Real estate agents

[terminatorchiangmai]

I noticed that the mark up for buying a property trough an agent is more than 20 % sometimes even 40 %.

For that money they would not even give you an location of a property only want to make an appointment to show you the house.

Why would i want to waist my time looking at a house if i don't even know the neighborhood ?

In Europe houses are advertised with Location ( street name and number )

You go have a look at the location by your self and if you like it make an appointment with the real estate agent.

Any one else think this is strange for Chiang Mai / Thailand ?

[kjhbigv]

They are worried you will meet and speak to the owner and cut them out of the deal. Simple.

[terminatorchiangmai]

They are worried you will meet and speak to the owner and cut them out of the deal. Simple.

That i understand , but there will be a for sale sign on the house in most cases anyway.

And after visiting you can still go have a chat with the owner.

[beau thai]

No it is not strange to Chiang Mai. Spain for example is worse. I spent an hour walking around an estate of houses looking for one that a friend in Florida wanted me to check out. I had the address as did he from the agent's website. Turns out they put a false non existent address so it is impossible to find without the agent being along.

For me, this is far worse than no address and I guess agents do it because the vendor signs a contract, the agent incurs marketing and viewing costs on their behalf, then after the agent generates the lead, the vendor tries to evade their contract and do a private deal. Because of that I think I would not give addresses either.

But I like your idea that an agent marks up b 20 per cent. Sometimes 40%. So if I sell through an agent I can get 20% more?? Not my experience.

I think being an agent isnt all fun -I am helping to let a condo and got a phone call at 12 noon this week, agreed a viewing appointment at 2pm, drove 30 mins in to town but no sign of the prospective tenant. I called and she said she had changed her mind as it was too far from her.

Not new info that she didnt have when she made the appointment but she didnt bother to call. So 90 mins wasted. Apparently normal occurrence for an agent but I was seriously pi**ed off at wasting 90 minutes because she was too rude to call. So anyone who thinks agents are printing money is wide of the mark.

[terminatorchiangmai]

Today i saw this house for sale and asked the owner the price which was 4.900.000 and maybe even less.

The same house on the website of an real estate agent for 5.800.000 , i think that is to much for their commission.

Same with a house in my moobaan which we know would go for 4.000.000 , but the agent asks 6.000.000

[beau thai]

Today i saw this house for sale and asked the owner the price which was 4.900.000 and maybe even less.

The same house on the website of an real estate agent for 5.800.000 , i think that is to much for their commission.

Same with a house in my moobaan which we know would go for 4.000.000 , but the agent asks 6.000.000

Surely the price might be suggested by the agent but is set by the vendor?.

And you think that if the agent sells for 6m the vendor says good luck, you can pocket the 2m?? In your dreams.

Normally the agent is suggesting a lower price , the vendor insists on a higher price then moans when the property doesnt sell.

Seems like we live on a different planet...

[Loptr]

There are places to find houses in CMX listed online by owners and not agents. bahtsold.com comes to mind.

[evenstevens]

.

Normally the agent is suggesting a lower price , the vendor insists on a higher price then moans when the property doesnt sell.

very few agents in c/mai are prepared to give a honest price appraisal on your property,most take the vendors price (the easy way out) and take it from there

hence the inflated and at times riduclous prices on the agents website, the vendor is hoping to get a dope on the rope,and really are not motivated to sell at all,unless the unsuspecting dope comes along and hangs himself

y/day i posted a ball park figure on a city condo 25 k a sq metre,perhaps 28 k at tops,agents have this condo set at 35 to 40 k,and there are heaps available, whyyou may ask???? they are

way above the local market price is the simple answer, if the vendor is prepared to meet the local market price their property will sell,but most are in love with their propertys ,or in some cases completely out of touch and are not prepared to do so

the soloution for the buyer is to find a motivated seller at a true market price(win/win so to speak),not a easy task in c/mai to do so.. i assure you of that

[terminatorchiangmai]

There are places to find houses in CMX listed online by owners and not agents. bahtsold.com comes to mind.

Did you ever try to call one of them ?

90 % of houses advertised on Bath Sold or OLX Deal-fish is from agents, which in some cases is good because their own website sucks !

[chiang mai]

It's difficult to find a good real estate agent here, my experience of most of the bigger ones is that they are either rip off merchants or con artists (or both) where false advertising and come on/teasers ads are common - take them to task on that point and they get very upset, especially the farang run agencies where the lead farang person will threaten you with libel (it's cheap entertainment on a boring afternoon if you've nothing better to do).

I have had some success with small one person agencies and if ever I need market info that's typically the sort of agent I will go to. But I've not experienced agent mark-ups of 40%, I have however come across sellers who will float a number that is much higher than the surrounding market value, in hopes of landing an unwary buyer. Two such properties exist in the building where I live, both from the same Thai company owner, they have been on the market for over two years and the prices are substantially higher than other units, periodically the prices get revised upwards and despite that, they still don't sell!

[Puwa]

Today i saw this house for sale and asked the owner the price which was 4.900.000 and maybe even less.

The same house on the website of an real estate agent for 5.800.000 , i think that is to much for their commission.

Same with a house in my moobaan which we know would go for 4.000.000 , but the agent asks 6.000.000

Surely the price might be suggested by the agent but is set by the vendor?.

And you think that if the agent sells for 6m the vendor says good luck, you can pocket the 2m?? In your dreams.

Normally the agent is suggesting a lower price , the vendor insists on a higher price then moans when the property doesnt sell.

Seems like we live on a different planet...

Unfortunately, on planet Chiang Mai, all those things happen. Plus there are websites that list properties simply copied from other sites and with prices made up by speculating agents. Their idea is that they can split the extra proceeds with the seller.

We found one house the seller wanted 3.3 for, but we also saw it listed on an agent's site for 5.5. When the seller asked the agent, she explained that she thought she could find a farang to pay 5.5 and they could split the bonus. (We had found the house ourselves--it had a sign out front--and ended up buying direct from the owner for 3.1.)

I'm not saying no good agents exist, but the bad ones take a distorted market and make it worse. Really the best way to find a house is to do your own legwork. Find what you want and set your own price, then make an offer direct to the owner. The downside of this approach is that it takes a long time.

[BritManToo]

Avoid foreigners working illegally selling property in Thailand.

If they are happy to work illegally, they will be happy to cheat and steal from you.

[orang37]

Sawasdee Khrup,

About a year I posted a message here relating my positive experience with a local realtor, Khun Lott:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/643318-positive-experience-with-english-speaking-thai-chiang-mai-real-estate-agent/

I'm happy to say that in the last year several TV CM members have contacted me for her contact information (via PM), and been very satisfied with her response, and professional services.

fyi: properties are advertised here; you'll find some posted (with English) in the "community boards" provided by the various Rimping branches. If you can read Thai, or have a friend who can assist you, go to almost any major branch of a major bank, like Bangkok Bank, and you'll find many properties listed with photographs.

good luck, ~o:37;