Mr. Roomfinder Is Proving Waste Of Time For Me

[bangkokburning]

Many come-ons and dodgy adverts have sucked me in but what's really agro is when you click the link and read the info the prices for rooms are not even close to what was posted as "the price". If you know anyone running this site that it could be really valuable if the maps/links worked and the prices were as stated. I could live with the - OH you want FURNITURE, add-ons but when the prices are not even what was stated in the quick view, that's plain wrong.

[MJo]

Tied this site once and never again. Just for the reason neither of the two agents advertising there didn't bother to reply...

[Nobukat]

Tied this site once and never again. Just for the reason neither of the two agents advertising there didn't bother to reply...

I used the site and actually rented a condo through them about a year ago. What I did not like was that the site is not updated much, so it's almost like a "bait & switch"situation. Some real attractive deals are shown and then - "oh, that was rented already"...Anyway, I did get a place through them with an expat guy assisting. I had to pester him a bit on a few occasions to get moving on something. Not overly impressed to be honest, but, I would use him again, I guess. Likeable fellow.

[Drew Aitch]

Tied this site once and never again. Just for the reason neither of the two agents advertising there didn't bother to reply...

Hust dug this thread up when doing a stat analysis for 2009.

Please note MJo that MrRoomfinder is not a real estate agency. The aim of this site is simply to bring the tenants, private landlords, and agencies of Bangkok and Thailand together in one place. In other words, it’s a free-for-all property portal, meaning I don’t have any control on advertiser content no more than the visitors to the site do.

Because i don't personally work with or associate with, any of the advertisers, I have no idea if what they put in their ads it correct of not. How could i possibly? That's the whole idea of a free-for-all, to let people, whoever they are, dip in and help themselves. A bit like Thai-visa classifieds in that respect. The only thing i do prior to authorising (making live) all new free-ads is make sure they don't contain SPAM comments in the descriptions .

So as it's pretty unregulated, meaning any private landlord, letting agency, real estate agency, or lone operator, can upload unlimited ads to their individual accounts, it gives home hunters more exposure than that of a single agency who only list properties under their management. Btw, we've seen CBE Richard Ellis, Roommillion, and all the others advertising on this site too at various times.

Is it perfect? No of course it's not, but it ain't half bad for a freebie. I can't believe that the now 1000's of ads on the site all have con artists hiding behind their pages trying to trick potential tenants in taking what's 'NOT' advertised.

Oh well, you can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but no one can please all of the people, all of the time.

Aitch (MrRoomfinder's webmaster)

[MJo]

Take it easy Aitch,

I do understand it is just a platform to advertise. At the time i was looking most of the adds were on couple of expat agents as i stated they were not interested to even reply. So found it pretty useless for me to get anything with my hunt of a new place.

Maybe being free for all is part of the problem. You get all these "agents" trying to lure people in with properties they do not represent and flooding the site with properties not in the market. But like you say, there is really no way for you to know which one is really in the market.

Btw all the big agencies, including CBRE, have these "pull in" adds in their pages. Nice properties with really good price but rented long time ago if ever been available. The Thai way seems to be listing properties for rent or for sale and just leave them there even if they are rented or sold already.

Now if someone would come by a site that has only properties that are actually in the active market that would be great.

[londonthai]

put you own advert there, some homeowners will contact you

[yabaaaa]

its overun with one agent since Aitch sold out to them, stick an ad in if u like no one will see it it will be lost in the one agents total domination.

[mauiguy90]

Is it perfect? No of course it's not, but it ain't half bad for a freebie. I can't believe that the now 1000's of ads on the site all have con artists hiding behind their pages trying to trick potential tenants in taking what's 'NOT' advertised.

Oh well, you can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but no one can please all of the people, all of the time.

Aitch (MrRoomfinder's webmaster)

I for one appreciate the website mrroomfinder. There is no other comprehensive listing of rentals available in Bangkok. It gives you a starting point for many reasonably priced apartments and condos in Bangkok. Outside of walking the streets of every neighborhood you are interested in, there is no better alternative to "begin" your apartment/condo search. If there is one such single source, I challenge anyone to list it here. So what if you spent a few minutes calling the listed phone numbers and were unsuccessful. Without mrroomfinder, those of us looking for apartments wouldn't even have a contact number to begin with!

Many thanks to Khun Aitch and the others associated with mrroomfinder for providing such a service to expats in Bangkok! Yes, there is no pleasing some people. Some are harder to please than others: they want personally tailored services but want everything free!

[yabaaaa]

The problem is ITS dominated by the sponsor (ONE COMPANY) when Aitch sold out, first ten pages are ALL one company, to find any OTHER owners of condos is about ten pages down ..if your lucky.

[yabaaaa]

Take it easy Aitch,

I do understand it is just a platform to advertise. At the time i was looking most of the adds were on couple of expat agents as i stated they were not interested to even reply. So found it pretty useless for me to get anything with my hunt of a new place.

Maybe being free for all is part of the problem. You get all these "agents" trying to lure people in with properties they do not represent and flooding the site with properties not in the market. But like you say, there is really no way for you to know which one is really in the market.

Btw all the big agencies, including CBRE, have these "pull in" adds in their pages. Nice properties with really good price but rented long time ago if ever been available. The Thai way seems to be listing properties for rent or for sale and just leave them there even if they are rented or sold already.

Now if someone would come by a site that has only properties that are actually in the active market that would be great.

www.bangkoksbestcondos.com two companies here, only show available rooms. Other than that its pantip prakard craiglist but again these are swamped by agents with their multiple postings ie 20+ rooms at a time one after the other after the other. Baht and sold is quite good and Thai visa listings.

[MJo]

There is no need to please me or hand me freebies. Not that i know anyone who actually pays the agent for renting a place. So far it has been the owner paying the fees.

All i said i found it useless in my search of a place about year ago. Mainly because it is just an illusion giving you good idea where to start looking for non existent apartments pushed by these sponsors.

And as i said i do understand the webmaster has little say what is posted on a free to use open site. Maybe he could poach tv and get few mods to the site

Used other sites where i found plenty of actual units that were in market. Prakard is good as are couple of others mentioned by yabaa.

[dmax]

asianrooms.com are good, i use them all the time

[PhiPhi]

Is it perfect? No of course it's not, but it ain't half bad for a freebie. I can't believe that the now 1000's of ads on the site all have con artists hiding behind their pages trying to trick potential tenants in taking what's 'NOT' advertised.

Oh well, you can please all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all of the time, but no one can please all of the people, all of the time.

Aitch (MrRoomfinder's webmaster)

I for one appreciate the website mrroomfinder. There is no other comprehensive listing of rentals available in Bangkok. It gives you a starting point for many reasonably priced apartments and condos in Bangkok. Outside of walking the streets of every neighborhood you are interested in, there is no better alternative to "begin" your apartment/condo search. If there is one such single source, I challenge anyone to list it here. So what if you spent a few minutes calling the listed phone numbers and were unsuccessful. Without mrroomfinder, those of us looking for apartments wouldn't even have a contact number to begin with!

Many thanks to Khun Aitch and the others associated with mrroomfinder for providing such a service to expats in Bangkok! Yes, there is no pleasing some people. Some are harder to please than others: they want personally tailored services but want everything free!

Since Oct 09 I've been helping my wife set up a web based property rental agency and the first thing I did was look at other Thailand websites, what impacted me most and almost advised her to give up before we really started was the sheer volume of properties offered on many of the big sites, however after some research I established that many properties had been listed and not updated for over 5 years! In our opinion this was a very cynical approach and one we would not model our business upon, the smaller sites which were way down on Google seemed to be offering more relevant properties but on the whole looked like they were designed in 1997 by a relative who had just finished their local CS degree.

What we finally decided upon was a hopefully elegant, clean design with no ad's just current listings, currently we have approx 120 condos, apartments and town houses listed (we add about 10-20 properties per month) which is small beer compared to the bigger sites however, each listing is current and my wife (Som) will check with owners & management companies every 4 - 6 weeks concerning availability and remove any that are unavailable, I may add that she visits and photographs each property personally. If a customer does not find what they are looking for Som will jump in the car and do her best to find it.

If you were to search Google for 'Bangkok condo rent' you would find us near the 100th result because we don't have 1,000's of pages of irrelevant crap, this is a big problem but as a young company we believe that actual delivery will win out in the long term. !!Warning blatant promotion!! If you want to find us Google 'bangkok home finders' and hopefully it will be no.1 after the sponsored sites.

Now to address the original topic, Mr Rm Finder is useful for what it is and if you bother to read the about, etc., it makes no claims to be a property agency, just a portal and Google ads site, I like it but I would prefer a more pronounced definition of the sites objectives in the preamble. It is a great site to give you an idea of the range and volume of property in Bangkok but just don't get your hopes up that the property you like is available.

In conclusion Mr, Rm Finder is good for getting an idea of what's on the market albeit out dated but my advice is to find an agent who has local knowledge and a relationship with the actual owner / renter when you know what you want, they will be able to help you negotiate discounts or additional requirements, etc., which a website alone cannot do.

Phi Phi

[yabaaaa]

Best to deal with the owners direct, agents show no interest after they have had your money.

Edited January 25, 2010 by yabaaaa

[yabaaaa]

asianrooms.com are good, i use them all the time

No such website??? asianroom.com a sex website???

Or asiarooms.com? Hotels only not condos for rent ???

All hotels.............. "King Park Hotel" from 1800 baht a night no breakfast it says , I can get in there for 1700 baht a night Including the breakfast. 1200 with no breakfast!!

[PhiPhi]

Best to deal with the owners direct, agents show no interest after they have had your money.

Sorry you had a bad experience, strictly speaking the agent's obligation ends once the lease is signed but agent's I've used in the past and now our company are happy help tenants we've placed, it's an old fashioned concept called customer service. To be frank it would be very short sighted not to offer after sales support as you know your customer could be in the market for a new place once the lease is up.

[bangkoksunshine]

I find this one quite nice with information in Thai and English, with google map, pictures, price listing including area.

Not yet rent one from this site tho. hope this help

" Bangkokhomecondo dot com "

[MJo]

I find this one quite nice with information in Thai and English, with google map, pictures, price listing including area.

Not yet rent one from this site tho. hope this help

" Bangkokhomecondo dot com "

Just call them and ask to see those exact properties you see in their web page and you soon find out that most of them are not available. Some agents have these "pull in" units in their pages for years and years...

[Drew Aitch]

C'mon Folks, Don't Shoot the Messenger!

Even in 2010, there are some people who avoid agents like the plague because they think they have to pay for their service. But it's the owner of the property who pays the agents fees (commission), not the tenant. If a project owner or private landlord wants to claw back his or her agent's fee by upping the price of the rent, then they will often find that theirs are the units that remain unoccupied for the longest periods.

As far as MRF being outdated, there are new properties from both private landlords and agents added almost daily, sometimes as many as 6 + new ads in various locations at all kinds of prices.

Yes, the site sponsors get their ads listed first because they are the 'only ones' who contributed to the site and its costly updates. It's a bit like the first class passengers on a plane. They will always get the best seats, and there's nothing wrong with that. Database driven sites of this size just can't run on fresh air unfortunately.

But if the sponsors don't have what you're looking for, then their ads won't display, it's a simple as that. The order then is that it's the newest free add which meets your search requirements will be listed at the top of page 1, and all older ads that match the search will be listed below in their date added, or date modified order. But many of these ads could also be other agents (yes, we've had them all advertise on MRF, including the big players), because not every rental listed after the site sponsors are made up of low cost dwellings offered by kind and generous private owners.

All advertisers are in full control of their own ads (to which there are no limits), and I don't personally get involved with either tenants or landlords/agents with regards to finding or searching for property. I am not a realtor, nor do I take any commissions from any tenants found through the site. Heck, I don't think I've even met a single free advertiser in the 5 years the site's been live (and there have been 1000's), although they do contact me sometimes, but usually when they have a gripe about not getting any calls for their ads, or difficulties uploading photos etc.

In conclusion Mr, Rm Finder is good for getting an idea of what's on the market albeit out dated

If an advertiser leaves an ad on the site and does not update it monthly (for private dwellings), or every 6 weeks (for apartment and condo buildings), then those ads will be automatically deleted by the system within 10 days of them receiving an automated email requesting they renew or re-submit their ad(s), the latter meaning they just have to click the submit button from the member area if they have nothing to change with the content.

As far as the site goes, I'm not sure anything more than the above can be done to keep the ads fresh, but the details of those ads are the responsibility of those who advertise, and that is something which is out of my control just as this would be the case of someone placing a paid ad in some publication. So there's absolutely no way I can know if their descriptions are correct or not any more than the independent home seeker can.

That's all I have to say on the matter really. The site is 5 years old, get's between 22-30,000 unique visitors monthly, is totally free, and has direct contact details in each and every ad (be it private landlords or an agency).

On top of this, each property ad placement gets a full page all to themselves, with slots for 6 photos, and a video if they have one, plus a description box that has no limits on how much they can write to promote their rental or sale. Yet despite it all the majority of emails I get (all of which get replied to promptly irrespective of content), are usually gripes from site visitors about this ad or that landlord.

It seemed like a god idea at the time, but has been more labour intensive and criticized than I could have ever imagined possible (yes, the gripes are regular!), so I'm not sure why those who don’t like it, or those who advertise on it, don't just trudge the streets and dig out their own places, or better still set up a project that's superior to this one. A bit of healthy completion is always a good thing right!

And to close, here's a tip: If you see a place you like, in a perfect location, with all the facilities and amenities you could ever wish for, but at a price you can't afford or refuse to pay, then why not pop the name of the building into Google and see if you can't find a similar place in the same block at a price that favourable to you?

Honestly, it's not that difficult, and assuming most reading this are internet savvy, you could have a short list of potential places to live within just a few minutes using the copy, paste, and save options that are so common to working with computers.

Cheers

Aitch