:

www.rinmarketing.com

Hope her marketing is  better than her website, most of the links don't work

[gunderhill]

23 hours ago, Gabriel1 said:

developing a relationship

You dont develop a "relationship" its  all about  money

Price realistically, the market is  slow but at a good  price  it  will sell. Dont listen to Thai wont buy secodhand, wife at the land office every week selling those "secondhand"  units.

Everyone will want "in"  on the sale, you wont know about it but the security guy/maid and everyones  Uncle who even mentions your room will get a slice, going rate 3% of the sale price although some will maybe do lower  now.

DD property is an excellent place to start advertising, wife uses it daily has  an account with them  it aint cheap to advertise many rooms.

Many agents  will also advertise your  room/house? at a higher price and pocket the difference, ie house 10million advertise for 11 and pocket the 1  million.

ALL OF THE AGENTS will co agent with others to sell it, sole agency  DOES NOT  happen, as mentioned anyone who  has anything to do with the deal gets  something even if they tell you they are sole agents.

 

[gunderhill]

10 hours ago, Gabriel1 said:

Moontang, first I would like to thank you for taking time to respond to my posting. R u recommending the company. Just to be clear, I am selling not buying.  If this is a referral, can you give me some insights and the value proposition this company represents.  Also, If you have had direct experience with this company, can you please share some details that you found as significant in the sales process.  A specific contact name would also be helpful. www.rinmarketing.com  Again thanks for you intentions to help.

 

this  is  the  correct  address i  think https://www.dotproperty.co.th/en/agency/rin-marketing/4588/properties-for-sale

[Gabriel1]

As the poster, I decided to approach Re/Max first, which on fellow had a good experience with. Also, it is an American company and I thought they might be a cut above.  Well like most USA businesses these days there first interest is not the best for their customer.  I received a contract, or as they called it a boilerplate to bind the details of the work agreement.  I was shocked at the complete one sidedness of the contract. It was in no way a win/win based agreement, but a win/lose contract.  Of course the customer, in my case the seller is the loser.

 

In my specific case I have a time limit to sale the house of about one calendar quarter.  They were aware of that point.  Yet they sent me a contract stating that they would be paid even after the expiration of the contract, for which they required a 365 day commitment. They wanted an additional 1% if the home sold in the first month. 

 

I complained, and they told me to outline which clauses I objected to.  That is really, really a bad sign.  These guys are professionals, they know which clauses screw the customer, so I told them you are qualifying for employment to work for me.  You send me a win/win contract. They basically chose to bail out rather than send a contract that is based on payment for work done.  Morality is out the window, at least in a lot of USA companies.  Some one recommended Frank Knight.  I will go to them next and keep updating this string.  Also, thanks for the info, and I will also research the recommendations.

[Airalee]

50 minutes ago, Gabriel1 said:

As the poster, I decided to approach Re/Max first, which on fellow had a good experience with. Also, it is an American company and I thought they might be a cut above.  Well like most USA businesses these days there first interest is not the best for their customer.  I received a contract, or as they called it a boilerplate to bind the details of the work agreement.  I was shocked at the complete one sidedness of the contract. It was in no way a win/win based agreement, but a win/lose contract.  Of course the customer, in my case the seller is the loser.

 

In my specific case I have a time limit to sale the house of about one calendar quarter.  They were aware of that point.  Yet they sent me a contract stating that they would be paid even after the expiration of the contract, for which they required a 365 day commitment. They wanted an additional 1% if the home sold in the first month. 

 

I complained, and they told me to outline which clauses I objected to.  That is really, really a bad sign.  These guys are professionals, they know which clauses screw the customer, so I told them you are qualifying for employment to work for me.  You send me a win/win contract. They basically chose to bail out rather than send a contract that is based on payment for work done.  Morality is out the window, at least in a lot of USA companies.  Some one recommended Frank Knight.  I will go to them next and keep updating this string.  Also, thanks for the info, and I will also research the recommendations.

FWIW, agents have turned me off to buying a property (condo in my case) in Thailand as I cannot find one who would bring an offer to the seller that was anything less than their full listed price.  I was completely baffled by that until my Landlord, who owns 12 units in my building tole me that he will never deal with agents as, from what he says, the way they work is that you tell them what price you want and then the agent tacks on their “commission” and then that is the price listed.  Any drop in price comes directly out of their (the agents) “commission” vs back in the US where the agent receives an agreed upon percentage on whatever the property ends up selling for.  Whether or not there are agents that work differently...I don’t know as I haven’t found one yet.  So...from a buyers perspective, the only way I would buy a condo would be either directly from the owner or perhaps a developer (if they weren’t asking for such pie in the sky prices)

[Owl88]

I can highly recommend Lanaphat Chomphuphuen of Golden Siri who has been in real estate for about 15 years with repeat customers. She has good English and knows the real estate sector in Bangkok very well.  She is hard working and seems to sell across the city.  Contact me directly and I will provide contact details

[Gabriel1]

On 9/5/2019 at 11:27 PM, gunderhill said:

this  is  the  correct  address i  think https://www.dotproperty.co.th/en/agency/rin-marketing/4588/properties-for-sale

Thanks for the update, I am using dotproperty and it seems excellent.

 

[Number 6]

On 9/5/2019 at 11:24 PM, gunderhill said:

You dont develop a "relationship" its  all about  money

Price realistically, the market is  slow but at a good  price  it  will sell. Dont listen to Thai wont buy secodhand, wife at the land office every week selling those "secondhand"  units.

Everyone will want "in"  on the sale, you wont know about it but the security guy/maid and everyones  Uncle who even mentions your room will get a slice, going rate 3% of the sale price although some will maybe do lower  now.

DD property is an excellent place to start advertising, wife uses it daily has  an account with them  it aint cheap to advertise many rooms.

Many agents  will also advertise your  room/house? at a higher price and pocket the difference, ie house 10million advertise for 11 and pocket the 1  million.

ALL OF THE AGENTS will co agent with others to sell it, sole agency  DOES NOT  happen, as mentioned anyone who  has anything to do with the deal gets  something even if they tell you they are sole agents.

 

That's interesting. Do the already overpriced property gets juiced again by the layabout sales floozies. You just know if you want to low-ball an offer it won't even see the owner's email box.

 

The entire system here is poisoned.

[Number 6]

Just FYI I only use DD Property because it's the only website that both works and sorts property properly. The rest are junk. It has huge issues as well.

[scorecard]

On 9/5/2019 at 11:03 PM, ThomasThBKK said:

 

ive rented through a remax agent before, she was stalking me then... These agents are all bat<deleted> crazy if you ask me.

Would go to a european one a la knight and frank or www.fazwaz.com

 

Whatever you do stay away from thai agents imo.

Ten years ago uni friend of my Thai son was given a large house in inner nice area of Bkk as a wedding gift from his parents (5 bed, 5 bath, big western kitchen 3 car carport, nice gardens). Purchase price 18Million Baht.

 

His career has taken him to live (very likely for a very long time) in the Lamb Chabaeng area and he now owns a big similar in a nice village near his work.

 

Five years back he decided to sell the Bkk house, he called several Thai agents, selected an agent (because the lady graduated from Chula uni) and proceeded to sign an exclusive contract. Small sign (about 35cm by 20 cm) went up on the front gate with a mobile no. for an employee of the agency.

 

He's never heard from the agency ever again. My son convinced him about 8 months back to contact the agency so he called the number on the sign on his house, turns out the person resigned from this agency more than 2 years ago.  So he called the owner of the agency and asked 'what's happening', and got the answer, yes we are changing the number on the sign right now. Owner asked if the agency had placed his house on their listing on their website? (Too lazy to check it himself.) Reply, after some mumbling and hesitation 'we wait for a few years before we change to a different approach, that's the industry professional standard'. The owner accepts all of this because the agency owner graduated from Chula.

 

My son sold his first house in a nice village in Chonburi city, several years back, he did it himself by taking lots of photos and getting big plastic banners printed (very cheap) and progressively adding new big banners with more photos, and adding in Thai 'please come in fresh coffee and kanom' today in very big font. This did bring people in and within 3 months the house was sold.

 

My son showed photos of all the banners to his friend and said 'why don't you take this approach?' Response 'but it's not normal and I don't want to upset the lady who owns the agency because she graduated from Chula'.

 

Son then asked about the quite small sign on the house still for sale. Response from owner, 'but that sign is the only professional way to do this - it's the industry professional standard'. 

 

Small sign with outdated phone no. still not changed, agency still has never contacted the owner.

 

Just recently my son asked his buddy 'who don't you change' the agent and son pushed to see a copy of the contract with the first agent. The document says very clearly that the first agent is entitled 3% commission plus expenses forever.

 

The house is now overgrown with weeds etc., needs painting, 2 broken windows.  Son told his buddy 'Ok your locked into a commission with first agency, get the problems fixed, find another agent and offer say 7% commission plus 100,000Baht cash extra direct to the salesperson, and take the strategy of losing some money but get it sold. Another buddy found another Thai agent who promised to come and look at the house, after many excuses over about 2 months they have never made an appointment to come. 

 

 

 

 

[gunderhill]

On 9/28/2019 at 4:54 AM, Number 6 said:

That's interesting. Do the already overpriced property gets juiced again by the layabout sales floozies. You just know if you want to low-ball an offer it won't even see the owner's email box.

 

The entire system here is poisoned.

ANYTHING is  possible  with this absolutely anything, I know of one  building30+  floors where some old haradaon actually thinks she owns the whole  building and insists any sales  go thru her. All the units privately owned.

Incredible, even if two people  living there on two different  floors  want to buy each others rooms from each other and dealing with each  other directly  she still has the gall to ask for "commission". greedy  little <deleted> she is.