Agents In Bangkok

[flojo]

I am presently in the process of finding somewhere to live and having a nightmare trying to see places as the various companies that manage the buildings will not let me see the available flats/condos.

Plus Property look like they are used to running secure facilities and I am amazed that anyone lives in the buildings they manage when you consider how hard it is to view a room. Their web site never seems to work and I usually get ignored when I try to email them for info or get a call back from someone who asks for all sorts of info from me, which I provide only to never hear from them again! I have turned up at several of the buildings they managed and not been able to get any details of available units never mind have a look at a flat.

Savills I find to be clueless and at one place i visited when i started asking questions about the building like how old it was and how many units there were I was treated with extreme suspicion and asked to leave.

CBRE have fantastic staff on site who are well informed and provide lists of various flats they have available and are more than happy to show you around the flats. However this excellent start was completely undone when I tried to move things forward and was pointed towards Bangkok HQ - I have contacted them with a specific building and flat and am interested in finding out a few more details and negotiating a price so why do i then have to go through the process of telling them what i am looking for, budget and timing then to recieve a load of information on a load of flats i dont want to see. Why cant I just be provided with what I asked for?

I have come across lots of small local firms and one man bands but the locals, while helpful and very pleasant, seem to live in a different Bangkok where the property market is booming and landlords can name their price and the one man bands are total cowboys in the mould of the sterotypical London estate agent who dont listen to what you are looking for and instead point you towards wherever they get the biggest fees.

All the serviced apartments/Hotel residences are brilliant and all info and access is granted instantly, however I dont really want to live in a Hotel.

Has anyone else had experience of this? And how do you get in to have a look around Condominium developments when you dont know the owner and the onsite management team seems to think that they are guarding fort knox? Any other firms worth trying?

[MJo]

You need to fight with them for a while to get them to show you what you want to see. One thing is that all of them still list all properties they ever had as available so many times you see something nice in the internet and are just ignored when asking more info. The reason usually is that the place has been sold or rented or there has not been any contact with the owner for several years. Other reason is that they try to move more profitable units first.

Anyways i found acuterealty quite helpful. Forget CBRE and the like, first of all they price the units based on expat's housing allowances from the states or uk.

If you seek contact direct to owners you could just see thaivisa classifieds or prakard.com. Although you can get agents from there as well but at least the advertised properties are usually available.

And keep in mind there is oversupply of units so bargain hard as the asking prices are almost always inflated.

[flojo]

I havent been contacting them about properties they list on the internet I have actually walked around the locations I would like to live and walked in to the managers office in the building - to be told that they have no information on site and that i need to contact someone in their sales team and no chance of seeing a room! I am well aware of the over supply but none of the owners in the top end new developments seem to be aware as they will not budge on price even though the buildings are empty - I looked at one condo yesterday in a building of almost 500 untis where only 10% were occupied and was told that the apartment was already at a rock bottom price - are all the landlords here being badly advised or is it just a greed culture? Surely its better to have some money coming in than having an empty flat that starts to smell stale and costs the landlord money every month!

Does anyone in Thailand hold property qualifications like in the uk (ARLA, NAEA, RICS etc) or is it just a bunch of cowboys running the real estate market over here?

[mayormaynotbewhoyouthink]

I think that the estate agents over here have had a very easy time for a long time now with condos changing hands and not really having to do any work to find buyers/sellers/renters however it is very different times now and personally i think you would be best off ignoring the agents unless you can find someone who is really worth there salt and not just some jumped up salesman. I dont know why the owners of the condos managed by a firm that wont let prospective tenants view them put up with the management firms, personally have no experience with CBRE or Saviils but Plus Property are everywhere and can only think that they are owned by the developer or have some sort of relationship with the original owner as they are useless - never had any dealing with them trying to find a condo but lived in a building that they managed and can safely say that they approach their management in the same way you described their sales!

[quiksilva]

We are not all cowboys, although there are quite a few of those out there too.

In fact there are a few RICS members in town, but none that I can think of that have direct dealing (i.e.at the coal face) in the residential markets that you are interested in (BTW are you buying or renting?) and they are mostly working in senior positions with the larger firms such as CBRE, JLL, DTZ and my outfit, Knight Frank, usually in what we call professional services investments, commercial, valuation and the like.

Although for the most part my firm only concentrates on entire residential projects for sale (although we do make a few exceptions) and I concentrate on industrial and commercial properties, so in truth we're probably not of much use to you, but I have been around for a bit and know a lot of the players here so if you want further guidance feel free to PM for further advice.

As to the state of minds of sellers, I can assure you that most agents would only be too happy to see vendors drop prices so they could close a higher a volume of deals but mostly it is vendors who are reluctant to drop, eve after been told the reality of the situation. I think that is understandable to a degree because nobody like to crystallise a loss, unless they absolutely have to, which of course they have to do today to transact at all.

Although, with that in mind, I have heard on the grapevine that people have been picking up the odd unit in the places like the Met for less than 100,000 per square meter. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not selling anything there, so don't ask, I just offer this tidbit so that the curious might make their own investigations.

As to your experiences of dealing with people on site, I sympathise, its a lottery. Walk-ins can be difficult as the managers may not have the authority to open rooms for sale, by the condo owners (in fact owners looking to sell sometimes never even notify the managers of their intentions)

The best bet when dealing with bigger firms is to start off at the head office, preferably with the department head. Or as others suggested scan the internet listings and bear in mind that some maybe out of date. Although not all, I know my commercial and industrial property listings are up to date! (cough** Ok just a little self promotion ) also try places like prakard.com amongst others and just deal direct.

Good luck.

PS Plus are indeed owned by a developer, Sansiri to be precise, again with managers its a lottery, its all about the person on the ground. In fact Plus manage my estate and do a good job.

Edited June 9, 2009 by quiksilva

[flojo]

Many thanks for your help!

Am looking to rent at present as do not think it is the right climate to be buying in - with so little stability in the currency markets unless you only deal in baht I think any investment that crosses currencies is unwise.

Think I have found someone to help, met a guy in a bar who seemed keen so will see how he performs - though was told yesterday that he couldnt show me one building i like as it was managed by plus property as I have already contacted them about a different building, total joke they wouldnt even show me the first building i liked!