Why would you use a real estate agent in CM to buy a house.

[Chiengmaijoe]

So you would have received your asking price of 1,500,000, minus the 3 percent that you agreed, but because he was smart enough to get more for your house than you thought it was worth, you kicked him out . I understand.

I assume you eventually sold it for 1.7m yourself, right?

When I sell MY house then I will decide at WHAT PRICE I want to sell it, NOT a dodgy real estate agent who want to waste my time to make some extra profit. It was obvious that his customers were not interested at the 1.7 million, because I only found out about it because the plonker thought I didn't understand Thai when he started discussing and discounting the price with his customer right in front of me .

I hadn't asked for his services in the first place, and I sold it within the next week at my original asking price, maybe because I have some ethics i want to adhere to.

You're by any chance a real estate agent ?

No. Obviously a sensitive issue though.

Must be, since you and a few other have had strong objections to what was intended as a simple sharing of my past experience.

Strong objections? Mild amusement, more like.

[kcore]

I wonder if said DS property is the one with many trees, creek, and new (nearly finished) house. I know of one such large property ~7rai which was asking 11m but may be bought for say, 8m.

Not unusual for some 'agents' to be out of the loop... it's not exactly a 'profession' in Th.

Pm me please!

[FiftyTwo]

Big C offers a tin of baked beans for 50p and TESCO has it for 57p. That's the last time I use supermarkets.

100bht for 3 tins in Makro .....

[FiftyTwo]

Why would you want to buy a house or land you cannot own anyway?

A very good question. This is the only country in the world that I'm aware of where it's common for western men to buy houses for their wives. We hear and see this so often here that it actually seems normal.

I bought a house for my wife in the UK.

I thought I was buying it for me, but the divorce judge thought different.

Thailand is just more honest than England. You know here in advance, for whom you are buying the house.

[beau thai]

Why would you want to buy a house or land you cannot own anyway?

A very good question. This is the only country in the world that I'm aware of where it's common for western men to buy houses for their wives. We hear and see this so often here that it actually seems normal.

I bought a house for my wife in the UK.

I thought I was buying it for me, but the divorce judge thought different.

Thailand is just more honest than England. You know here in advance, for whom you are buying the house.

Plus 1

[anto]

I sold a condo through an agent in Pattaya .He just upped my price by 3% to his customer ( for his commission ).I was happy and he was happy .

[ChangMaiSausage]

Buying whilst living outside of Thailand sometimes means that agents are the best option. I have time limitations for each trip especially when it's meant to be a family vacation with the children.

We have just bought a house in Chiang Mai. We drove around looking for "FOR SALE" signs stopped at a few but found very few that won me over. Is it just me but some properties look fantastic outside but inside forget it, the room layouts are terrible)

We used agents a couple of times with mixed results (some of them even picked us up on time) some lacked professionalism and took us to houses that I had no interest in! Overall my experience with agents was okay. As pointed out by several members the prices of the same property can vary, I put this down to agents allocating the price that they think the property is worth. Also to take into consideration is that properties do not sell quickly so most webpages can have properties up for sale in excess of twelve months, this can reflect in the price posted by one agent say twelve months ago v's one who just recently put the property up for sale.

We ended up buying through I friend who showed us a property that was not originally for sale they intended to rent the property.

[Chiengmaijoe]

Buying whilst living outside of Thailand sometimes means that agents are the best option. I have time limitations for each trip especially when it's meant to be a family vacation with the children.

We have just bought a house in Chiang Mai. We drove around looking for "FOR SALE" signs stopped at a few but found very few that won me over. Is it just me but some properties look fantastic outside but inside forget it, the room layouts are terrible)

We used agents a couple of times with mixed results (some of them even picked us up on time) some lacked professionalism and took us to houses that I had no interest in! Overall my experience with agents was okay. As pointed out by several members the prices of the same property can vary, I put this down to agents allocating the price that they think the property is worth. Also to take into consideration is that properties do not sell quickly so most webpages can have properties up for sale in excess of twelve months, this can reflect in the price posted by one agent say twelve months ago v's one who just recently put the property up for sale.

We ended up buying through I friend who showed us a property that was not originally for sale they intended to rent the property.

So what you're saying is, it's not black or white, they're not all bad? That's a novel approach here. Keep it up.

[ChangMaiSausage]

Everyone is out to make a $ that is why agents exist, they all seemed to have full schedules for showing people properties, so someone must be using them.

I cancelled future appointments with the agents who took us to see house that I never asked to see. One agent was persistant ringing all the time, so I told him "you did not listen to what I wanted to see" for this reason I will not use your services again (he never called back)

Other agents who listened and took us to the places we asked to see, we used again, it was just unfortunate that we never used them to purchase our property.

Chiengmaijoe something tells me once I settle down in Thailand things might not be so rosy

[beau thai]

strange as it may seem, agents (in most countries) send you details or take you to properties outside what you have described, because most people dont buy what they described! I know, I know, you are different and you know what you want.

But the fact remains people do not buy what they describe. Generally, nothing ticks all the boxes and buyers finish up compromising-with the compromise often being different for the female/male, so comes down to who wins. Maybe the flash kitchen (that will be little used!) sells the property; maybe the view; maybe the bathroom etc etc. Maybe the buyer who specifies a condo with a minimum of one bedroom falls in love with a well set up studio.

Agents may seem stupid to you but think about it- do they make money showing houses/condos that dont get bought?

No I m not an agent but have some experience of that market in Europe as well as here in CM.

Maybe an agent here will reply - unless they are too busy rushing around showing properties

[ChangMaiSausage]

strange as it may seem, agents (in most countries) send you details or take you to properties outside what you have described, because most people dont buy what they described! I know, I know, you are different and you know what you want.

But the fact remains people do not buy what they describe. Generally, nothing ticks all the boxes and buyers finish up compromising-with the compromise often being different for the female/male, so comes down to who wins. Maybe the flash kitchen (that will be little used!) sells the property; maybe the view; maybe the bathroom etc etc. Maybe the buyer who specifies a condo with a minimum of one bedroom falls in love with a well set up studio.

Agents may seem stupid to you but think about it- do they make money showing houses/condos that dont get bought?

No I m not an agent but have some experience of that market in Europe as well as here in CM.

Maybe an agent here will reply - unless they are too busy rushing around showing properties

Beau thai, not sure if the post was for me specifically or just in general?

We looked with two specifics, location and a minimum of three bedrooms the rest was open for consideration (pool / without pool, dont care). We did buy something that I never dreampt I would, the property from the outside looked too modern for my liking but the inside won me over.

The same also in UK for the last property we bought checked out properties online, booked a viewing and ended up buying the third house we looked at it took a whole sixty five minutes from start to finish (knew the area we wanted and the bedrooms)

As I mentioned in my post most of the agents we used were great with no problems (UK and Thailand)

[FiftyTwo]

I just bought a house for my gf.

When I was looking around, through an agent or through my gfs contacts the houses (2M range) appeared to be 300,000-500,000Bht more expensive.

Eventually I bought off plan where the developer had a printed list of the price of every house on each plot.

It was entirely in Thai, but it made me a 25% saving.

(Don't even ask why my gf thought she should get a 500k cash commission on a house I was buying for her.)

[jaideeguy]

The biggest problem with brokers here is that they don't represent [or protect] the buyer or the seller, but they represent and protect themselves and there are hardly any regulations or requirements on selling properties here. I've 'middled' a few properties and passed the commission and paperwork on to my Thai wife. Most regular Thai brokers will rip both the buyer and seller off at the drop of a hat..............

[Chiengmaijoe]

Chiengmaijoe something tells me once I settle down in Thailand things might not be so rosy

Everywhere has it's good and bad points and Chiang Mai is mostly good, as are the people, so as long as you have an open mind, don't judge a whole group of people on the experiences of some, and don't become paranoid then you'll love it here. You seem to be getting it right, so far.

Too many people make black or white judgements. Chiang Mai is not all good, or all bad and no person or group of people are/is all good or all bad, it's all a question of degrees.

[iainiain101]

Better than using a 'fake' estate agent?

[Chiengmaijoe]

Don`t use estate agents, full stop.

They've created an abbreviation for 'full stop', it looks like this '.'

Most keyboards have them.

Was your post intended as a warning to us ...... 'Don't use estate agents' or were you expressing your preference and you couldn't find the 'I' ? My guess is both, which is quite clever.

[worgeordie]

Estate agents in Thailand,there are so many of them, from the

owner of the corner shop,Tuk Tuk driver, a friend of a friend,

everybody wants to be one, as its so easy,I think most Thais

sell property through this grape vine,or poster on the electric

pole.as far as Professional Estate Agents,thats an oxymoron,

and should be put in the same category as Secondhand car

salesmen, not to be used or trusted,where money is concerned

regards Worgeordie

[stigvinck]

Estate agents in Thailand,there are so many of them, from the

owner of the corner shop,Tuk Tuk driver, a friend of a friend,

everybody wants to be one, as its so easy,I think most Thais

sell property through this grape vine,or poster on the electric

pole.as far as Professional Estate Agents,thats an oxymoron,

and should be put in the same category as Secondhand car

salesmen, not to be used or trusted,where money is concerned

regards Worgeordie

Not really fair to make it all look black and white like that.

You' re right about becoming a real estate agent being easy. There are no regulations, so everyone can be one. Being a good one is the difficult part.

I guess real estate agents, like lawyers, second had car salesmen, chefs, waiters,.... come in different flavors.

Some might be amateurs.

Some might even be crooks.

But most of them are just honest people trying to provide a service and make a living. Nothing wrong with that.

Anyone want to use a visa agent for their 90 day report, then use them. You want to do it yourself, then don't use them.

Anyone want to make a pizza by themselves, then do it. You want someone to cook it for you, then go to a restaurant.

Anyone want to go looking for houses by themselves, then get in your car and do it. You want help, then go to a real estate agent.

Stig

(Yes, I am a real estate agent, and proud of it!)