Dealing with Thai Realtors

[koratkarlos]

Hello Forum.  Perhaps someone can offer this old man some advice.  I am having a real hard time dealing with the Thai Real Estate Agents.

 

I am looking for a rental with some land.  Nothing so special.  Maybe a bit out of town.  Quiet.

 

I find the websites not accurate.  They say a listing is 4 days old but I have seen it for a year, if it exists.

 

Then you say you are interested.  Good luck getting a response from the agent.  I find the local owners do respond but if it is an agent guess what.....

You get one chance.  They offer you a property or maybe a few, and if you do not bite on one right that minute....  Good bye.  See you later.

 

So if someone in the forum has some advice it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you in advance.

 

[Pilotman]

i would not use one. what you say is correct, old adverts or inaccurate information. My advice is to drive around the areas you are interested in and look for rental signs. you will see a lot. Agents will show you what they want to shift, not what you want. if you don't have a car, hire a car and driver for a couple of days (circa 4,000 per day). The market is good right now. Notice boards in some large super markets are also worth checking out. 

[worgeordie]

Maybe the easiest way to find what you are looking for,

select an area you would like to live, then drive around

that area, if there are any houses with land to rent ,they

will most likely have a sign on the gate,if it's a Moo Bahn

also on the electric posts.

regards worgeordie

 

[bkk6060]

Driving around would be best, but I am surprised they would not provide decent service.  These are desperate times for agents they need business. 

I would try the largest agency near where you are looking and walk into the place and ask to speak to the manager.  There is no mulitiple listing service here, so their priority is to show you the properties they have listed and a large agency should provide more options.

To add, my experience is using an agency can be safer.  They can be a good buffer when repairs are needed or when it comes time to get your deposit back.

[koratkarlos]

Thank you everyone.  Good advice.  I have a car and will start looking first using Google Maps and Earth, then by driving.  I will try to use LINE to get the realtors attention.  But I think the best way is to do what you are suggesting (that is how we found where we live now) ---  going to good neighborhoods then checking the signs.

[Destiny1990]

How can this be difficult?

exactly what skill do you miss ?

[koratkarlos]

Mr. Destiny, I believe I have the necessary skills except I can not speak in Thai.  And this is a big problem.  I am just reporting what I have experienced, which to be truthful is very frustrating.  Perhaps you have had good luck with realtors and if so I wish you well.

[Airalee]

2 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Driving around would be best, but I am surprised they would not provide decent service.  These are desperate times for agents they need business. 

I would try the largest agency near where you are looking and walk into the place and ask to speak to the manager.  There is no mulitiple listing service here, so their priority is to show you the properties they have listed and a large agency should provide more options.

To add, my experience is using an agency can be safer.  They can be a good buffer when repairs are needed or when it comes time to get your deposit back.

Don’t be surprised by them not providing decent service.  I already had a couple condos in mind that I wanted to make an purchase offer on.  I messaged one agent on Facebook a fairly detailed message and their reply was simply “Thanks for message”.  I went on to ask them if they understood my English and all they sent back was a smiley.  
 

Another agent sent back a message where the English was so mangled that all I could reply was “I don’t understand”.  Never received another reply.

 

I finally approached the large agency that was listing the condo through one of the online listing aggregators where you can respond to a particular listing.  They assigned me an agent and after the agents initial email to which I replied to within 24 hours, it took the agent a week to respond.  After replying and asking some questions, it took another week for her second reply.  I finally sent an email to the agency asking to deal with the foreign manager and explained the situation.  The manager called me within the hour, we discussed the condo and what my offer would be.  Within 48 hours and some back and forth, the deal was done and I took the deposit check to the agency.  He informed me that he fired the agent and said that it’s really hard to find good Thai agents.

 

I too thought that in these tough times (this was all in the last 3 months) that agents would be more responsive but after 3 attempts and 3 dropped balls, I find that the customer service provided by Thai agents is pretty dismal.  That they would be so nonchalant about passing up hundreds of thousands of baht in commission was baffling.

 

It was the same issue years ago in Chiang Mai when looking for a rental with a friend.  

[Puchaiyank]

Scammers...lacking honesty or integrity. 

 

Use "bait and switch" to get you into their office where they offer you rentals at higher prices...

 

Best to do this on your own...learn the best neighborhoods in your city and drive thru looking for available properties. 

 

Good Luck!

[smutcakes]

If its land rental, out of town then being realistic it is probably not something any agent is going to spend much time on. Unless a broker is located in the immediate vicinity (or its large), i am sure many of them have easier bucks to chase than driving out to the sticks, showing someone around a load of 1 rai pieces of land and after spending countless hours sitting in the car, chasing down local landowners etc possibly maybe 1/30 cases get a 20,000 THB commission. Its simply not worth the time and effort when they can chase down more transactions for less time, travel in more urban areas.

 

For remote areas you are best of trying to deal directly with the landlord, although this obviously has its issues to.

[wordchild]

On 8/5/2020 at 8:49 AM, Airalee said:

Don’t be surprised by them not providing decent service.  I already had a couple condos in mind that I wanted to make an purchase offer on.  I messaged one agent on Facebook a fairly detailed message and their reply was simply “Thanks for message”.  I went on to ask them if they understood my English and all they sent back was a smiley.  
 

Another agent sent back a message where the English was so mangled that all I could reply was “I don’t understand”.  Never received another reply.

 

I finally approached the large agency that was listing the condo through one of the online listing aggregators where you can respond to a particular listing.  They assigned me an agent and after the agents initial email to which I replied to within 24 hours, it took the agent a week to respond.  After replying and asking some questions, it took another week for her second reply.  I finally sent an email to the agency asking to deal with the foreign manager and explained the situation.  The manager called me within the hour, we discussed the condo and what my offer would be.  Within 48 hours and some back and forth, the deal was done and I took the deposit check to the agency.  He informed me that he fired the agent and said that it’s really hard to find good Thai agents.

 

I too thought that in these tough times (this was all in the last 3 months) that agents would be more responsive but after 3 attempts and 3 dropped balls, I find that the customer service provided by Thai agents is pretty dismal.  That they would be so nonchalant about passing up hundreds of thousands of baht in commission was baffling.

 

It was the same issue years ago in Chiang Mai when looking for a rental with a friend.  

Why on earth were you so determined to buy through an agent? Why not find a way to negotiate directly with the owners, especially as you had already identified the condos you were interested in. eg talk to the people in the condo office (nicely) to see if they can help, they usually can.

so far, during my last 12 years in Thailand I have negotiated 1 long term rental,  4 condo purchases (plus 2 sales) , only one of those (7)  transactions involved an agent.
In general, as noted above, Thai agents are a complete waste of time, for both the buyer and the seller. 
To the OP: you had good advice above, you need to do your own legwork,  drive  around, ask many questions from the people you will meet, you  will likely make a better decision, if you do that, and save yourself money.

[Airalee]

1 hour ago, wordchild said:

Why on earth were you so determined to buy through an agent? Why not find a way to negotiate directly with the owners, especially as you had already identified the condos you were interested in. eg talk to the people in the condo office (nicely) to see if they can help, they usually can.

so far, during my last 12 years in Thailand I have negotiated 1 long term rental,  4 condo purchases (plus 2 sales) , only one of those (7)  transactions involved an agent.
In general, as noted above, Thai agents are a complete waste of time, for both the buyer and the seller. 
To the OP: you had good advice above, you need to do your own legwork,  drive  around, ask many questions from the people you will meet, you  will likely make a better decision, if you do that, and save yourself money.

Because the condo was a presale and the person who owned the “contract” lived in Singapore.  There was no way of knowing that information without having their agent (who I presented my offer to) show me the original contract.  Being that my initial offer was 30% below the contract price, even if I knew the owner, I preferred to have a middleman to be the one to present my offer.

[Yinn]

On 8/5/2020 at 2:35 PM, koratkarlos said:

Mr. Destiny, I believe I have the necessary skills except I can not speak in Thai.  And this is a big problem.  

Rent= ให้เช่า= Hi chow

 

Only two word= easy remember

 

Look like this

 

good luck

 

[richard_smith237]

One of the issues with real estate agents here in Thailand is that they all (or most of them) list the same properties. 

Thus, when it has been rented out through one of the agents, none of the others know (or are told about it) it therefore remains a listing until you ask ‘is it available’. 

 

I haven’t found a good real estate agent in Thailand - but some are better than others (such as Relax or BKK Condo rentals) who will give you a selection of properties to chose from (photos / web links etc) when you provide them with information of what you want. 

 

 

Facebook Market Place is a good place to look - find something you like send a message. 

All people seem to want to communicate via Line Messenger in Thailand, having that on your phone will make life easier. 

 

Hip flat is another which has lots of listings. 

 

 

The only advice I have is to keep at it - the ones who respond properly are obviously the best to deal with. Those who don’t have already filtered themselves out of the market. 

 

 

 

 

[richard_smith237]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:55 PM, koratkarlos said:

Thank you everyone.  Good advice.  I have a car and will start looking first using Google Maps and Earth, then by driving.  I will try to use LINE to get the realtors attention.  But I think the best way is to do what you are suggesting (that is how we found where we live now) ---  going to good neighborhoods then checking the signs.

 

The difficulty with getting into good neighbourhoods (good moobans) is that you cannot get past security unless you tell them the house number you want to visit, give them your ID card (licence etc) and get a stamp on the piece of paper they give you. 

 

IF security just let you drive in without a check, I’d suggest its not a good neighbourhood, with regards to security at least.

 

 

 

 

[Rimmer]

A flame has been removed